Lumina Foundation is working to increase the share of adults in the U.S. labor force with college degrees or other credentials of value leading to economic prosperity.
The Trump administration has rescinded billions of dollars in federal research grants, cutting fellowships, scholarships, and postdoctoral programs that support the next generation of scientists. A federal judge recently ordered the restoration of some National Institutes of Health grants; a separate lawsuit over National Science Foundation funding is still playing out in court.
This interview explores how one public university is dealing with the changes happening in Washington—and what's really at stake for the future of American science.
Harvard University's decision to fight the government stands in stark contrast to the path taken by Columbia University, which announced last week that it had reached a deal with the Trump administration. Columbia will pay more than $200 million to resolve claims of discrimination, which will lead to the government restoring canceled research grants and federal funding.
With Columbia opting to settle, the battle between Harvard president Alan Garber and the White House is emerging as the defining clash for all of higher education, experts say, a test of whether resistance or negotiation is the more astute strategy in the face of Trump’s threats and demands.
In an era when colleges viewed diversity as both a moral imperative and a practical one, Virginia Commonwealth University’s embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts seemed like a clear strength: here was an institution serving an ever-broadening range of students, with the mission and branding to match.
But in the past months, leaders of the state and the nation have turned sharply against DEI. What was once a strength has become a political liability. Now, the school has hired legal counsel to determine if the programs that drove VCU's evolution—boosting its minority-student enrollment and enhancing its national prestige—will stay or go.
Despite being hundreds of miles apart, school counselors Stephanie Nelson and Richard Tench assign the same task to their rising seniors when they request a letter of recommendation: Take a “brag” sheet, fill it out with challenges they’ve overcome or accomplishments they’re particularly proud of, and give it back to the counselors to help guide their writing.
It’s a common counseling technique. However, another trend is emerging: counselors are using those student achievements in a generative AI tool to assist in composing the letter of recommendation.
While President Donald Trump’s crusade against American higher education has focused on the Ivy League and other elite private schools, colleges of all types and in all 50 states have been hamstrung by his sweeping cuts to research funding.
During the first six months of the Trump administration, federal agencies—primarily the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation—canceled more than 4,000 grant awards worth an estimated $7 billion at some 600 colleges and universities. As intended, these actions left universities in blue states struggling, but a new report shows that red state schools are feeling the repercussions as well.
For the past four years, 28-year-old Michaela Bonner has been working 12-hour shifts as an emergency medical technician in Norfolk, Virginia, while attending and paying for college to finish her prerequisites for medical school.
But now that President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending law bars students from borrowing more than $50,000 annually in unsubsidized federal loans for medical school, Bonner is worried her dream of becoming a doctor is financially out of reach. Many student advocates and healthcare officials share her concern.
