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In a year marked by policy changes, legal challenges and botched logistics, this college admissions cycle is being watched particularly closely. Can the recent small rebound in enrollment be maintained? Will universities be able to overcome the bungled rollout of the Department of Education’s revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid that’s caused widespread havoc with financial aid offers? What will be the near-term impact of the Supreme Court’s prohibition of race-conscious admission policies?

When the University of Arizona's men's basketball team takes on California State University, Long Beach today, it will mark the beginning of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s wildly popular and lucrative men’s basketball tournament known as March Madness. The Wildcats—a contender to make a run for the national championship given their high seed and strong regular season record—are an anomaly at Arizona: a team that generates positive revenue for the university even as the athletics department struggles across the board.
After the discovery of a $177 million shortfall, caused by a flawed budget model and overspending on strategic initiatives, Arizona President Robert Robbins warned that “draconian cuts” could be coming—particularly in the athletics department, which operates at a loss and has been slow to pay back a $55 million loan from the university during the coronavirus pandemic. Individual sports, Robbins warned in November, could be on the chopping block.

 A Columbia University (NY) task force set up to combat antisemitism on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks is attempting to avoid one of the most contentious issues in university debates over the war: Its members have refused to settle on what the definition of “antisemitism” is. Competing factions on campus and beyond are pushing for two different definitions. The first, favored by the U.S. State Department and many supporters of Israel, says “targeting of the state of Israel” could be antisemitic, a definition that could label much of the pro-Palestinian activism sweeping campus as antisemitic.

A group of student loan borrowers is asking a federal judge to enforce a $6 billion settlement they say the Biden administration has violated by missing a court-ordered deadline to cancel their debt. The Education Department had until Jan. 28 to discharge the loans, issue refunds and repair the credit of about 200,000 borrowers who say their colleges defrauded them, but at least 55,000 of those people are still awaiting debt cancellation. Attorneys for the borrowers filed a motion Tuesday for the court to intervene and order the department to promptly provide full relief to the group.

Israel’s bombing of Gaza is “genocidal,” according to the home page of the critical race and ethnic studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Such a statement would be considered political and would be prohibited, according to a new proposal by the regents of the University of California. Under the proposal, academic departments would be barred from posting political statements on their home pages. And any political statement issued by a department — in any venue — would need to meet stricter guidelines. The regents are set to vote as early as Wednesday on the plan, which would apply to the U.C. system’s 10 schools, including Santa Cruz, U.C.L.A. and Berkeley.