Compiled by SUSAN JONES

The Auburn University Board of Trustees on June 5 gave itself complete control over course offerings, curriculum, degree requirements and academic credentials while eliminating shared governance at the Alabama land-grant university, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Faculty say they have serious concerns about the policies and a host of unanswered questions about what the changes will mean in practice.

The two policies, passed unanimously without discussion, mimic what Alabama House Bill 580 will require of other public institutions when it takes effect in October. As a land-grant institution created and governed by the state Constitution, Auburn isn’t explicitly bound by the law, but lawmakers have made veiled threats to punish noncompliance anyway by withholding state funding for offending institutions. The university appears to be taking a page out of Texas public institutions’ playbook by pre-emptively overcomplying with new state law, experts say.

The existing Faculty Senate has been dissolved. It already held an advisory-only role, but its replacement — the Presidential Academic Advisory Council — “is a shift from faculty-led governance to administratively controlled consultation,” the Auburn American Association of University Professors chapter wrote in a statement.

Fight over professional degrees continues

The House Appropriations Committee advanced a bill that would designate graduate nursing programs as professional degrees, meaning students in those programs would have higher loan limits. Earlier this year, the Department of Education released regulations that excluded graduate nursing programs, among other programs, from its list of professional degrees. The designation allows students to take out up to $200,000 in federal student loans — double that for other graduate programs. 

In addition, a pair of advocacy groups filed suit on June 3 against the Education Department over its cap on how much physician associates and assistants can borrow in student loans, The Hill reported. The American Academy of Physician Associates and the PA Education Association filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the Department of Education’s impending rule change on the borrowing cap for physician associate students is unlawful.

JUNE 10

The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that the University of California–Davis’ medical school violated civil rights law by adopting “admissions practices with the express purpose of circumventing” the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision banning race-conscious admissions, Higher Ed Dive reported. According to the agency’s findings, the medical school admitted 1.4% of White applicants and nearly 8% of Black and Hispanic applicants in 2024. This was “despite the fact that the average GPA and MCAT scores for those minority applicants were significantly lower than the white applicants they competed against,” DOJ said. The university did not immediately respond to questions.

JUNE 9

• The University of Denver is consolidating five schools and colleges into two as it looks to streamline its academic structures and create a “more connected, flexible academic experience for students,” university officials said. It also plans to eliminate five departments, though the academic programs under the departments will continue, the university’s provost said in a memo to employees. The university faced a projected budget deficit of up to $30 million.

• The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the City University of New York system over allegations that one of its student success programs violates civil rights law. The Black Male Initiative program, founded by CUNY in 2005, aims to boost educational outcomes for “students from groups that are severely underrepresented in higher education,” according to the system. The program focuses on Black men and men from Caribbean and Latino backgrounds but is open to all.

• University of Arizona Health Sciences — which has housed the colleges of medicine in Tucson and Phoenix, and the colleges of nursing, pharmacy and public health — is being dismantled, and its various functions are being integrated into other parts of the larger university, the Arizona Daily Star reported. The colleges under UA Health Sciences and its administrative units will now be under the Office of the Provost. The research centers under health sciences will be moved to report to the Office of Research and Partnerships.

JUNE 8

A federal judge struck down the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas, ruling that President Donald Trump didn’t have the authority to impose a tax on the visa program for highly skilled workers. On June 11, the Trump administration appealed the ruling, and a White House spokesperson said the Trump administration was “confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”

JUNE 5

• The University of Iowa cannot redirect privately donated scholarship funds intended for Black students studying science, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. Higher Ed Dive reported that under the university’s plan — which the public flagship tied to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions — eligibility for the scholarship would have been changed to cover first-generation students studying science. But the state’s high court upheld a previous ruling blocking the university’s plan and turned it over to the lower court to decide if and how the scholarship will be altered. 

• The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that five members of the American Diabetes Association were removed from the organization’s annual conference by police for handing out copies of an opinion essay criticizing the Trump administration outside the hall where Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, was scheduled to speak. The essay had been published in Diabetes Care, the association’s own flagship journal (though with a note distancing the association from the paper’s authors). It was the first session of the first day of the conference.

JUNE 4

Voters still have the ability to elect board members at Michigan’s big three universities after a state house proposal failed, WNEM reported. The legislation would have allowed the governor to appoint board members at the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Wayne State University. The three institutions are the only public universities in Michigan whose boards are currently elected by voters.

JUNE 3

• The University of Maryland, College Park has laid off 84 employees as it navigates budget shortfalls stemming from federal and state funding cuts and spikes in energy costs, UMD President Darryll Pines said in a public message. The public institution in April estimated it may have to eliminate up to 150 jobs through layoffs, vacancy closures and retirements. The cuts come after UMD has in recent years slashed discretionary spending, slowed hiring and reduced headcount through attrition. 

• The U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into Arizona State University over allegations its diversity, equity and inclusion work violated civil rights law. The federal agency said it will examine Arizona State’s policies on admissions, recruitment, scholarships, tutoring and educational support to see if the public university “subjects its students to illegal discrimination” through DEI.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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