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Please share this letter with research colleagues at other universities and national networks. Please also consider amplifying the letter on your social media platforms.

I know what’s happening in Washington is creating uncertainty across CU Boulder and the nation. Many of the topics making headlines right now will take time to resolve, and we don’t know how higher education will be affected when all is said and done.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a new four-page Dear Colleague letter over the weekend indicating it will apply a broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA).

Several updates since the last communication on February 10 to share.

Today, twenty-two states, including Colorado, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the federal government regarding unlawful cuts to the National Institutes of Health facilities & administrative (F&A) costs rate.

On the evening of Friday, Feb. 7, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would reduce the Facilities & Administrative (F&A), or indirect, cost rate for new and existing grants to 15%, effective Feb. 10, 2025.

Follow-up article to the one posted Friday, February 7 regarding the NIH releasing supplemental guidance to the NIH Grants Policy Statement imposing a standard facilities & administrative (F&A) costs (also known as indirect costs) rate of 15% for all NIH grantee institutions.

The NIH released supplemental guidance to the NIH Grants Policy Statement imposing a standard facilities & administrative (F&A) costs (also known as indirect costs) rate of 15% for all NIH grantee institutions. Importantly, every year since 2017, the annual spending bill that funds NIH has included language from Congress prohibiting the Administration from making changes to F&A cost rates.

This week, news sources are reporting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff are entering federal agency headquarters in the Washington D.C. area to gain access to IT systems and gather data on servers with the objective of reducing the government workforce and cutting costs.

With this temporary restraining order in place, all federally sponsored projects can continue work as planned prior to the issuance of the Executive Orders and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memos and as stipulated in original grant and contract agreements. This new guidance replaces all previous guidance, including campuswide communication and individual emails to Principal Investigators.