Introduction by Barbara K. Mistick
Dear Colleagues,
A possible government shut down, higher education funding, and college pricing were in the spotlight this week in Washington.
First, Congress is working to avoid a government shutdown. The House of Representatives is expected to vote later today on a Republican-led short-term funding proposal to keep the federal government open through November 21. Democrats are expected to oppose this extension and have introduced their own proposal that would keep the government open through October 31. The Senate will either have to act quickly over the weekend or pick up the funding legislation later in the month after it returns from the Rosh Hashanah break.
On the funding side, there was significant activity affecting higher education. The Department of Education announced that it is terminating funding for all Title VI International Education grant recipients. These resources, $86 million in FY 2025 funding, will be reallocated to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Department also announced that HBCUs, along with Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, will receive a $495 million increase in funding for this fiscal year.
Finally, the House held a hearing this week focused on college pricing transparency, with particular attention paid to sticker prices and financial aid offerings.
More information on all these issues can be found in this week’s issue below.
2026 Annual Meeting & Advocacy Day
2026 marks NAICU’s 50th year. Fittingly, our theme for next year’s Annual Meeting & Advocacy Day (Feb. 1-4, 2026) is 50 Years of Impact: Charting the Future of Independent Higher Education. All three branches of the federal government are debating issues and making decisions that will affect your campus and the students you serve. These decisions will shape independent higher education for the next decade or more.
I hope you can join us in Washington, DC as we analyze, assess, and discuss the impact these and other actions will have on private, nonprofit higher education and what you can do to ensure your voice is heard by policymakers in Washington.
For more details, including registration and hotel information, please visit our conference webpage. We will be updating these pages in the weeks ahead as programmatic components are confirmed.
Soundbites
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NAICU Requests Pell Increase. As part of the Double Pell Alliance, NAICU joined 88 organizations on a letter to Congress requesting a $200 increase to the Pell Grant maximum award to maintain the value of the grant against inflation. The Alliance thanked Congress for the bipartisan support of the program and encouraged continued investment in final FY 2026 appropriations.
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NAICU Joins Amicus Brief Challenging New Veterans Affairs Policy. NAICU joined the higher education community in supporting an amicus brief challenging a new Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy that restricts GI Bill benefits. The lawsuit in Commonwealth of Virginia et al. v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs contends that the VA’s interpretation of the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post 9/11 GI Bill has unlawfully denied some veterans access to the full range of educational benefits to which they are entitled.
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Reminder: IPEDS Training Webinar Series. This week, we held the second of six IPEDS trainings, in partnership with Carolyn Sloane Mata, Ph.D., a former IPEDS educator who works with several of our state associations. The next training will be held on October 20, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT and focus on IPEDS for campus benchmarking and state and federal data advocacy. You can register for the remaining webinars and view the first two trainings on our IPEDS webpage.
I hope you have a pleasant weekend,
Barbara
Barbara K. Mistick, D.B.A.
President, NAICU
For more information, please contact:
Barbara K. Mistick, D.B.A.