“President Donald Trump and his allies are using a little-known but powerful corner of higher education — college accreditation — to exert pressure on colleges and universities, an effort that threatens the independence of accreditors and the stability of the institutions they approve,” the Washington Post reports.

“Accrediting agencies, which have existed for more than a century, determine whether colleges meet standards of quality by evaluating every aspect of their finances, operations and student achievement. If a college lacks an accreditor’s seal of approval, its students cannot obtain the federal education loans and grants that are the lifeblood of many schools.”

“Harvard leaders have discussed creating a program that people briefed on the talks described as a center for conservative scholarship, possibly modeled on Stanford’s Hoover Institution, as the school fights the Trump administration’s accusations that it is too liberal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The idea has circulated at the university for several years but gained steam after pro-Palestinian protests began disrupting campus in late 2023. Harvard has discussed the effort with potential donors, people familiar with the matter said. The cost of creating such a center could run somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion, a person familiar with Harvard’s thinking estimated.”

“The Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed Harvard on Wednesday, demanding documents related to alleged misconduct by international students and the school’s compliance with federal immigration law,” The Crimson reports.

“The administrative subpoena, issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compels Harvard to produce records, communications, and other documents related to the enforcement of immigration laws dating back to January 1, 2020.”

“Students from around the world who hope to study in the United States are winding down much of their online activity, unfollowing celebrities and politicians, asking friends and family to stop sending news links and scouring their own internet presence for posts that carry even the faintest whiff of hot-button politics,” the Washington Post reports.

“International student visa applicants told The Washington Post that the sanitization is driven by fear that a single ‘like’ or meme, if taken the wrong way, could derail years of hard work, should it run afoul of sweeping new visa-vetting procedures under President Donald Trump. Tech companies have also been marketing account-scrubbing and screening tools to foreign visitors.”

NOTUS: “Internal White House emails reveal a frenzied campaign to strip federal funds from the University of Pennsylvania — and target another university the administration never publicized.”

“The House Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas Tuesday to Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, demanding additional documents from the schools as part of an ongoing probe into alleged antitrust violations in Ivy League tuition and financial aid policies,” CNBC reports.

“The two subpoenas mirrored one that was issued by the committee last week to Harvard University.”

“The Trump administration has declined to release nearly $7 billion in federal funding that helps pay for after-school and summer programs, support for students learning English, teacher training and other services,” the New York Times reports.

“The University of Pennsylvania said on Tuesday that it had struck a deal with the federal government that will limit how transgender people may participate in its athletic programs, bowing to the Trump administration’s new interpretation of the law that bans sex discrimination in education,” the New York Times reports.

“The government also said the Ivy League school had pledged to “adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” that comply with the Trump administration’s reading of Title IX and a pair of executive orders that the president issued this year.”

“The Trump administration informed Harvard University that its investigation found that it violated federal civil-rights law over its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students, putting the federal funding of the nation’s oldest university further at risk,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The investigation is the latest in the battle between the White House and Harvard. The Trump administration has sought to make the wealthiest U.S. university exhibit A in its fight against liberal institutions it says didn’t take antisemitism and DEI concerns seriously.”

Wall Street Journal: “Europe, once home to Louis Pasteur and Albert Einstein, for centuries led the world in discoveries that explained the natural world. The U.S. took the lead after World War II, as European émigrés went to work alongside Americans in university labs flush with federal funding.”

“The U.S. still outspends any other country on research and development. But since returning to office, the Trump administration has cut or frozen billions of dollars of government research grants to universities, citing investigations into diversity programs and antisemitism.”

“The University of Virginia’s president, James Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside in order to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts,” the New York Times reports.

“For the leader of a major public university to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates President Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals.”

“Nearly two million student loan borrowers are at risk of having their wages garnished this summer,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Roughly six million federal student-loan borrowers are 90 days or more past due after a pandemic-era reprieve ended… The credit-reporting company estimates that about a third of them, or nearly two million borrowers, could move into default in July and start having their pay docked by the government.”

“Harvard University, battered by a devastating conflict with the Trump administration that has jeopardized its elite standing, is facing a problem as it weighs a possible truce with President Trump: how to strike a deal without compromising its values or appearing to have capitulated,” the New York Times reports.

“The conundrum has bedeviled law firms, tech and media companies and even one of the school’s Ivy League peers. According to three people familiar with the university’s deliberations, it is now shaping internal debates around the school’s freshly resurrected talks with the government.”

“Harvard University and the Trump administration have restarted talks to potentially settle the acrimonious dispute that led President Trump to wage a far-reaching attack on the school and raised stark questions about the federal government’s place in higher education,“ the New York Times reports.

“The discussions began again this week at a meeting in the White House. At the meeting, Harvard representatives showed White House officials a PowerPoint presentation that laid out measures the school has taken on antisemitism, viewpoint diversity and admissions.”

“In turn, the White House signaled other steps it would like for Harvard to take on those subjects and later sent a letter laying out conditions that could resolve the conflict.”

Wall Street Journal: Trump says he’s nearing a possible deal with Harvard.

“A brain drain hitting American universities is expected to gather pace before the start of the new academic year as funding cuts and attacks on academic freedom have led increasing numbers of academics to question whether they wish to stay in the United States,” the South China Morning Post reports.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions by collaborating on a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the U.S. government,” the New York Times reports.

“In his war with Harvard, President Trump has sought to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding from the school and strip its tax exemptions, measures the White House initially tied to perceived antisemitism at the school amid Israel’s war in Gaza,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“In recent weeks, long-simmering Republican anger over Harvard’s links to China has increasingly gained traction. In escalating calls to punish the school, a training event two years ago in the Chinese city of Kunming has emerged as Exhibit A.”