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1/21/26: Investigations and a Billion-Dollar ‘Shakedown’: How Trump Targeted Higher Education (New York Times) President Trump had barely returned to power last year when Hector F. Ruiz, a veteran civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department, shared a directive with his team that some found chilling. He told the team that he had been instructed to open investigations into more than a dozen universities, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting. The orders were a sharp break from the department’s norm of collecting facts before proceeding with a formal inquiry, and some investigators viewed the demand as a politically motivated attack. Within months, Mr. Ruiz and 17 of his team’s lawyers had quit. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/us/politics/trump-higher-education-2025.html
1/20/26: Damage assessment: Which of Donald Trump’s changes are likely to last—and which will fade? (Science) … Trump has come much closer to achieving those goals since returning to the White House 1 year ago, and the toll on the U.S. research establishment has been heavy. To date it includes billions of dollars of academic research grants killed or frozen; long delays in grant reviews; hundreds of canceled programs, notably those said to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and combat climate change; the departure of thousands of government employees; and a restructuring of several science agencies. https://www.science.org/content/article/which-trump-s-upheavals-u-s-science-are-likely-stick
1/20/26: Congress moves toward funding government, dodging shutdown (Washington Post) Congress is on track to avoid another government shutdown at the end of the month, after lawmakers released a bipartisan agreement on four remaining funding bills Tuesday. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/20/government-funding-agreement-shutdown/
1/20/26: Again Defying Trump, Congress Proposes Increasing NIH Budget, Maintaining ED (Inside Higher Ed) Appropriators have released legislation that wouldn’t defund Education Department programs or slash the National Institutes of Health budget. And it would prohibit the federal government from capping NIH reimbursement rates. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2026/01/20/congress-proposes-increasing-nih-budget
See also: Final funding bill for NIH pushes back against Trump cuts (Science) https://www.science.org/content/article/final-funding-bill-nih-pushes-back-against-trump-cuts
1/20/26: US science after a year of Trump (Nature) A series of graphics reveals how the Trump administration has sought historic cuts to science and the research workforce. https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html
See also: Researchers drop projects, consider switching fields after a year of Trump funding cuts and layoffs (The Hill) https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5692876-trump-funding-cuts-defense-education-medical-research/
See also: ‘Shattered’: US scientists speak out about how Trump policies disrupted their careers (Nature) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00091-0
1/16/26: Universities Need a New Defense (The Chronicle) https://www.chronicle.com/premium/pdfviewer?id=0000019b-b27c-d2fc-abdb-f2ffe8340000
1/14/26: User Clip: Comment on use of federal grants to support foreign students (CSPAN) Michael Kratsios is asked during testimony about PRC students involved in U.S. grants, Kratsios emphasizes that grants are intended to only support Americans and that such language would be included in future notices of funding opportunities. https://www.c-span.org/clip/house-committee/user-clip-comment-on-use-of-federal-grants-to-support-foreign-students/5188894
1/14/26: Which countries give to U.S. colleges? (The Chronicle) Although it’s at the center of debates over transparency in foreign spending at American colleges, China ranks fourth in sources of overseas gifts and contracts, according to a new public database from the U.S. Department of Education. The largest donor country, Qatar, gave or awarded nearly $6.6 billion to higher-education institutions, $2.5 billion more than Chinese sources. https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/latitudes/2026-01-14
