An article fromWeek in review: Classroom speech has its day in court

We’re rounding up last week’s stories, from Moody’s gloomier outlook for Brown University to workforce cuts at multiple institutions.

Published July 13, 2026Ben Unglesbee Senior Reporter

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A gated entrance to Brown University, in Providence, R.I., on Aug. 9, 2014. The Ivy League institution's "thin operating performance" coupled with its debt obligations led Moody's Ratings to lower its outlook for Brown. Getty Images Most-clicked story of the week: 

Moody’s Ratings turned negative in its credit outlook for Brown University. Analysts with the credit ratings agency cited “already thin operating performance” and pointed to high debt levels and large looming payments. Moody’s still gave Brown its second-highest credit rating, but that could be downgraded if the university’s financial position declines.

Number of the week: 40

That’s how many employees Philadelphia’s Temple University plans to lay off as it heads into the fiscal 2027 year. The public institution made similar cuts last year to close persistent budget deficits. However, the university has seen positive signs for enrollment — a past source of many current financial challenges — including a record number of deposits by July 1 from admitted undergraduates. 

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• Temple is by no means alone. Louisiana State University laid off 25 employees in its diversity, marketing and administrative departments, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. The cuts include the university’s chief financial officer and will save some $3.7 million, according to an analysis of records by the news organization. 
• As it heads toward closure, Labouré College of Healthcare in Massachusetts let go of 65 employees, according to a notice filed with the state. Nearby Curry College plans to absorb the college’s nursing programs once Labouré shutters in late August. 

Fights over speech and politics on campus:

• Bakersfield College in California settled with a professor after he sued over their diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility requirements for faculty, arguing the rules potentially forced him to express viewpoints he does not agree with. Under the settlement, Bakersfield cannot require the professor to use DEIA principles in his teaching or scholarship. 
• The American Association of University Professors and an affiliated group sued the Texas Tech University System on Wednesday over rules limiting classroom instruction on race, sex, gender and sexual orientation. The groups alleged that the directives from Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton violate faculty’s free speech and due process rights.
• A panel of federal judges struck down parts of a law in Florida that similarly restricted faculty discussing certain topics related to race and gender. In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court concluded that the state’s Stop WOKE Act is “a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry.”
• Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to assert more of its own authority over speech and viewpoints on campus, with plans to issue a regulatory proposal this month that would task college accreditors with policing institutional rules on free speech and intellectual diversity. That is part of a broader regulatory agenda unveiled by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month.

Quote of the week:

“The people who came here and loved it and wanted to stay felt really invested in that mission and the community. Our faculty was of the caliber that they could have worked really anywhere and chose to be here because of the mission.”

Elizabeth Andre

Former Northland College professor

Andre shared the passion that still surrounds the private, environmentally-focused liberal arts institution that closed last year. The latest installment of Higher Ed Dive’s College Closure Files examines Northland’s history and the effort by some of its former faculty to keep its mission alive in the form of a microcollege.

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