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July 10, 2025

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The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH

Stephanie Lee, The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Belinda Needham submitted a grant application to the National Institutes of Health in October. The agency promptly informed her that it would review her grant application at an upcoming meeting. But when President Donald Trump took office, the meeting got taken off the calendar, and nine months after submitting, Needham still has no timeline for when her proposal will be evaluated. It hasn’t been rejected—just siphoned out of the peer-review pipeline into an administrative no man’s land.

 

Needham's experience showcases just one of the unprecedented ways in which the NIH, the world’s premier funder of biomedical research, is upending American science.

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Trump Admin. Tweaks 90-10 Regs

Jessica Blake, Inside Higher Ed

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The U.S. Department of Education recently made a subtle change to Biden-era regulations that were designed to ensure for-profit colleges provide quality programs. Under the adjusted policy, for-profit colleges can now count proceeds from online courses that are not eligible for federal aid toward their 90-10 calculation, an accountability measure that requires 10 percent of a college’s total revenue to be from non-federal sources.

 

Opponents of the change say the new policy will likely have minimal consequences, but they are alarmed by how it came to be: They worry the Trump administration is finding new shortcuts to advance its political priorities without public feedback instead of going through the rule-making process to amend the regulations.

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Trump’s Law Reshapes Federal Loans and Pell Grants, Impacting California Students

Amy DiPierro and Michael Burke, EdSource

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The domestic policy law signed by President Donald Trump will have major implications on how students in California and across the country pay for college, with analysts describing it as the most consequential federal higher education legislation in decades.

 

The most significant changes will impact access to federal loans and borrower repayment plans. The law also amends Pell Grant eligibility standards, expands qualified expenses for 529 college savings accounts, and is expected to raise the endowment tax on several private universities.

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How AmeriCorps Kept Young Talent in Rural Communities

Gillen Tener Martin, Washington Monthly

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As an AmeriCorps-funded fellow in the American Connection Corps program in Nebraska, Oliver Borchers-Williams helped turn a $4 million American Rescue Plan Act allocation into an $11 million investment that ultimately brought broadband to thousands of homes.

 

Before the Trump administration slashed AmeriCorps in April, members worked across communities, both urban and rural, in all 50 states. These members represented a vital talent pool, especially in rural and post-industrial regions, overlooked towns, and smaller cities—locales that have experienced generations of skilled youth leaving for more “dynamic states” and major metro areas.

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Harvard Students Rally Against Potential Federal Concessions in Open Letter

Walter Hudson, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

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More than 200 Harvard University students have signed an open letter calling on their institution to resist what they characterize as unreasonable federal demands, as the Trump administration claims progress toward reaching an agreement with the prestigious university.

 

Harvard Students for Freedom, an unrecognized student organization established this spring, organized the letter that garnered 197 public signatures and 29 anonymous ones. The group extended the petition to all current graduates and undergraduates across the university.

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How Much Education Does a California Police Officer Need? What a New Bill Proposes

Cayla Mihalovich and Adam Echelman, CalMatters

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A growing body of research shows that college-educated law enforcement officers tend to use less force and exercise better decision-making. In California, that mindset became the impetus for raising education standards of incoming law enforcement officers amid calls for police reform following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

 

The new bill would have required prospective police officers 18 to 25 years old to earn a bachelor’s degree before entering the police force. That was 2020. Today, with a widespread shortage of police officers in California, lawmakers are once again debating these reforms.

HUMAN WORK AND LEARNING

Withheld Adult Education Funds Worry Community Colleges

Sara Weissman, Inside Higher Ed

Designing Curriculum for Completion, Not Confusion

Tom McDonnell, The EvoLLLution

Survey: Gen Z Teens Don’t Know Their Options After High School

Brett Peveto, Public News Service

Commentary: AI Is Driving Down the Price of Knowledge—Universities Have to Rethink What They Offer

Patrick Dodd, The Conversation

EQUITY IN EDUCATION

UNCF Launches Parent Advocacy Initiative to Address Teacher Diversity Crisis

Walter Hudson, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions

Nell Gluckman, The Chronicle of Higher Education

What Do International Students Contribute to California’s Public Universities?

Valerie Lundy-Wagner, Public Policy Institute of California

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY

University of Northern Iowa Launches Neighboring State Tuition Program With Foundation Funds

Brooklyn Draisey, Iowa Capital Dispatch

'One Big Beautiful Bill' Expands 529 Plans. But Are There Better Options?

Medora Lee, USA Today

Medical Students Fret Over the New Student Loan Cap in the 'Big, Beautiful Bill'

Shannon Pettypiece and Rebecca Shabad, NBC News

Here’s What the Endowment Tax in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ May Mean for Your College Tuition

Jessica Dickler, CNBC

STATE POLICY

Missed Opportunities: California Legislature Deserts Four Higher Ed Bills as Federal Attacks Pile Up

Sarah Bouabibsa, The Institute for College Access & Success

Video: What Impact as New Jersey Restores $20M for Community Colleges?

Raven Santana, NJ Spotlight News

UConn Professor Speaks Out Against Cuts to Higher Ed

John Henry Smith, Connecticut Public Radio

Florida’s Higher Ed Makeover: Attacks, Resistance, and All-Out War, With DeSantis Leading the Charge

Michael Vasquez, The Florida Trident

NEW REPORTS AND EVENTS

Virtual Forum: What It Really Takes to Serve Students’ Basic Needs: Housing

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Letters of Recommendation by High School Counselors in Selective College Admissions: Differences by Race and Socioeconomic Status in Letter Length and Topics Discussed

Research in Higher Education

Commission on the American Workforce: Spring Updates

Bipartisan Policy Center

Leveraging Adaptive Approaches to Tackle Opportunity Gaps in STEM Higher Education

Frontiers

luminafoundation.org
Daily Lumina News is edited by Patricia Brennan.

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