9/22/25: Trump Proposes $100K Fee for H-1B Visa (Inside Higher Ed) New applicants will have to pay $100,000 in order to qualify for an H-1B visa, starting with the February 2026 lottery. The change took effect Sunday but is likely to face legal challenges. The presidential proclamation directs the Department of Homeland Security to “restrict decisions on petitions not accompanied by a $100,000 payment.” The White House clarified over the weekend that the change doesn’t apply to current H-1B visa holders, Politico reported . https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/09/22/trump-proposes-100k-fee-h-1b-visa#
See also: Trump Says the U.S. Will Institute $100K Fee for Skilled Worker Visas (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/trump-h-1b-visas-fee.html
9/21/25: 5 things to watch as a shutdown looms (The Hill) Congress is moving head-first toward a government shutdown after the Senate voted down a pair of stopgap spending bills, including a “clean” one proposed by the GOP to keep the lights on for seven weeks while appropriators hammer out a longer-term deal. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5513276-gop-democrats-funding-battle/
See also: Tables turn for Democrats as they use shutdown for leverage (Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/22/democrats-shutdown-leverage-00574029
9/19/25: NSF Held Captive (Science) “This administration doesn’t buy the idea that the government’s investment in basic research buys us anything useful,” one former senior NSF official says. “And if they don’t agree with Bush’s assumption, then why bother to even have an NSF?” https://www.science.org/content/article/under-trump-nsf-faces-worst-crisis-its-75-year-history
9/19/25: How Academic Publishing Exploits Public Science (The Chronicle, Opinion) In July, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would cap excessive article-processing charges (APCs) for publishing taxpayer-funded research. ..While this might seem like a technical change, it reflects a deeper principle: Publicly funded science should be treated as a nonexcludable, nonrivalrous public good — meaning no one should be excluded from access, and one person’s use should not diminish its value to others. Steep paywalls and inflated APCs violate both principles, transforming public knowledge into private profit. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-academic-publishing-exploits-public-science
9/19/25: Education Dept. Subjects Harvard to More Financial Oversight (Inside Higher Ed) The heightened cash monitoring status slapped on the university Friday is typically reserved for institutions in serious financial turmoil. This time, experts say, it’s being used as an intimidation tactic. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/09/19/education-dept-subjects-harvard-more-financial
See also: Harvard vs Trump: millions in grant money begin trickling back to scientists (Nature) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03036-1
9/18/25: Gold standard science requires gold standard scholarship (Science, Editorial) Scientists often casually refer to research and “library work” as separate endeavors. Research involves the execution of experiments in the laboratory whereas library work means finding references to relevant studies in the literature and analyzing them—often as a precursor to writing a paper. Treating careful scholarship as somehow less important than the acquisition of data can adversely affect the reliability of the scientific record and consequently, the course of science. In today’s tense environment around science and politics, meticulous scholarship has never been more important. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec2360
9/18/25: Statement on Dr. Jon Lorsch Being Named NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research (NIH) https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/nih-director/statements/statement-dr-jon-lorsch-being-named-nih-deputy-director-extramural-research
9/17/25: Head of University of California Warns of Risk From Trump Threats (New York Times) University of California leaders, besieged by a billion-dollar demand from the Trump administration, warned on Wednesday that the government’s campaign to remake American higher education was imperiling the university system that is an academic and economic juggernaut. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/us/university-of-california-berkeley-regents-meeting.html
