Page 3 - Us Universities

SC lets Trump admin cut $783 mn of research funding in anti-DEI push

The Trump administration can slash hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of research funding in its push to cut federal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the Supreme Court decided Thursday. The high court majority lifted a judge's order blocking $783 million worth of cuts made by the National Institutes of Health to align with Republican President Donald Trump's priorities. The high court did keep Trump administration guidance on future funding blocked, however. The court split 5-4 on the decision. Chief Justice John Roberts was along those who would have kept the cuts blocked, along with the court's three liberals. The order marks the latest Supreme Court win for Trump and allows the administration to forge ahead with cancelling hundreds of grants while the lawsuit continues to unfold. The plaintiffs, including states and public-health advocacy groups, have argued that the cuts will inflict incalculable losses in public health and human life. The Justice Department, ...

Judge strikes down Trump-era ban on DEI programmes in schools, colleges

A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes at the nation's schools and universities. In her ruling, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives. The guidance has been on hold since April when three federal judges blocked various portions of the Education Department's anti-DEI measures. The ruling Thursday followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government's actions in a February lawsuit. The case centres on two Education Department memos ordering schools and universities to end all race-based decision-making or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It's part of a campaign to end practices the Trump ...

Trump admin ordered to restore some withheld grant funding to UCLA

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in National Science Foundation grants it has withheld from the University of California, Los Angeles, saying they were made in violation of her earlier court ruling. US District Judge Rita F. Lin ruled late Tuesday that the NSF must reinstate the research grants that were suspended for reasons she had already ruled arbitrary and capricious, and gave the administration until Aug. 19 to show compliance or explain why it hasn't restored the money. It was not immediately clear how much funding could be returned to UCLA. The school's chancellor said last week that the Trump administration has pulled USD584 million in federal grants from various federal agencies. The judge's ruling applies specifically to NSF grants. UCLA's money as been frozen as part of a wider pressure campaign targeting universities that Trump says are out of step with his political agenda. University of California researchers challen

Trump admin threatens to seize millions in valuable Harvard patents

Harvard has until Sept. 5 to prove it's complying with the requirements, including whether it showed a preference for US manufacturing, or risk forfeiting its patents

Trump may order colleges to prove they don't consider race in admissions

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order requiring colleges to submit data to prove they do not consider race in admissions, according to a fact sheet shared by the White House ahead of the Thursday signing. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against the use of affirmative action in admissions but said colleges may still consider how race has shaped students' lives if applicants share that information in their admissions essays. Trump's Republican administration is accusing colleges of using personal statements and other proxies to consider race. The executive order is similar to parts of recent settlement agreements the administration negotiated with Brown University and Columbia University, restoring their federal research funding. The universities agreed to give the government data on the race, grade point average and standardised test scores of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students. The schools also agreed to an audit by the government and to release .

UCLA in talks with Trump admin to reinstate $584 million in grants

The move came after the US Justice Department had given the school a Tuesday deadline to enter into a resolution agreement

Hacked Columbia University student, alumni data includes bank numbers, GPAs

The university said that an unauthorised party accessed data on students, applicants, and some staff, including admissions, financial aid, and certain personal information

Cornell nears $100 mn White House deal to restore frozen research funds

One of the issues still under discussion is whether the pact would call for a resolution monitor to supervise how Cornell is carrying out changes required by the US

Columbia Sportswear sues Columbia Univ over confusingly similar merchandise

For decades, T-shirts, sweatshirts and other clothing under the Columbia Sportswear brand and clothing emblazoned with the Columbia University name coexisted more or less peacefully without confusion. But now, the Portland-based outdoor retailer has sued the New York-based university over alleged trademark infringement and a breach of contract, among other charges. It claims that the university's merchandise looks too similar to what's being sold at more than 800 retail locations, including more than 150 of its branded stores, as well as its website and third-party marketplaces. In a lawsuit filed July 23 in the US District Court for the District of Oregon, Columbia Sportswear, whose roots date back to 1938, alleges that the university intentionally violated an agreement the parties signed on June 13, 2023. That agreement dictated how the university could use the word Columbia on its own apparel. As part of the pact, the university could feature Columbia on its merchandise provided

UCLA to pay more than $6 million to settle lawsuit on antisemitism

UCLA became a flashpoint in spring 2024 as campus protests escalated nationwide over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza

Foreign degree loses sheen as students question return on investment

The sharpest declines were for Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, with student numbers falling by 41 per cent, 27 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively

Republicans urge universities to cut ties with Chinese scholarship scheme

House Republicans are urging seven US universities to cut ties with a Chinese scholarship program that lawmakers call a nefarious mechanism to steal technology for the Chinese government. In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party raise concerns about the schools' partnerships with the China Scholarship Council, a study abroad program funded by China. The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at US universities. After graduating, they're required to return to China for two years. In the letters sent Tuesday, Republicans described it as a threat to national security. CSC purports to be a joint scholarship program between US and Chinese institutions; however, in reality it is a CCP-managed technology transfer effort that exploits US institutions and directly supports China's military and scientific growth, wrote Republican Representative John

UPenn to ban transgender athletes from women's sports after govt settlement

The University of Pennsylvania reverses stance on transgender athlete participation in sports following Donald Trump's executive order, and subsequent federal investigation

University of Virginia president resigns under Trump admin pressure on DEI

The president of the University of Virginia is resigning his position under pressure from the Justice Department, which had pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. It also widens the rationale behind the government's aggressive tactics, focusing on DEI rather than alleged tolerance of antisemitism. Ryan had faced conservative criticism that he had failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies, and his removal was pushed by the Justice Department as a way to help resolve a department inquiry targeting the school, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the move by name a

MIT sued by student, instructor over alleged antisemitism on campus

Lior Alon, a Jewish Israeli mathematics instructor, and William Sussman, a Jewish former PhD student, sued the Cambridge-based research university in Boston federal court

US universities win case striking down agency's 15% research cost cap

Judge Talwani struck down the cap on Friday, finding it "arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the law," granting summary judgment to the suing schools plus the Association of American Universities

Columbia graduate remains in custody after frantic day of appeals

Khalil, 29, who was born in Syria, has become a symbol of the Trump administration's crackdown on campus protests related to Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas

Harvard gains support from top US universities in Trump funding battle

Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university's First Amendment guarantee of free speech and federal law governing administrative rulemaking

FBI arrests Chinese researchers for smuggling lethal crop pathogen into US

US warns of agroterrorism threats after arresting a University of Michigan researcher and her partner for allegedly bringing a deadly fungus into the country

Trump's crackdown aside, foreign student boom in US needs scrutiny too

Trump administration's attempt to keep Harvard from enrolling foreign students has drawn new attention to the remarkable internationalisation of American higher education over the past 2 generations