Federal Administration Updates

The Western community cares deeply about the well-being and success of our international students, scholars, faculty, and staff, especially as they navigate the recent federal changes to the immigration landscape.  Reports in the media of federal agencies detaining and deporting visa holders, revoking visas, and terminating the legal status of international students have been distressing. Thankfully, to Western’s knowledge, no WWU international students, scholars, faculty, or staff have had their visas revoked or legal status terminated by the federal government during the recent spate of such activity.

Recent federal agency actions continue to impact Western research.

On Friday, February 14, the U.S. Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) stating that schools receiving federal funding must comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA). That ruling struck down race-conscious admissions policies and reaffirmed that institutions cannot consider race in decision-making unless they meet strict legal standards. The DCL extends this interpretation beyond admissions to include hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, DEI initiatives, student programs, and other aspects of campus life, asserting that race-based preferences in these contexts also violate federal law.

Dear Western Community, We would like to update you on recent developments concerning the implementation of Title IX. As you may have heard in the news, the US Department of Education recently issued a Dear Colleague Letter in response to a recent court decision, Tennessee v. Cardona. Consistent with that court’s ruling, the United States Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) intends to enforce Title IX under the provisions of the 2020 Title IX Rule, rather than the 2024 Title IX Rule.

We write with some updates concerning federal research grants. Despite all the recent activity around federal grants, Western's guidance to principal investigators remains unchanged: grant-funded work may continue as usual under the terms of the original award unless / until the award is formally amended. As of today, only a single Western grant has received a stop-work order and no Western awards have been amended, and therefore all other projects may continue work as originally planned.