Week in review: DOJ sues remaining states over tuition laws

An article from

We’re rounding up last week’s stories, from Florida’s public education shutting out undocumented students to the stalled fight to ban legacy admissions.

Published Sept. 14, 2026

Laura Spitalniak

Editor

Copy link

X/Twitter

Facebook

License

Add us on Google

The U.S. Department of Justice's seal and logo are seen at DOJ headquarters on May 6, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Harnik via Getty Images

Most clicked story of the week

The State University System of Florida’s board of governors will ban undocumented students from attending its selective institutions beginning in the 2027-28 academic year. That decision, combined with a similar vote by the Florida State Board of Education in July, means undocumented students will be effectively locked out of the state's public higher education system.

Number of the week: $55M

The value of a previously announced donation to Temple University that the institution said it will no longer be accepting. Temple announced last week that the gift, which would have been the largest in its history, had been called off by mutual agreement with entrepreneur and alumnus Christopher Barnett amid federal allegations that his company engaged in fraud and money laundering .

The Trump administration's continued crackdown on higher education

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday filed lawsuits against the District of Columbia and three states — Arkansas, Hawai'i and Utah — over their laws allowing certain undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates and receive state financial aid . The agency has now sued every state that offers such benefits , arguing that they illegally provide benefits to undocumented students that are not offered to all U.S. citizens .

Under intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, the American Bar Association’s accreditation council voted to do away with its diversity standards . The chair of the council said last week that ABA needed to repeal the standards in order to preserve “continued recognition by state supreme courts and the Department of Education.”

The University of California, Berkeley became the latest institution targeted by the Trump administration over accusations that one of its school's admissions processes is racially discriminatory against White and Asian students. UC Berkeley is the fourth University of California campus to face such allegations from the Trump administration.

Higher ed braces for more job cuts

The University of Utah could cut between 250 and 855 positions — up to 15% of its staff workforce — over the next year , leaders said last week. The public institution is facing “some of the most significant challenges in its 176-year history," including a combination of heavy costs and an expected decline in enrollment, they said.

Emerson College, in Boston, laid off at least a dozen staff members over the summer, marking the third straight year it has laid off employees , its student newspaper reported last week.

And George Washington University's law school laid off an unspecified number of employees, becoming the third school at the private institution to do so this summer, according to its student newspaper. In July, GWU's medical school cut 18 positions, and its public health school cut 10, as each faced significant budget deficits.

Last week's job cut announcements marked a continuation of the workforce constriction seen across all institution types this summer. Colleges like for-profit Full Sail University, nonprofit Johns Hopkins University and public Minnesota State University, Mankato , all either laid off employees or cut positions in recent months as they sought to rightsize amid budget losses.

Quote of the Week

In an era where we have populists on both the left and the right, restricting legacy admissions creates some interesting coalitions.

Robert Kelchen

Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Opposition to legacy admissions still has the potential to galvanize bipartisan support — but higher education experts sa y the massive push to ban the practice following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious admissions has stalled .