PoliticoPro and Other Higher Education Media Sources Substantiate CSPEN’s Earlier Update On Accreditation & New Negotiated Rulemaking Also Being Widely Discussed In Washington As Well
Overview
Just before 5PM ET yesterday, Politico.com reporters Rebecca Carballo and Juan Perez published a new report on the premium site PoliticoPro entitled “Trump to target college accreditors with executive order.” Similar to CSPEN reporting on Tuesday, the article suggests that President Trump is expected to issue an Executive Order (EO) on the roles and responsibilities of accrediting agencies. The in-depth article covers many different rationales for the Administration’s anticipated declaration and desire to overhaul the accreditation regime.
In addition to many of the campaign and DC assertions CSPEN shared earlier in the week, PoliticoPro honed in on Trump’s assertions that accreditation is heavily liberally leaning (e.g. focus on DEI, transgender, and antisemitism concerns from the right). Like CSPEN, PoliticoPro does not have a clear picture of the extent of the EO, nor did they speculate too much on the process or timeline for reform. There coverage did confirm several of the potential topics we raised, including a quote from James Bergeron, Acting Under Secretary from prior presentations discussing “new entrants” into the accreditation process (i.e. the States as we noted).
(Note: CSPEN has asked PoliticoPro for permission to share the news column with you, and if provided with the permission to do so we will update the community immediately.)
Also, in other accreditation news, on Tuesday, April 1^st The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) announced (www.chea.org/chea-welcomes-new-president-dr-nasser-paydar) the selection of Nassar Paydar, Ph.D. as its new President. As many of you may recall, Dr. Paydar most recently served as the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education from 2022 to 2025 under President Joe Biden.
Before serving as Assistant Secretary, Dr. Paydar held the position of Chancellor of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and was the Executive Vice President of Indiana University (IU).
Circling Back On Federal Negotiated Rulemaking Announcement
Yesterday CSPEN announced breaking news regarding Secretary Linda McMahon and the Trump Administration’s press release and pending Federal Register notice sharing with the higher education community their intent to commence negotiated rulemaking on various programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. We noted that the Federal Register notice stated that the key topics the Department was hoping to address included:
- Refining definitions of a qualifying employer for the purposes of determining eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
- Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Income Contingent Repayment repayment plans.
- Potential topics that would streamline current federal student financial assistance program regulations while maintaining or improving program integrity and institutional quality.
We shared that the process would begin with two public hearings — an in-person meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, and a virtual hearing on Thursday, May 1, 2025, and that CSPEN would be using the next couple of weeks to revise and extend comments and recommendations for Trump Administration consideration based upon documents developed post-election, pre- and post-Inauguration, and presented/promoted during various opportunities over the past ten weeks of the new Trump term.
Many of you reached out immediately to offer proposals based on both the prior Administration’s regulatory changes and the effects of the Trump Administration’s actions regarding the operations and staffing within the Department. To keep track of the new 2025-2026 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking we recommend that you bookmark the Department’s new landing page (www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/higher-education-laws-and-policy/higher-education-policy/negotiated-rulemaking-for-higher-education-2025-2026) and review it regularly for updates.
We also want to urge you to continue to share your perspectives with us to assist us in helping develop talking points and white papers in relation to the three topics stated in the notice.
If you have ideas, recommendations, etc. please send them directly to Tom at tom@tengovtstrategies.com.
What’s Next
Over the weekend CSPEN intends to review prior proposals from various sources as they relate to the three specific topics above and will be prepared to share summaries for each on next Thursday’s Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar. As a starting point, CSPEN will use the recommendations the community shared with us during the Presidential Transition, key proposals and comments shared directly with Acting Under Secretary James Bergeron at CSPEN Higher Education Policy Meeting in February, and more recent requests based upon the President’s EOs from January 20^th to present day, the reductions in staff at the Department, and the realignment currently taking place with respect to who is now responsible for carrying forward the day-to-day mission-critical/core responsibilities within the Department.
