The DC Digest

In Today's Issue:

Secretary Betsy DeVos Announces $3 Billion in Emergency Education Relief for Governors to Immediately Allocate to Schools and Colleges
Speaker Pelosi Calls on Federal Reserve to Include Colleges as Part of its $600 billion emergency lending program
NIST and OSTP Launch Effort to Improve Search Engines for COVID-19 Research
The SAT May Go Online This Fall Due to COVID-19
EPA Can't Bar Grantees from Sitting on Science Advisory Panels, Judge Rules
Higher Education Community Assembled 8 Principles on How to Evaluate Academic Credit Online
COVID-19 Research Resources for the Duke Community
Tweet of the Week!

DEVOS OFFERS $3 BILLION IN EDUCATION EMERGENCY BLOCK GRANTS
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that close to $3 billion is being made available to governors to "ensure education continues for students of all ages impacted by the coronavirus national emergency." The Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) is a portion of the CARES Act divided between states. DeVos promised that these block grants, "will not micromanage how you spend these funds." States have 45 days to submit their process for awarding grants and any entity that uses GEER money has to "to the greatest extent practicable," keep paying its employees and contractors.

Block Party

PELOSI CALLS ON FEDERAL RESERVE TO INCLUDE COLLEGES IN LENDING PROGRAM
The U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called on the Federal Reserve to allow nonprofit groups including colleges and universities access to a lending facility intended to help businesses cope with the coronavirus outbreak. The Main Street Lending Facility, made possible by the $2.3 trillion coronavirus legislation that Congress passed last month, is one of the Fed's key programs for dealing with the economic impact of the COVID-19.

Federal Reservations

NIST AND OSTP TO IMPROVE SEARCH ENGINES FOR COVID-19 RESEARCH
The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) launched a joint effort to support the development of search engines for research that will help in the fight against COVID-19. In this effort, NIST will work with several medical centers to apply the successful, long-running program of expert engagement and technology assessment called the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) to the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19).

"The TREC-COVID program expands upon these efforts by creating powerful and accurate search engines that extract knowledge from this literature, tailored to the needs of the health-care and medical research communities."

- Michael Kratsios, U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Search Engine

SAT, ACT MAY GO ONLINE FOR THE FALL
The College Board canceled the June administration of the SAT because of COVID-19. In case the pandemic causes schools to remain closed this fall, College Board has also announced that students will be able to take a digital version of the SAT at home, and ACT Inc. followed suit.

Exams in the Distance

EPA CAN'T BAR GRANTEES FROM SITTING ON SCIENCE ADVISORY PANELS
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot block recipients of agency funding from participating on its science advisory boards, Senior Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on April 15. The ruling follows an earlier decision that said EPA needed to provide a "reasoned explanation" for the 2017 ban, which resulted in the ouster of scientists from advisory panels. The judge requested recommendations for next steps in the case and was ultimately persuaded by the National Resources Defense Council's arguments that scrapping the policy would not require the agency to immediately restructure its advisory committees.

EPA Rules

HIGHER ED ASSOCIATIONS ISSUE RECOMMENDATIONS TO UNIVERSITIES FOR ACCEPTANCE OF CREDIT
The Association for American Universities (AAU) and American Council on Education (ACE), of which Duke is a member, along with 4 other associations signed on to a letter that assembled a set of principles to assist universities as they manage how to evaluate academic credit and assess students' transcripts during COVID-19 conditions. The letter emphasizes that, "we do believe that there is a set of common principles that institutions should keep in mind when developing policies regarding credit acceptance... These principles also should reflect an expectation that all institutions see the current situation as a unique one that may not be well served by policies and practices that seemed appropriate even just weeks ago."

Where Credit is Due

FEDERAL COVID-19 INFO FOR THE DUKE COMMUNITY
Federal agencies continue to release updated guidance and other information related to COVID-19. The Association of American Universities (AAU), of which Duke is a member, also created a page for frequently asked questions about federal guidance on coronavirus. The Duke community can also access resources and additional relevant updates related to research operations on the Duke Research Agency-Specific COVID-19 Updates page.

Duke Research COVID-19 Updates

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