Welcome back to After the First 100 Days, Inside Higher Ed’s weekly roundup of news from the Hill to the Oval Office. I’m your host, Katherine Knott, IHE’s news editor.
It’s Day 214 of the second Trump administration, and federal law enforcement agencies are still occupying Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday evening that the government doesn’t have to restore $783 million in canceled National Institutes of Health grants. We’ll have more about that next week, because we’re spending today making sense of it.
But I want to dig into a new survey of financial aid administrators that showed mounting frustration over how the Education Department is handling student aid. More administrators who took the survey say they are struggling to get a hold of the department or are seeing longer delays in processing of applications. For example, 63 percent of institutions surveyed that have submitted their E-App—a form that must be completed and approved in order to receive federal aid—said their submission had yet to be processed in July.
All this is raising concerns that students might not get their federal aid in time for the start of the academic year.
But the Education Department argues that the survey of 500 institutions “blatantly parrots falsehoods” and those who responded are “the ones most likely to harbor anti-Trump sentiments.” A department spokesperson touted the department’s early release of the FAFSA. But that form is just one piece of the puzzle, and colleges are worried about the behind-the-scenes processes that are key to getting money out the door.
In Other News: The department is taking aim at nonpartisan voter ed work, saying such jobs are political activities and don’t prepare students for the workforce. A memo released this week bans colleges from using Federal Work-Study funds to pay students to work on voter registration efforts and other similar activities. Additionally, the memo warned colleges against distributing registration materials to students they believe are ineligible to vote in state or federal elections.
Remember you can find the latest on lawsuits against the Trump administration here. We’re updating it on Mondays.
That’s it for Week 31. And it’s back-to-school season—what are you all looking forward to? How do you expect these federal changes to change campus life this academic year? I’m at katherine.knott@insidehighered.com.
If, or when, news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, I’ll be exploring my new neighborhood, Takoma, and watching Jury Duty to prep for jury duty. Have a good weekend!
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