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, Inside Higher Ed’s news editor, who is ready to hand out candy.
It’s Day 284 of the second Trump administration, and the government has now been shut down for 31 days—just four days shy of the record. The lapse in funding is now expected to hit families and students who receive federal food assistance, as the Trump administration says the program known as SNAP is out of money. Colleges are scrambling to make sure students on SNAP still have access to food. We’ll have more on that effort Monday.
Now, let’s talk about TRIO.
More than 120 programs at colleges and universities had their funding cut this year—all because they referenced diversity, equity and inclusion–related goals in their grant applications. College staff applied for the grants under the Biden administration, which made DEI a priority. Now, those programs have been penalized by the current president for following the previous president’s directive. The cuts, which are the subject of two lawsuits, mean that more than 43,600 students are now without a slew of resources, from tutoring to assistance with financial aid. Democratic attorneys general have asked the federal court to reject the cuts.
“TRIO programs serving thousands of high-school and college students have closed, many of which have operated successfully for years with track records of success,” they wrote in a brief. “The result will be fewer students going to college and fewer students graduating college, to the detriment of impacted Amici States, their residents, and their economies.”
Remember that President Trump proposed eliminating TRIO in his fiscal year 2026 budget, but Congress has so far rebuffed that plan. TRIO, a group of several student-support programs designed to help disadvantaged students access higher education, has long received bipartisan support.
Compact Watch: A growing number of college presidents and provosts say they oppose Trump’s higher ed compact in principle. But don’t consider that a rejection, their spokespeople told me this week. And that stance makes sense to experts I talked with.
“The basic tenet of college administration is don’t make a decision until you have to,” said Brendan Cantwell, a higher education professor at Michigan State University. “No one is forcing their hand right now … and they don’t want to antagonize the administration, particular donors or state officials. If I wasn’t explicitly invited, I wouldn’t explicitly decline to participate.”
Meanwhile, New College of Florida and Valley Forge Military College say they want to join the compact. You can find the latest on college responses here.
On Tap for Next Week:
- Negotiations over new student loan caps resume next week. The big issue, experts say, will be which programs are considered professional and thus eligible for the higher cap.
- The Senate education committee will hold two hearings related to higher ed. On Nov. 5, the panel will discuss registered apprenticeships. Then, on Nov. 6, the committee will hear testimony about increasing financial transparency in higher education and lowering costs for families. The House held a similar hearing on college pricing in mid-September.
- And Nov. 5 marks one year since the 2024 election and the start of Trump’s return to the White House. Look back on our coverage of that night here, here and here.
That’s it for Week 41. Thanks for reading. What else should we be covering? Let me know at katherine.knott@insidehighered.com.
As always, if news breaks this afternoon or over the weekend, you can find the latest at InsideHigherEd.com. In the meantime, I’ll be fine-tuning my Halloween costume and starting my November project: writing 50,000 words for my romance novel.
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