In today’s update: Lots of universities are saying “absolutely not” to the Compact for Excellence in Higher Education, UVa settled with the Department of Justice, Harvard is cutting PhD admissions, and James Cameron directed Titanic.
The government is still shut down.
The Senate unsuccessfully held a vote to reopen the government for the 12th time today. The House of Representatives is still not in DC, so the votes continue to be for either the Republican “clean CR” or a continued shutdown.
Due to the length of the shutdown, Republican leadership are now considering alternative plans - including a longer “clean continuing resolution” and changing senate filibuster rules.
For the first time during this shutdown, government employees are set to miss their full paycheck this Friday (10/24).
Monday (10/20) was the deadline for the initial set of nine universities sent the Compact for Excellence in Higher Education to provide their feedback.
Ahead of the deadline, seven universities rejected the compact. The University of Arizona and Dartmouth University joined MIT, Brown, Penn, USC, UVa late last week.
Vanderbilt put out a statement that did not clearly accept or reject the statement.
So far, the University of Texas has not made a statement one way or another.
Washington University at St. Louis has also rejected the compact. WashU was invited to sign last week along with the University of Kansas and Arizona State University.
David Barker, an outgoing member of University of Iowa's Board of Regents is urging that university to sign. This is notable because he was just confirmed as the assistant secretary for postsecondary education in the Department of Education.
The University of Virginia has settled with the administration.
The settlement does not come with financial terms, but does commit the university to closing its DEI efforts in exchange for a pause in the DOJ’s investigations into the university’s admissions policies and other civil rights concerns.
Founded by Thomas Jefferson, UVa is the first public institution to settle in this fashion.
Harvard University will be substantially cutting PhD admissions across multiple programs over the next two admission cycles. The Atlantic also has some reporting on the situation at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Nature has a report on how PhD admissions are shrinking more broadly.
The Associated Press has a report tracking the wave of anti-vaccine legislation (along with legislation against fluoride and milk safety) that has been introduced at the state level this year. The majority of these have come from individuals or organizations with close ties to Health Secretary RFK Jr.
Science has a report on the selection of Kyle Walsh as the new director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Director Walsh is, reportedly, a close friend of Vice President Vice President JD Vance.
In lighter news, we all have a new example of insufficient data de-identification to add to our presentations. Turns out redacting the name of an expert witness is not sufficient when they immediately identify themselves as the director of Titanic and The Abyss.