Member News

The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Education Department has opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at Harvard University, where the campus, like many others, has been roiled by demonstrations and confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students in the weeks since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The complaint against Harvard, filed on Tuesday, joins a growing list of federal civil rights investigations into complaints of discrimination based on “shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics,” including at Columbia, Cornell, Wellesley College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tampa and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

The College of Saint Rose (NY) is teetering on the edge of closure, and in recent days has turned to the state and other entities for emergency funding — which state officials say is unlikely to be provided. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, D-Queens, chair of the chamber’s Higher Education Committee, confirmed to the Times Union on Tuesday that college officials have asked the state for a bailout as it faces a multimillion-dollar deficit and plummeting enrollment.
 

Saint Mary’s College, a historically women’s Roman Catholic institution in Indiana, will consider transgender women for admission into its undergraduate programs, beginning in fall 2024. College spokesperson Lisa Knox confirmed the new practice in an email Tuesday. The change came about after Saint Mary’s governing board in June amended its nondiscrimination policy to reflect that the institution will review all undergraduate applicants “whose sex is female or who consistently live and identify as women.” Anyone can apply to its graduate programs. The move drew backlash from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, in Indiana. Rhoades said in a public statement Monday that Saint Mary’s should reverse its rules.

November was a very a good month for three small colleges, each of which has received their largest private donation in history. Evangel University (Springfield, Missouri), Luther College (Decorah, Iowa) and St. Mary’s College of Maryland (St. Mary’s City, Maryland) are the institutions announcing the historic gifts.

A group of local college students, along with a handful of Massachusetts lawmakers, are advocating to tax nearly a dozen elite Massachusetts colleges and universities, whose multibillion-dollar endowments they say should fund early and higher education opportunities for students beyond these campuses.