Megan Zahneis

Tracking Trump’s Higher-Ed Deals Colleges are reaching settlements with the government to restore research funding. Here’s everything you need to know.

@chronicle.com has a new tracker collecting details on which colleges have seen funding withheld by the Trump administration and those that have settled. As of now, nine campuses have seen a combined $271 million frozen; three of those (Columbia, Penn, and Brown) have reached agreements. #HigherEd

As Trump Upends Funding for Research, These Scholars Turn to GoFundMe As the once-stable compact between universities and the federal government founders, some scholars are looking elsewhere for money.

Federal funding in limbo? Try GoFundMe instead. That's the route several scholars have taken in recent months — but the notion of crowdfunding academic research is a double-edged sword. I've got the story @chronicle.com. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

In Extraordinary Deal With Trump, Columbia U. Agrees to Pay $200 Million to Restore Funds The university said the government would resolve its investigations and restore most of the $400 million in research funding it had stripped from the institution.

NEW: Our @chronicle.com crew has the details on tonight's deal between Columbia University and the Trump administration, the first over the government's claims of antisemitism on campus. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Trump Proposed Slashing the National Science Foundation’s Budget. A Key Senate Committee Just Refused. Legislation approved on Thursday by the Senate Committee on Appropriations would preserve nearly all of the NSF’s funding.

ICYMI: I covered the Senate approps committee's vote to preserve the NSF's funding. While far from a done deal, research advocates celebrated the news.

“For now, dodging an existential cut is a big win in light of everything that’s going on.” - @kennethmevans.bsky.social

#AcademicSky #HigherEd

The End of Unlimited Grad-School Loans Could Leave Some Colleges and Students in the Lurch The tax package President Trump signed into law this month eliminates a financial-aid program that distributes billions of dollars to higher ed each year.

Prospective grad students are unsure how they'll pay for school in a post-GRAD Plus world, Camila Gomez reports @chronicle.com.

"To have all of this work kind of end in a toss up of whether or not I’ll be able to afford the school is really frustrating," one law-school hopeful said. #HigherEd

Thanks, Kevin, and congratulations on the book launch!

What Does It Cost to Run a Lab? Cancer research is expensive. Here are the price tags.

And Jenny Ruark and our talented visuals team walk you through the expenses involved in keeping a cancer-research lab running.

I'm proud of our work to take stock of the moment, and we'll continue reporting on the research landscape as it evolves. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

I spoke to prospective doctoral students and postdocs whose offers disappeared amid massive grant terminations and looming indirect-cost caps.

It adds up to a lost generation of American scientists, one expert told me. “It’s what’s left on the cutting-room floor that we may not know we’ve lost.”

The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH Under Trump, their grant applications disappeared. What now?

Next, @stephaniemlee.bsky.social draws on internal NIH data to tell the stories of a dozen scientists who find their grants in limbo.

With peer review on pause, "they’re navigating constantly changing, legally dubious, sporadically communicated whims, with no clear way forward," she writes.

U.S. Policy Made America’s Research Engine the Envy of the World. One President Could End That. Someday, in the not-so-distant future, Americans may find themselves on the sidelines of science.

First up, @karinfischer.bsky.social's table-setter on the federal policies that have guided US research for decades.

“This is another Sputnik moment in front of us,” Rafael Reif, a former president of MIT, told Karin. “This is time for us to double down.”

🧵 For our special issue on research, @chronicle.com dove into how the scientific enterprise has been buffeted by the Trump administration. As Jenny Ruark writes in her editor's note, "the speed of retrenchment is breathtaking." We wrote about how we got here, and what might be next. #AcademicSky

Higher-Ed Associations Pitch an Alternative to Trump’s Cap on Research Funding The new model comes as universities brace for a proposed 15-percent limit on indirect costs that would cost them billions of dollars.

NEW from me: Some analysis on the indirect-cost reform being proposed by a group of higher-ed juggernauts as a counterbalance to the Trump admin's 15-percent cap. Where will it leave universities' ledgers? #HigherEd #AcademicSky

The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH Under Trump, their grant applications disappeared. What now?

NEW: I wrote about scientists who have been ghosted by the NIH.

The agency has disappeared dozens of grant applications. Not rejected them, but shoved them out of the peer-review pipeline into an administrative no-man’s land. And there’s no clear exit. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions In a free-speech trial on Monday, two faculty members described self-censorship and behavior changes after arrests of scholars who had expressed pro-Palestinian views.

The second day of a key federal trial is underway. @ngluckman.bsky.social has details from Day 1, in which two professors who hold green cards argued that the government's detention of noncitizen academics who publicly supported Palestine has chilled their own speech. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

How Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Are Derailing Young Scholars’ Careers Budding academics are delaying their graduate studies, continuing them abroad, or forgoing them entirely.

After months of reporting on the Trump admin's effect on #HigherEd from the policy perspective, I was curious about the human impact. So I talked to early-career researchers who told me about how their trajectories have been thwarted. Here's what they told me, in @chronicle.com. #AcademicSky

What a Harvard Deal Would Mean for Higher Ed Some faculty and outside observers fear there are no good deals to be made with the federal government. Others hope for a path forward that safeguards university research and teaching.

In light of this morning's letter from the White House antisemitism task force to Harvard — which found Harvard "in violent violation of Title VI" — here's @franciediep.bsky.social and @erickelderman.bsky.social on what a deal between the parties might mean for #HigherEd. #AcademicSky

In Public, Harvard Is Fighting Trump. Quietly, It’s Dismantling a Program the White House Doesn’t Like. The program’s fate offers one example of how Harvard’s promises to deal with campus antisemitism look on the ground.

In the face of pressure from alumni, a student lawsuit, and the federal government, Harvard University has promised to deal with antisemitism on campus. A look at the fate of one program, Religion and Public Life, shows what that looks like on the ground. chroni.cl/3HvCc5t

NIH scientists publish declaration criticizing Trump's deep cuts in public health research President Donald Trump’s National Institutes of Health director says some employees’ critical letter to him has “fundamental misconceptions about the policy directions the NIH has taken.”

The signers said they modeled their indictment after Bhattacharya’s Great Barrington Declaration in 2020. “He is proud of his statement, and we are proud of ours,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute who signed the Bethesda Declaration. apnews.com/article/nih-...

How Faculty Pay and Tenure Can Change Depending on Academic Discipline Five charts illustrate how pay, growth, and hiring trends have varied across 10 disciplines over the past two decades.

Which disciplines have seen the steepest drop in inflation-adjusted pay? My colleagues @mzahneis.bsky.social and Brian O'Leary crunched the numbers from CUPA-HR www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

As the Nation’s Research Model Falls Apart, Private Money Becomes a Band-Aid Some foundations are offering much-needed stopgaps for researchers. But that’s not a permanent fix, scientists and advocates say.

A thoughtful analysis from @mkhaw.bsky.social of the limitations of philanthrophy in filling the holes left by NIH and NSF cuts. “We’re trying to just get as much money out the door as we can," the Spencer Foundation's president said. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

NSF-funded grants are down 51 percent through May 21, per @nytimes.com reporting. #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Trump Administration Revokes Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students Foreign students make up almost 28 percent of its total student body. The unprecedented move would also force existing students to transfer or lose their legal status.

BREAKING: In an unprecedented action, the Trump administration has revoked Harvard university's ability to enroll international students. My article: www.chronicle.com/article/trum...

How UVa Alums Put DEI — and a President — in the Justice Dept.’s Crosshairs The university’s board has ordered a sweeping walkback of ambitious diversity programs. But conservative critics say DEI lives on — and they blame President James E. Ryan.

A crackdown on DEI at the University of Virginia shows how messy and complicated it can be to prove that DEI has been eliminated, especially when the college’s basic diversity ideals haven’t changed.

New, from me and @katiemangan.bsky.social:

www.chronicle.com/article/how-...

‘I Didn’t Want to Make a Scene': A Professor Recounts the Conversation That Got Him Ejected From Commencement Colin Holbrook says he approached the University of California system president about pro-Palestinian protests.

New from me @chronicle.com: A professor's account of what happened when, he says, he approached the University of California system's president before a commencement ceremony to register concern about the system's "repression of anti-genocide protesters."

An NIH Grant Is Restored, With a Catch: Cut A Study on Trans Youth HIV scientists were given a choice: Eliminate a study of transgender youth or lose a shot to recover a larger grant. They chose the former.

SCOOP: HIV scientists were given a choice by the National Institutes of Health: Eliminate a study of transgender youth, or lose a shot to recover larger grants that had been terminated.

They chose the former.

www.chronicle.com/article/an-n...

University of Iowa to join 'shared values' statement with other Big Ten schools The University of Iowa Faculty Senate voted to sign a statement on “shared values of higher education” with other Big Ten universities. It’s one way that universities are holding the line against the ...

CORRECTION: Iowa did not sign onto a mutual-defense resolution. Last month, the senate there adopted a "shared values" statement that other Big Ten institutions have also. endorsed. www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/202...

More MADC resolutions trickling in at Iowa State, UMBC, UAlaska-Fairbanks, U. of Rhode Island, York College, and U. of North Georgia as well.

Faculty bodies at two-thirds of Big Ten institutions have now adopted #HigherEd mutual-defense compact resolutions, with the University of Iowa doing so today, per @profpaulboxer.bsky.social. UCLA and USC are the only Big Ten institutions that have not yet considered.

The Trump Administration Widens Its Scrutiny of Colleges, With Help From the Internet After months of headlines about elite colleges, the Trump administration is announcing investigations of less-prominent ones, sometimes seemingly in reaction to viral news.

I noticed a new trend: The Trump administration has been highlighting less prestigious colleges in its higher-ed reform efforts. One thing that points to is that officials seem to be choosing where to focus based on viral news.

www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

At U. of Michigan, Frustrations Grew Over a President Who Couldn’t Be Pinned Down Santa Ono, now the sole finalist for the University of Florida presidency, could be hard to find in Ann Arbor, several sources said. The university called the idea that its former president was diseng...

Throughout his historically short tenure in charge of one of the premier public universities in the nation, Santa Ono often would disappear, leaving staff, including the university’s top administrators, looking for direction, sources told me. www.chronicle.com/article/at-u...