Daily Briefing

Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday, June 18. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Transitions. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

📅 The Daily Briefing will not publish tomorrow in observance of Juneteenth. See you again on Friday.

A legal flurry

Lawyers and the courts must have been working to get ahead of tomorrow’s federal holiday.

Even by the standards of President Trump’s litigation-filled second term, this week started out with a bang:

• The Trump administration challenged in-state tuition for undocumented students in Kentucky. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Kentucky leaders on Tuesday in a bid to overturn regulations that allow for undocumented state residents to pay the lower rates at public colleges, arguing that the practice conflicts with federal law by denying the equal benefits to some American citizens. Earlier this month the department used the same tactic to kill a Texas law that offered in-state tuition to undocumented state residents. Rather than defend the law, Texas officials rushed to agree with the Trump administration’s arguments, and a federal judge blocked the law.
• A lawsuit challenged Department of Defense plans to cap facilities and administrative reimbursements. The Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities joined 11 research universities and the University of California system to challenge the latest effort by a branch of the federal government to cap overhead payments at 15 percent.
• Eighteen organizations chimed in to support a challenge against an overhead cap at the National Institutes of Health. It marks the first time in the 63-year history of the National Association of College and University Business Officers that the organization has been a lead filer of an amicus brief. “Unprecedented times call for bold action on behalf of our member institutions,” Kara D. Freeman, NACUBO’s president, said in a statement.
• A federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by Columbia University faculty against the Trump administration. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil said two labor unions at Columbia lacked standing to challenge the administration’s funding cuts and demands for changes at the university. The judge called the university “conspicuously absent,” adding that democracy can’t function if the courts block the government at the behest of “every plaintiff who clamors to object to executive action.” The unions promised to appeal, Reuters reported.
• Another federal judge said discrimination was behind grant cancellations. District Judge William Young said the Trump administration acted illegally when canceling hundreds of NIH research grants. He found that the government didn’t follow longstanding rules when it nixed spending on grants related to gender identity and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Young called it “palpably clear” that the government engaged in “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community,” according to the Associated Press. An appeal is expected.
• A third federal judge extended the clock on a key ruling affecting Harvard University. District Judge Allison Burroughs extended a temporary restraining order keeping the Trump administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. The judge said she’ll rule next week on whether to continue the block as the case progresses. The university and the government couldn’t agree on the terms of an injunction, The New York Times reported.

For all the courtroom drama, higher ed remains treading water, at least for now. The cases are grinding on, with appeals looming. On campus, that leaves uncertainty pervading budgets, administrators facing tough choices, and researchers struggling to shore up funding under oft-changing federal rules.

• “There’s a bit of a whiplash that all institutions are feeling, not knowing what are the current rules, what’s accurate, what’s not accurate,” Andy Johns, senior associate vice chancellor for research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told The Chronicle’s Theo Scheer.

The bigger picture: The wheels of justice turn slowly, as they say. The sector has no choice but to watch as they inch along.

More federal news

• Cleanup on aisle DOGE: The U.S. Department of Education disclosed in court filings that it’s reinstating one-fifth of 101 contracts terminated by Elon Musk’s efficiency-sniffing effort. Many of those reinstatements will reboot 10 regional education laboratories that the Trump administration had called “wasteful and ideologically driven.” But the department plans to rebid some of the contracts, which could take time and change their terms, and is in some cases resuming only part of the work that was previously being done. Education researchers continue to worry the department’s research arm has been hamstrung. (The Hechinger Report)
• New endowment-tax carveouts? The House and Senate plans may differ in the extent to which they’d raise the excise tax, but the two chambers agree on exempting religious colleges from the levies. The Senate’s plan released this week splits from the House by adding another exemption: colleges that don’t take federal financial aid. That could placate critics like Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, which does not participate in the federal aid system. (Inside Higher Ed, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance)
• Japan debuts talent-poaching campaign: A new 100 billion-yen package from the country’s government aims to attract foreign researchers, including those who might leave the United States because of the Trump administration’s cuts. Funding is set to purchase cutting-edge technology, raise researchers’ salaries, and reduce their administrative work. The investment is worth about $688.5 million at exchange rates as of Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Quick hits

• Credential buyers beware: Just 12 percent of nondegree credentials provide significant wage gains, according to a new analysis. Only 18 percent of those who earn credentials are in line for higher wages than their peers. But top-performing credentials come with major benefits: annual wage growth of about $5,000, a higher likelihood of promotion, and improved career-switching prospects. The findings come as the number of credentials offered is exploding, and as Congress considers pouring money into programs to help students pay to pursue short-term credentials. (American Enterprise Institute, Burning Glass Institute)
• Western Carolina U. closes Office of Intercultural Affairs: Chancellor Kelli Brown said the university shut down the decade-old office as it restructures to “better align with the UNC System Policy on Equality.” The institution was recently targeted by a conservative organization that alleged it continued diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that the University of North Carolina system no longer allows. (WFAE, Blue Ridge Public Radio)
• UC Irvine might scoop up art museum: The institution is in talks to take over the Orange County Museum of Art, which reopened in a new $94-million building less than three years ago. The art museum’s director is leaving in December. (The Art Newspaper)

