…and we’re back.
After a “I was cooking for 30 on Thanksgiving”-related delay, this belated update includes news out of Northwestern, the FDA, and the Department of Education.
Northwestern University has settled with the Administration.
The New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education have details on the agreement; which involves the university paying $75 million over three years, end gender affirming care at the Feinberg School of Medicine, and reverse an agreement made with pro-Palestinian student protesters in 2024.
In exchange for restoring grant funding and ending federal investigations, the University also agrees to abide by the Administration’s interpretation of Title IX, review admissions for international students, and develop training materials related to open debate.
The NYT and many other outlets are reporting on an internal memo sent on Friday by Dr. Vinay Prasad - the FDA’s chief Medical and Scientific Officer and director of CBER - that could have major implications on vaccine policy in the United States.
The memo describes the results of an FDA analysis showing that vaccination for COVID-19 resulted in the death of at least 10 children, though details of this analysis are not available.
As a result of this investigation, the memo states that the agency will adopt a stricter approval process for vaccines, will “revise the annual flue vaccine framework”, and will “will reappraise and be honest in vaccine labels”.
The full memo has been posted by several entities, including the Brownstone Institute. It’s really something.
The White House has launched the Genesis Mission.
Coordinated by the Department of Energy, the goal of the project is to build an AI platform which will use Federal scientific datasets to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.
Nature has additional coverage, as does Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (sorry, not sorry).
Due to the Big Beautiful Bill, there will be new limits on federal student loans disbursed on or after July 1st, 2026.
Undergraduate students will continue to be capped at $7,500 per year.
Graduate and professional students will be capped $20,500 per year ($100,000 total) and $50,000 a year ($200,000 total) respectively.
Eleven degree types will be eligible for the “professional” designation. Several reports were published this week describing the controversy around the exclusion of nursing degrees (and education degrees, social work degrees, science degrees, and others) from this list. The Department of Education has posted an FAQ.
The Department of Education has opened an investigation into UC Berkeley for potentially violating the Cleary Act, which requires institutions of higher education to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid.