Inside Higher Ed

ICYMI | The firing of a University of Michigan official has raised questions about who was involved in the decision as well as why exactly the diversity, equity and inclusion leader was shown the door. Many media outlets reported within the past few days that the university fired Rachel Dawson, who led the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, after she allegedly made antisemitic comments at a conference in March. University officials initially declined to fire Dawson but reversed course after facing pressure from at least one member of the Board of Regents, The New York Times reported. The university hasn’t said much publicly, but a single press statement released after the Times report complicated the narrative about Dawson’s termination. That statement pointed to not only unspecified behavior at a conference, but also unspecified behavior at an undated protest. The Times article didn’t mention a protest Read more ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ZPCdXk

ICYMI | Colleges and universities are once again urging the U.S. Department of Education to give them more time to comply with the reporting requirements in President Biden’s new gainful employment and financial value transparency rule. It’s the third time institutions have sought an extension over the past year. This time around, they want the department to push back the current Jan. 15 deadline to July 2025. That would mean #financialaid and student outcomes data, which are vital to enforcing the regulations, wouldn’t reach the department until well after the end of Biden’s presidency. The rule, finalized last year, seeks to hold career education programs accountable and provide prospective students with more information about whether college programs pay off. To do so, the department needs to collect more data from colleges, including enrollment, the total cost of attendance and the amount of private loans disbursed to students. With that data in hand, the department will then calculate whether graduates of all programs can afford their yearly debt payments and whether they make more than an adult in their state who didn’t go to college. Read more ➡️ https://bit.ly/41JJdrw

ICYMI | Here are a few headlines from this week: 🏛️ N.C. State Employee Denounced University Before His Suicide 📣 Virginia Foxx Reflects on Her Time in the Hot Seat 🎓 Doug Lederman Says Farewell to Inside Higher Ed: The Key 🎉 Looking Back at 2024 in Higher Ed Read more in this week's update ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gr2jXT

ICYMI | Looking Back at 2024 in Higher Ed This year featured high-profile scandals, resignations and protests but also showed the enduring value of colleges and universities. https://bit.ly/4fi6TGJ

ICYMI | At 4:30 a.m. Nov. 20, Marshall Brain II, founder of the popular HowStuffWorks website and longtime director of North Carolina State University’s Engineering Entrepreneurs Program, sent an email to those he called friends and colleagues. He wrote that—contrary to what his manager had announced—he wasn’t retiring from the university; he’d been forced out. Less than three hours later, according to his death certificate, Brain shot himself in his office on campus. He was 63. He had a wife, four children and a dog named Summer, according to his obituary. “He would do anything for his family, including building a duck pond with an excavator because his future wife said she wanted ducks, or jumping in the car to drive hours to deliver a set of keys to his daughter who had left them at home,” the obit says Read more ➡️ https://bit.ly/3ZI2Zkv

ICYMI | Here are a few headlines from this week: 🎯 The Longhorn Long Shot 🚫 DEI Bans Flourished in 2024. Politicians Aren’t Finished. 🐦 The Early Bird Gets Admitted ⚖️ U of Michigan Says DEI Official Fired Over ‘Behavior’ at Protest, Conference Read more in this week's update ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gr2jXT

House Republicans Lambaste Colleges’ Handling of Antisemitism in New Report https://bit.ly/3P6obMk

Brown University Faces $46 Million Budget Deficit https://bit.ly/41Mdkyu

Overpaid Conn. Community College Employees Asked to Return Money https://bit.ly/4iKLNn4

Opinion | Books Reviewed in 2024 Any overlap? https://bit.ly/4gNdytl