State of the states

• Tennessee State can tap maintenance funding: The historically Black institution reached an agreement with the state that will allow it to take $96 million in public money that had been allocated for deferred maintenance and use it instead on immediate financial needs like bolstering cash flow, improving the student experience, and recruiting. Lawmakers signed off on the reallocation in April, but a formal agreement wasn’t finalized until Tuesday. It caps a bruising 18 months of cuts, leadership turnover, and legislative scrutiny as budget deficits came to a head at Tennessee State. (The Tennessean, The Chronicle)
• Maine’s free public college on the ropes: A legislative budget-writing committee voted to allocate $20 million to the state’s program allowing recent high-school graduates to enroll in two free years of community college — enough to fund it only for current participants and this year’s high-school graduates. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, had called for making her signature program permanent, but the state faces a budget crunch. Lawmakers would have to add funding in the future if they want to extend the offer. (Maine Public Radio, Portland Press-Herald)
• Louisiana jacks up gambling tax for athletic departments: A bill before Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, would make the state the first in the country to raise taxes to fund college athletics in the wake of a $2.8-billion antitrust settlement that’s officially bringing pay-for-play to college sports. Lawmakers agreed to increase the state’s tax on online sports-betting proceeds from 15 percent to 21.5 percent, which would raise an estimated $24.3 million to be sent to the state’s 11 public universities with Division I football programs. (Associated Press, The Chronicle)
• U. of Oklahoma bucks politicians’ calls for no tuition hike: Regents last week voted to raise tuition and mandatory fees by 3 percent for most undergraduates and graduate students. It’s the fifth straight year with a tuition increase, but President Joseph Harroz Jr. said in-state freshmen pay less on average than they did six years ago because the university is offering more financial aid. Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, and powerful lawmakers had recently spoken against tuition increases at public institutions. (Oklahoma Voice)

Transitions

• Peter J. Mohler, executive vice president for research, innovation, and knowledge at Ohio State University and chief scientific officer of the university’s Wexner Medical Center, has been named president of the University of Alabama.
• Leo S. Lo, dean of the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico, has been named university librarian and dean of libraries at the University of Virginia.
• Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of the School of Engineering and chief innovation and strategy officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named provost.
• David Marshall, executive vice chancellor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has been named interim chancellor following Henry Yang’s retirement.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com. You can also find Transitions online here.

Footnote

Do you ever cross the quiet quad in June and wonder how all of those departed undergraduates are doing now that they returned home? Worry less for them than for their parents.

“He left as this sweet boy who followed all my house rules,” Lyndsey Stamper, a Kansas mother, told the New York Post of her 19-year-old son, who’s back from his freshman year. “And he came home this independent man who thinks he knows everything.”

At least Stamper’s son had the decency not to decide he knew everything while he was still in high school, like most teenagers. But parents whose children have returned after graduating from college probably have it worse — such offspring no longer just think they know it all. They have the diplomas to prove it and, likely, chips on their shoulders because of the unfair social stigma of moving back home.

For those butting heads with recent grads, experts offer some sound advice: resist the urge to be judgmental.

“Just like we advise incoming college students not to rush into a certain academic major, it’s more important not to rush into an entry career position,” Eric Wood, director of the Counseling and Mental Health Center at Texas Christian University, told the Associated Press. “Establishing a solid trajectory for a successful and happy career is the priority.”

What you should do is judge which boundaries you’ll need to stay sane. Whether your child is going back to college in the fall or not, everyone’s likely to be happier if expectations are clear about important details like housekeeping, sleep schedules, and overnight guests.

When moments of friction inevitably arise, think of this question featured in the “Asking Eric” column. It comes from a parent whose college-age child takes summer jobs far from home.

“I’m so proud of their desire for independence, as well as their ability to tend to all their needs,” the parent writes. “All that being said, how do I fight this tiny nagging feeling that pops up every so often, that makes me wonder if they enjoyed ‘home’ and us (their parents) more, they wouldn’t want to stay away all summer?”

Whether our children are of the age when they’re up at night crying or out cavorting with friends, I suspect all parents encounter moments when we need extra strength. We might just find it by remembering that we’ll someday look back and wish the kids were here, telling us they know everything just one more time.

Correction: Today’s briefing has been updated to note that the National Association of College and University Business Officers was the lead filer of an amicus brief for the first time. NACUBO has endorsed other briefs in the past.