Several universities across the U.S. issued shelter-in-place alerts on the first day of fall classes after reports of armed individuals on campus. Police later determined most were hoaxes or "swatting" calls—using temporary numbers and voice-masking apps—with no evidence of gunmen or violence found.
The Justice Department backed a lawsuit to end grants reserved for colleges where at least a quarter of undergraduates are Hispanic, calling the program an unconstitutional advantage based on race or ethnicity. Congress created the grants in 1998 to address lower enrollment and graduation rates among Latino students.
Sophisticated criminal networks are using stolen student identities to pose as applicants at U.S. colleges, draining tens of millions of dollars in financial aid and crowding out legitimate students, recent reports show.
A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups is calling on U.S. universities to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection in order to protect student protesters from government retaliation.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting $1.2 billion in TRIO funding, which supports low-income and first-generation students. Advocates warn the move could limit college access despite the programs' long record of success.
The program, called One Click College Admit, allows Illinois high school seniors and community college transfer students to apply for and receive college acceptance into 10 of the state's public universities by meeting only a single requirement for admission: grade point average.
President Trump's push for "fairness" in college admissions has not included changes to legacy preferences, which remain in place at many universities. While his administration has focused on transparency and "merit-based" reforms, critics note that legacy policies continue to receive little federal attention.
