CONTENTS
BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
- TFAI Urges New OMB Director to Make Scientific Research a Funding Priority
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
- AAU Files Amicus Brief on Travel Ban
OTHER
- AAU Awards Grants to Twelve Universities to Improve Undergraduate STEM Education
BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
TFAI URGES NEW OMB DIRECTOR TO MAKE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH A FUNDING PRIORITY
The Task Force on American Innovation ( TFAI)—a business, association, and university coalition in which AAU participates—on February 17 sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney urging him to make basic scientific research a funding priority in the FY18 federal budget.
The TFAI letter warned that without greater investments in basic research, the U.S. could face an innovation deficit that “could deprive our nation of the benefits of its long-term global leadership.”
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
AAU FILES AMICUS BRIEF ON TRAVEL BAN
AAU filed an amicus brief February 16 in Darweesh v. Trump , one of the legal cases arising out of President Trump’s executive order to suspend for 90 days entry into the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.
A press release and the brief are available on the AAU website.
The brief described the harm created by the executive order to universities, students, and faculty, as well as to U.S. higher education and innovation.
OTHER
AAU AWARDS GRANTS TO TWELVE UNIVERSITIES TO IMPROVE UNDERGRADUATE STEM EDUCATION
AAU on February 14 announced that it has selected 12 AAU-member campuses active in the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Network to receive small grants to further existing efforts to improve undergraduate STEM education.
The “mini-grants” will fund specific departmental or college-wide improvements, such as training graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants in active learning practices.
The grants will go to the California Institute of Technology; Cornell University ; Iowa State University ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; McGill University; The University of Texas at Austin ; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Kansas ; University of Missouri, Columbia; University of Virginia ; and Yale University. (Links go to campus stories about their grants.)