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Opinion Columnist Pamela Paul writes:  The same week that a U.C. Berkeley protest ended in violence, with doors broken, people allegedly injured, a guest lecture organized by Jewish students canceled and attendees evacuated by the police through an underground passageway, a group of academics gathered across the bay at Stanford to discuss restoring inclusive civil discourse on campus. The underlying question: In today’s heated political environment, is that even possible? Over the course of two packed days of moderated and free discussion, we would try to test it out.

When New York passed a law in April 2022 requiring all colleges that enroll at least 300 registered voters to have a polling place on campus—or at a nearby location selected by administrators—student voting rights activists breathed a sigh of relief. Voting has historically been difficult for college students in New York. At Vassar College in Dutchess County, the campus was split into three different voting districts until 2022, meaning students were often uncertain about where to vote; simply moving to a new dorm across the street might have required changing their voter registration. Prior to 2020, Bard College students, meanwhile, were required to vote in a nearby church that was cramped and more than a mile from campus—though the college got its own polling place in time for that year’s general election. The new law promised to make the process easier. 

A provision in the short-term funding bill approved by Congress effectively blocks a recent Education Department move that could have expanded access to federal Pell Grants for some students who are financially dependent on their families. Tensions are high between members of Congress and the department over the implementation of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Some lawmakers say the federal agency is doing a poor job of executing the changes in the way Congress intended. Department leaders argue that they are trying to fulfill the law’s goal of providing more financial support to as many students as possible.

The NCAA inches closer every day to a tipping point of dramatic overhaul. Years of tectonic shifts around college sports could soon usher in an era its leaders and administrators have long tried to avoid: the treatment of college athletes as employees. The next milestone could come Tuesday, when the Dartmouth men’s basketball team will vote on whether to form a union. The university is countering by fighting a National Labor Relations Board regional director’s finding that the basketball players are employees and entitled to union representation, but the effort is just one of several concurrent legal battles challenging the bedrock principle of amateurism that the NCAA has long prided itself on maintaining.

At least 190 U.S. colleges have postponed their commitment deadlines for the 2024-25 academic year amid federal financial aid delays, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.  NACAC recently released a public directory of the enrollment deadlines of its member colleges. Although the list isn’t comprehensive — as it only includes information submitted by NACAC members — it offers a glimpse into how colleges nationwide are grappling with an abbreviated financial aid timeline. A majority of NACAC’s member institutions that reported extended deadlines now require prospective students to decide by either May 15 or June 1, the directory shows, instead of the more traditional May 1.