When Leadership Falls Short: The Crisis of Care in Library Work
Posted on in Blog Posts
DEIA News Round-Up: June 2026
Posted on June 30, 2026 in Blog Posts
Authors:
Fatima Mohie-Eldin
This new monthly feature from Toward Inclusive Excellence compiles relevant DEIA news stories pertaining to higher education in bite-sized snippets. Those wanting more details can read on at the links provided.
House Appropriations Bill Advances Cuts to Funding for Higher Education
Source: American Council on Education
The House-approved spending bill for 2027 is set to impose a 10 percent cut to the Department of Education’s budget, if it passes the Senate. This would include significant cuts to the Federal Work-Study program, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, and the Institute of Education Sciences, which collects data on education. The education sector has already been hit hard under the second Trump administration—higher education lost $1.3 billion in contracts and $504 million in grants in the first two months of 2025 alone, and the Department of Education’s staff was cut by about 40 percent that same year.
Civil Rights and Disability Offices Will No Longer Be Housed under Dept. of Ed.
Source: The EDU Ledger
The Department of Education recently issued new interagency agreements announcing that it will move the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under the Department of Justice and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) under the Department of Health and Human Services. This raises many questions about how the relocations will affect students. Both offices were structured to operate within the Department of Education and have been instrumental in defending the rights of marginalized students. At present, a formal transition plan has not been announced.
DOJ and Kansas AG Seek to End In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students
Source: Higher Ed Dive
The Department of Justice and the state’s own attorney general are challenging a Kansas law that permits undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public institutions, provided they meet certain criteria. This is not the first time the DOJ has targeted in-state tuition policies for undocumented students. The current lawsuit in Kansas is the 10th to be filed under the current administration, and, if successful, would mark the fifth case in which a state would be forced to revoke in-state tuition allowances for undocumented students. Given the disparity between in-state and out-of-state tuition costs, policies like this one can mean the difference between accessing college education and being excluded from higher learning for many students.
The Future Is Looking Bleak for DEI in Texas
Source: Truthout
In 2024 and 2025, Senate Bills 17 and 37, respectively, banned all DEI offices and programs at public institutions and granted the state’s board of regents the power to reject curricula at will. Now, students and faculty are reflecting on the dire state of public higher education in Texas. In May, students held mock funerals for their universities, expressing their frustration with a system that seems less concerned with ensuring high-quality education and more focused on culture-war issues. Additionally, in April, several faculty members announced they were leaving their institutions because of this crackdown. They are moving to other states or private institutions that better protect academic freedom.
Fewer Students Are Reporting Race on College Admissions Applications
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
According to a new report published by the nonprofit Class Action, fewer students are reporting their race on college and university admissions applications. The shift is notable given the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions. To better pinpoint the decision’s impact, James Murphy, the lead investigator, examined admissions data from 2022, 2023, and 2024, as well as data from 2010 to 2023. As he expresses in the report, “between 2010 and 2023, non-reporting rates declined across a range of institutional types and remained fairly flat up until the SFFA decision.”
Higher Ed Seeing Greater Retention among Black and Hispanic Students
Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
In a rare bit of good news, a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center suggests that retention rates are increasing among Black and Hispanic college students. Looking at “students who entered college in fall 2024,” the report finds that 66.9 percent of Hispanic students and 59.6 percent of Black students were still enrolled at their starting institution by fall 2025. This is a notable increase, marking the highest retention rates on record for both groups of students over the past decade.
Interested in contributing to TIE?
Email Fatima (fmohie-eldin@ala.org) at Choice with your idea.
Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.