This week, departmental cuts at West Virginia University, a settlement from the University of Chicago, affirmative action guidelines for colleges, and regional public colleges’ attempts to attract larger applicant pools.
West Virginia University, the state flagship, has announced cuts to both programming and faculty, citing a $45 million budget deficit. The cuts include the entire Department of World Languages, Literature, and Linguistics.
The University of Chicago agreed to pay $13.5 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges it violated antitrust laws by conspiring with 16 other elite universities to fix the price of financial aid packages, thereby limiting competition and reducing the total aid offered to admitted students.
The Departments of Education and Justice released guidelines for colleges following the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, which included reiterating that although consideration of race “in and of itself” is illegal, colleges can still consider the impact of race on an individual student’s experiences.
Regional public colleges have faced declining applicant pools and enrollment in recent years. In order to attract more applicants, some are expanding the definition of “in-state” to offer tuition reductions to students from neighboring states.
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