This week in college admissions,the University of Southern California names a new president, Congress passes a bill that maintains Pell Grant levels, Texas A&M abolishes women’s studies programs, and a recent study reports a drop in underrepresented minorities at Ivy League universities.
The University of Southern California named Beong-Soo Kim as its new president, a role that he’d fulfilled on an interim basis since July 2025. Mr. Kim was the university’s former general counsel and came to public attention when he refused to sign a proposal from the Department of Education agreeing to limit international enrollment and adopt conservative policies on campus in exchange for priority access to federal funds. After he took office, Mr. Kim said that one of his goals was to ensure that “all faculty and students can express their viewpoints and engage with other viewpoints respectfully.”
On February 3, a bipartisan vote in Congress passed a delayed spending package that included money for the Department of Education. The package maintained funding that the Trump administration had wanted to cut, including preserving the maximum Pell Grant award at $7,395. The bill also increased funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
Following a new policy, Texas A&M announced that it would be ending its women’s and gender studies program, as well as cancelling six courses. The policy, which was instituted by the Board of Regents in November, restricts what faculty can say about race and gender in the classroom. Faculty and students protested the changes, saying that the new rules limit both academic and student freedom.
A recent study of fall 2024 enrollment data found that Black and Hispanic enrollment dropped at many of the most selective colleges and universities after the 2023 Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions. In nearly every other sector of US higher education, however, underrepresented minority enrollment is on the rise: both public and private four-year institutions experienced increases of nearly 6 percent.
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