Women presidents and deans from six of America’s leading research universities issued an open letter last week in support of the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed last year and is designed to boost the chip-manufacturing industry in the United States as well as supporting scientific research and education more broadly. “We are writing as women university presidents and engineering deans to express our commitment to help significantly grow the engineering workforce, which is essential to achieve the goals of CHIPS,” the women wrote. The letter also urged funding from industry and state and federal governments to support engineering education. “We are proud of the strides our institutions have taken to diversify the student populations focused on STEM,” the letter noted. “Now, we want to work together to help expand (and change) the makeup of the entire semiconductor and engineering workforce—and with CHIPS, we have the potential infrastructure to get it done,” it added. (Association of American Universities - Apr. 24, 2023)

TRIO directors and advocates, along with higher education associations, have long sought to change the requirement that students participating in TRIO be U.S. citizens, and the Biden administration might be gearing up to heed those calls. The Education Department is planning to amend the current TRIO regulations—a step that could include “technical improvements to programmatic eligibility and operations,” according to the agency’s regulatory agenda for 2023. The department, which recently held a series of hearings on its agenda, hasn’t said exactly what changes it’s considering. TRIO directors and advocates . . . focused on the need to open up TRIO to undocumented students during comment periods at the hearing. Such a change, advocates said, would make the programs more effective and help colleges better serve low-income and first-generation students, who are the focus of TRIO. Any change to TRIO’s eligibility criteria is subject to the negotiated rule-making process and public comment. (Inside Higher Ed - Apr. 24, 2023)

Student loan servicers are in a tough bind, dealing with reduced staff as they prepare for the unprecedented situation of 44 million borrowers returning to payments later this summer. Student loan payments are expected to restart at the end of August at the latest, including for many borrowers who graduated during the pandemic and have never made such payments before. [Student Loan Servicing Alliance] is a nonprofit trade association that works on student loan servicing issues. It says its members, which include federal student loan servicers Aidvantage and Edfinanical Services, are “responsible for servicing over 95% of all federal student loans and the vast majority of private loans.” The lack of money for customer service in the industry can potentially be traced back to a denial of increased funding for the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office by Congress last year. A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the funding Congress gave to FSA was inadequate for the tasks ahead. (The Hill - Apr. 24, 2023)