GW Weekly Federal Update (August 1)

GW Updates

• On July 29, the Justice Department issued a memorandum to all federal agencies providing further guidance on what the Trump Administration views to be unlawful DEI programs. In the memo, the Department cites specific programs that it finds objectionable, including programs at colleges and universities. University counsel is carefully reviewing this guidance in order to understand how it may impact our current approach to abiding with federal anti-discrimination law and any potential impact on university programs. The university will provide guidance to stakeholders as soon as that review is complete. Until then, please keep in mind that we can neither include nor exclude any individual from participating in any university program or resource on the basis of membership in a protected class.  

Recent Federal Actions

• The latest on federal actions related to Harvard University: According to media reports, Harvard University has “signaled a willingness to meet the Trump Administration’s demand to spend as much as $500 million to end its dispute with the White House as talks between the two sides intensify.” This comes on the heels of the Administration’s settlement with Columbia University, which agreed to pay the federal government a total of $221 million to settle all federal claims against Columbia.
   
• In the April 10 edition of the GW Weekly Update, we reported that the Trump Administration was planning to pause $510 million in federal funding to Brown University over antisemitism and DEI concerns. According to media reports, Brown recently took out a $500 million loan, adding to the $300 million it previously borrowed, as the university continues to deal with the freeze in federal funding. On July 30, Brown announced that it reached a “voluntary agreement” with the government to restore federal funding. In exchange, Brown agreed to pay $50 million over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island. Among other terms, Brown also agreed to take certain steps related to transgender students and to not perform certain gender-affirming medical procedures on minors. Brown also agreed to engage an external party to conduct a survey on the climate for Jewish students on campus. 
   
• In a press release issued on July 28, the Department of Education announced it has initiated an investigation into Duke University and the Duke Law Journal, alleging discrimination on the bases of race, color, and/or national origin by using these factors to select law journal members. Separately, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint letter to Duke outlining their concerns about the use of race preferences in Duke’s hiring, admissions, and scholarship decisions. According to the press release, the Departments request that Duke review all of its policies and practices for the illegal use of race preferences, and that it create a “’Merit and Civil Rights Committee’ with delegated authority from Duke’s Board of Trustees to enable Duke and the federal government to move quickly toward a mutual resolution of Duke’s alleged civil rights violations.” Duke has 10 days to respond to those requests. Following the joint letter and the launch of the investigation, the Trump Administration froze $108 million in federal funds for Duke’s medical school and health care system. 
   
• The latest on federal actions related to George Mason University: In the July 24 edition of the GW Weekly Federal Update, we described four ongoing investigations by federal agencies into alleged antisemitism and the use of race as a factor in hiring and student admissions decisions at George Mason University. On July 25, the Justice Department issued George Mason a letter stating its intent to investigate statements made in a Faculty Senate resolution that referenced a 2022 university goal to achieve "faculty and staff demographics that mirror student demographics." According to the Justice Department, this statement suggests the faculty is "praising President Washington for engaging in race- or sex-motivated hiring decisions to achieve specific demographic outcomes among faculty and staff." The House Judiciary Committee has also requested records related to the university’s diversity programs.
   
• On July 29, the Trump Administration reversed an effort to pause billions of dollars in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for external research projects. The White House lifted the pause Tuesday evening following internal deliberations, and funding is now set to resume. The pause had been initiated by the Office of Management and Budget, which issued a directive limiting NIH spending for the remainder of the fiscal year to internal salaries and administrative expenses. This action temporarily halted an estimated $15 billion in funding.
   
• On July 29, the University of California announced that it had reached a settlement of a lawsuit brought against it by several individual plaintiffs relating to allegations of antisemitism regarding UCLA’s response to protest activity on its campus in 2024. Among other terms, UCLA agreed to a payment of $6,450,000, which includes payments to the plaintiffs and their attorneys, and charitable contributions to specific nonprofit organizations for the purposes of combatting antisemitism and/or supporting the Jewish campus community. On the same day as that settlement was announced, the Justice Department announced that it issued UCLA a “Notice of Violation” finding that it had acted with deliberate indifference toward Jewish and Israeli students by failing to “adequately respond to complaints of severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment and abuse that Jewish and Israeli students faced on its campus from October 7, 2023, to the present.” 
   
• On July 24, the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced it will launch two negotiated rulemaking sessions to implement higher education provisions in the H.R.1 Act and related administration priorities. As a first step, the Department will hold a virtual public hearing on August 7 to gather input on proposed changes to federal student loan and Pell Grant programs. Two committees will be established: the RISE Committee, focused on federal student loan reforms, will meet in September and November; and the AHEAD Committee, addressing Workforce Pell and accountability measures, will meet in December and January. This rulemaking process follows recent guidance from Federal Student Aid outlining immediate changes to repayment plans and loan limits under the new law. Public comments are due within 30 days of the announcement’s publication in the Federal Register.
   
• On July 25, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York blocked the Trump Administration’s cancellation of $175 million in National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants. The grants were rescinded in April by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as part of a directive targeting projects related to diversity, equity, inclusion, gender ideology, and environmental justice. The court ruled that the cancellations likely violated the First Amendment by targeting grants based on perceived viewpoints and ordered the government to release funding for the affected grants while litigation continues. The cuts impacted over 1,000 projects and resulted in termination notices for 65 percent of NEH staff.
   
• According to media reports, Northwestern University is eliminating 425 jobs, as it deals with the impact of the federal government’s freeze of $790 million in research funding based on allegations of antisemitism on campus.

Resources and Reminders

About this Newsletter

To ensure that students, faculty and staff feel supported and informed about how federal developments affect higher education and GW, the university launched a weekly Federal Update. This newsletter shares timely information, addresses questions and provides resources.