In today's issue, we take a Deep Dive into a new Vanderbilt poll about American attitudes toward education. Some of the findings are encouraging.
We also look at
✨ Cross-border colleges 
✨ A new way to deliver campus health care
✨ Insight into how whales converse

Six new inter-agency agreements, signed by the Education Department, will transfer billions of dollars in grant programs — including major higher education funding streams — to other federal agencies, such as the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, State, and Interior. These formal deals allow the Trump administration to reallocate significant educational responsibilities without congressional action, furthering its plan to dismantle the department. The agreements follow a pilot transfer of adult education programs to Labor earlier this year. The agency's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and the Office for Civil Rights remain intact for now, despite speculation that these responsibilities could also be shifted to other departments in the future.

Americans overwhelmingly want colleges to focus on teaching students how to think critically rather than what to think, according to the Vanderbilt Unity poll. While 90% of respondents say teaching logical thinking is the most important aspect of college education, they also prefer higher education institutions to stay out of politics. However, respondents are divided on curriculum content, with most supporting the inclusion of slavery and prejudice but less so for gender identity and sexual orientation.

Cross-border campuses are emerging as a strategic response to the regionalization of global student mobility. Rather than relying solely on traditional recruitment to attract international students to the US, universities like Illinois Tech are designing educational architectures that bring their programs directly to where talent resides. By mirroring home campus standards and integrating local industry opportunities, these campuses offer high-quality, globally relevant education while fostering employability and research collaborations across borders.

The changes created by AI demand leaders who are willing to adopt a Renaissance mindset that prioritizes adaptability, creativity and the integration of human-centric qualities, such as imagination and empathy, alongside analytical skills, writes Jeff DeGraff, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Such leaders know how to build relationships in a fragmented world, act when times are competitive and blend analysis and empathy in times of uncertainty, DeGraff writes.