NCSC Releases Safeguarding Science Toolkit to Help Strengthen Research Security
Yesterday, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center released the Safeguarding Science online toolkit to help scientific communities in the United States strengthen research security and mitigate threats of “theft, abuse, misuse, or exploitation” from “nation-state, criminal, and other threat actors.” NCSC developed the toolkit with partners, including AAU, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and others federal agencies. As NCSC noted in its press release, the toolkit “provides research stakeholders with a single location to access security best practices from across government and academia and to select those tools tailored for their individual needs.” AAU’s webpage on science and security is featured as an academic resource in the toolkit. NCSC intends to update the website with new resources as they become available. ( Association of American Universities - Nov. 16, 2022)
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Friends of IES Urges Increased Support for IES in FY23 and FY24
The Friends of Institute of Education Sciences, a coalition of more than 40 higher education organizations and universities including AAU [and Vanderbilt University], sent a letter yesterday asking congressional appropriators to include $844.1 million for IES as part of a final FY23 appropriations agreement. The letter noted that this level of funding “would help restore a decade of lost purchasing power” that has limited the institute’s ability “to fully fund emerging research areas, scale up promising interventions, and leverage research findings for evidence-based practice.” The coalition sent another letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young outlining two recommendations to support IES in FY24. The letter recommended the “highest possible increase over the FY 2023 funding level for the top line of IES” and sufficient funding to “address staffing needs to support IES research, statistics, assessment, evaluation, and dissemination activities.” ( Association of American Universities - Nov. 16, 2022)
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Clarity, Confusion on ‘Regular and Substantive Interaction’
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General audited Western Governors University and labeled it a “correspondence education” provider rather than a “distance education” provider. Only online colleges that provide “regular and substantive interaction” between faculty members and students are considered distance education providers; those that fall short are in the business of correspondence education. The inspector general found that nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of Western Governors students in the 2014 audit sample took at least one course that failed to meet the distance education requirements. That finding exceeded the government’s 50 percent limit, prompting the government to tell Western Governors to reimburse $713 million in federal financial aid funds.That ambiguity has endured to this day, even as the Education Department and colleges nationwide nudge each other toward more clarity about what “regular and substantive interaction” in distance education means. ( Inside Higher Ed - Nov. 17, 2022)
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Pressure Builds for Biden to Extend Student Loan Payment Pause
Student debt relief advocates are ramping up calls for President Biden to extend the student loan payment pause, and news reports suggest that the White House is listening. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that White House aides were considering an extension of the pause that’s been in place since March 2020; however, the discussions are preliminary and the White House declined to comment. The pause currently is slated to end Dec. 31 with payments resuming Jan. 1. Advocates have been pressing to keep loan payments paused after a federal judge in Texas declared the debt relief unconstitutional and a federal appeals court issued a preliminary injunction. In fact, advocates have argued that payments shouldn’t resume until lawsuits challenging the debt relief plan are resolved. When Biden announced his plan for student loan forgiveness in August, he tied the move to ending the payment pause. ( Inside Higher Ed - Nov. 16, 2022)
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Colleges Struggle to Provide Clarity Amid Disruption in Student-debt Cancellation
A banner on the Education Department’s student-aid website states that the debt-relief program will not accept applications, for now. For those who already applied, the statement says the department will hold onto those applications. For colleges’ financial-aid offices, many of which are understaffed, the court actions have brought in waves of questions and concerns from current students and alumni. The constant stop-and-go of the program has made borrowers feel like “a political Ping-Pong ball,” one financial-aid official said. President Biden said in a speech on November 3—a week before the program was struck down—that the administration was on track to cancel debt for 16 million borrowers. Now that’s up in the air. Another key question is whether borrowers will have to start making payments on their federal student loans in January—something they haven’t had to do since the Biden administration paused payments in March 2020. ( The Chronicle of Higher Education - Nov. 16, 2022)
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AAU, Associations Send Letter in Support of Bill to Expand Study Abroad Opportunities for Students
AAU joined ACE and 11 other higher education associations in sending a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) thanking them for reintroducing the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program Act. As the letter noted, the bill strengthens study abroad programs that would provide students with “meaningful international experiences” and a global education. The bill would especially help students who are unable to participate in study abroad programs due to cost or because they’re unaware of affordable study abroad opportunities. ( Association of American Universities - Nov. 16, 2022)
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Democrats Call Protections for ‘Dreamers’ a Lame-duck Priority
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer told a group of immigrant advocates and reporters at an event Wednesday that his “focus is on Dreamers,” or undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children, during the waning weeks of this Congress. The New York Democrat, who controls the Senate’s agenda, has said that members of his party were working on legislation to help these immigrants and seeking to reach a deal in the lame duck, while the Democratic party still controls the House. Senate and House leaders kicked off the post-election lame-duck period with similar pledges to prioritize legislation to permanently protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a long-time goal of immigrant advocates. But even Democratic leaders acknowledge their efforts may fall short, with a slate of legislative tasks quickly filling up Congress’ calendar through the end of the year, opposition from some Republicans and the prospect of an increase in migration levels. ( Roll Call - Nov. 16, 2022)
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