Today, the President announced the intent to nominate Sethuraman Panchanathan of Arizona State University, to be the director of the National Science Foundation.
Currently, Panchanathan serves as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at ASU.
The NSF director serves a 6 year term. Current director, Dr. France A. Córdova, has served since March 2014.
Various higher education associations addressed a letter, dated December 9th, 2019, to Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce expressing concerns about the future of OPT. UW is a member of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) and Association of American Universities (AAU), which both signed the letter circulated by the American Council on Education. The letter requests that the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs meet with the Department of Homeland Security and relevant agencies to affirm the future of OPT and address long visa processing times.
President Trump has signed an executive order aimed at tackling antisemitism on college campuses. The order gives Jewish persons special protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which is enforced by the Department of Education. Under statute, Title VI only gives protection for race, color, or national origin. In a press statement at a White House Hanukkah event, President Trump said colleges would be ineligible for federal funds if they “traffic in anti-Semitic hate”.
At a conference in Reno, NV the Department of Education revealed that they are considering some significant changes to student financial aid. The first is that they would give colleges the authority to limit how much debt a student takes on. This would be done at “experimental” college sites. They claim this would shift some of the burden from the federal government onto colleges. Additionally, they are proposing changes which would allow debt to be converted into an income-share agreement or other private, third-party mechanism. A student could potentially end up owing a percentage of future earnings to a third-party, rather than directly to the Department of Education. They also want to introduce “incentives” for students who progress quickly through their program. While the specifics are still murky, we will continue to monitor the situation.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for multiple current and on-going efforts. A full list of DHS proposed rules can be found here.
Some highlights include: