Washington Update
June 23, 2023

Introduction by Barbara K. Mistick

Dear Colleagues,

As I have written previously, the Department of Education’s regulatory proposals have kept us very busy the last several weeks. Tuesday marked the 30-day deadline to submit comments to the Department. Our team worked incredibly hard in a short period of time to analyze the regulations and assess their potential impact on colleges and universities and the students we serve.

NAICU’s comment letter covered several key issue areas, with a primary focus on financial value, serving low-income students, student debt, and the regulatory burden and costs associated with implementation. As you’ll read in our letter, we highlight several concerns we have with the proposal.

As I wrote in the letter to Secretary Cardona:

While we agree that protecting vulnerable students is critical, we question whether the proposed regulations would meet that goal. Fundamentally, the question at hand is whether these regulations would advance the overall effort to make college more accessible and successful for students or would further promote the false narrative that a higher education is not a pathway to a better and more fulfilling life. Properly crafted, the regulations could be a step forward but not without significant amendment.

In addition to our own letter, NAICU helped draft and then signed on the community-wide comment letter submitted by ACE.

I know that many of you also took the time to conduct a similar analysis on your campus and have shared the feedback you provided to the Department with us. According to the Department, there were over 7,000 public comments submitted. Thank you for weighing in and providing your critically important perspective on this issue.

As a reminder, here are several resources that provide additional information about the basics of the regulatory package:

As of this writing, we are still waiting on the Supreme Court to decide cases related to diversity in higher education and student loan forgiveness. Both decisions will impact higher education broadly and your campuses specifically. We will review the decisions when they are handed down and provide analysis once we’ve had a chance to review the court’s findings.

On diversity in higher education, we have scheduled a webinar from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT on July 14 (Register Here) with Art Coleman, managing partner and co-founder of EducationCounsel LLC. Coleman is one of the foremost national experts on this issue and will discuss the ruling and its implications for colleges and universities.

Soundbites

  • Now that the nationwide health emergency has been declared over, the Department of Education has issued an updated notice of waivers governing the federal student aid programs under the COVID-19 public health emergency. This notice makes clear which waivers expire at the end of the current award year, June 30, 2023, and which waivers have other sunset dates. Financial aid professionals will want to review the updated waivers carefully before packaging future aid. Waivers and modifications to federal student aid programs during the pandemic were made under the authority of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act).
  • Earlier this month, President Biden vetoed a Republican-led effort in Congress to block the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. In action earlier this week, the House failed, in a 221-206 vote, to override Biden’s veto, falling well short of the two-thirds needed to override a veto. The House effort, which was largely symbolic, sought to strike down a bill that would forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt. The real fate of the president’s plan will soon be determined by the Supreme Court. 
  • The battle between the state of Florida and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) took another turn this week as the DeSantis Administration sued the Department of Education for slowing down approval for the University of Central Florida to switch from SACS accreditation to recognition by the Higher Learning Commission. The lawsuit is the most recent effort by Gov. DeSantis to force public colleges in Florida to switch accreditation from SACS.
  • The Department of Education released its list of institutions that qualify to receive grants under Title III or Title V of the Higher Education Act. The list includes institutions eligible for programs such as those designed for Historically Black Colleges, and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Predominately Black Institutions as well as institutions that qualify for the Strengthening Institutions Program. The lists are sortable by various categories such as name, location, or institutional type.
  • NAICU member presidents Farnam Jahanian of Carnegie Mellon University, Michael Schill, of Northwestern University, and Suzanne Elise Walsh of Bennett College were named to the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council at the Department of Homeland Security. The Council advises the Secretary of Homeland Security on campus safety, research priorities, and other matters of interest to the Department relating to academia. 

Today’s Washington Update reports on actions in the Senate Committee on Appropriations, which approved funding allocations for its 12 subcommittees, and the potential availability of internet and food assistance for Pell Grant recipients.

Regards,
   
Barbara
   
Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.
President, NAICU


For more information, please contact:
Barbara K. Mistick

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