New York Times: “The Trump administration escalated its pressure campaign on Harvard University with two new investigations into antisemitism on campus and the school’s admissions policies, issues the federal government has repeatedly scrutinized on the Ivy League campus.”

CNN: “The Trump administration slapped a new multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, alleging that the school is in violation of a civil rights law and has failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from discrimination.”

“It is asking a federal judge to require the school to pay back millions in grant payments and halt more than $2.6 billion in existing grants.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Pentagon would be canceling troops’ attendance at graduate programs at some of the nation’s top universities, calling them “woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination,” CBS News reports.

“The University of Texas System’s Board of Regents unanimously approved a rule requiring its universities to ensure students can graduate without studying ‘unnecessary controversial subjects,’ despite warnings it could leave them less prepared for the real world,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“The rule also requires faculty to disclose in their syllabi the topics they plan to cover and adhere to the plan, and says that when courses include controversial issues, instructors must ensure a ‘broad and balanced approach’ to the discussion.”

“Their buildings can be architectural wonders. The discoveries made in their laboratories can be spellbinding and lifesaving,” the New York Times reports.

“But America’s colleges and universities are chronically searching for money, a reality that brought academic leaders and researchers into both Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit and his inbox. The schools had the prestige to lend him legitimacy. Mr. Epstein had the money to bankroll projects.”

“It worked well for some, until it didn’t.”

“The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the Ivy League school of failing to produce documents sought as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether its admissions process discriminates against white applicants,” the New York Times reports.

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Defense Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, the latest broadside by the Trump administration in its pressure campaign to force the university to cut a deal with the government,” the New York Times reports.

“The Supreme Court ruling in 2023 banning race-conscious college admissions led to declines in Black and Latino admissions at highly selective universities. At many other schools, the opposite occurred,” the New York Times reports.

“Overall, freshmen enrollment of underrepresented minority groups increased by 8 percent at public flagship universities. The analysis, by a nonprofit organization, Class Action, concludes that those schools were among institutions that benefited as a result of higher rejection rates for Black and Hispanic students at the nation’s 50 most selective schools.”

“At those top 50 schools, Black freshmen enrollment was down by 27 percent and Latino enrollment down by 10 percent.”

“President Trump said he is seeking $1 billion in damages from Harvard University, the latest escalation in his administration’s fight with the institution over alleged antisemitism,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump posted on social media after the New York Times reported that his administration had dropped its demand for a $200 million payment to the government to settle the dispute.”

“President Trump has backtracked on a major point in negotiations with Harvard, dropping his administration’s demand for a $200 million payment to the government in hopes of finally resolving the administration’s conflicts with the university,” the New York Times reports.

The Trump administration is demanding the University of Pennsylvania turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the school’s community as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses, The Guardian reports.

But some Jewish faculty and staff have condemned the government’s demand as “a visceral threat to the safety of those who would find themselves identified because compiling and turning over to the government ‘lists of Jews’ conjures a terrifying history.”

“Harvard University enrolled a record number of international students in the current academic year, even as the Trump administration sought repeatedly to curb student visas and funding for the Ivy League school,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Trump administration will begin to garnish the pay of student loan borrowers in January, the Department of Education said Tuesday, stepping up a repayment enforcement effort that began this year,” the New York Times reports.

The Department of Education has moved to terminate one of former President Joe Biden’s most popular student loan forgiveness plans — impacting millions of Americans, ABC News reports.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced a plan to open Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in Texas, the Texas Tribune reports.

Said Abbott: “Let me be clear: Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency.”

“President Trump has claimed for months that his administration and Harvard University were close to a monumental deal to end his extraordinary pressure campaign against the university,” the New York Times reports.

“Even some at Harvard say that a deal appeared imminent this summer. But eight months after the rupture between Harvard and the government blew open, no deal has materialized.”

“The talks have stumbled around arguments about where any money will go.”