CSU-led Regional Food Business Center Awards $2 Million in Grant Funding

A Colorado State University-led regional food business center funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has selected 116 small and medium-size farm and food business projects in Colorado, the Mountain West and the Pacific Northwest to fund with nearly $2 million in grants.

The projects are being funded through what’s known as the Business Builder Grant Program, which is supported by the Northwest and Rocky Mountain USDA Regional Food Business Center.

NC State Awarded Grant for Smart Building Modernization

NC State University has been awarded up to $403,000 through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, administered by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s State Energy Office. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, an initial allocation of $249,662 has been approved, with the remaining funds to be disbursed as they become available.

‘Behind the Blue’: How UK is Modernizing Parking, Shuttles, and Sustainable Transit

As the University of Kentucky continues to evolve — whether through expanding student housing, major medical center construction or increased sustainability initiatives — so too must the systems that help people navigate it all.

With summer offering a brief window for more intensive work, University of Kentucky Transportation Services is executing projects ranging from garage expansions and surface lot renovations to shuttle route adjustments.

Harvard Spars With Trump Administration Over Order Protecting Its International Enrollment

The Ivy League institution argued that the federal government may seek to circumvent a pending preliminary injunction through “creative relabeling.” In late May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students by terminating its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. The agency alleged that the university had permitted a “toxic campus climate” to flourish by accommodating “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators.”

Tracking the Trump Administration’s Moves to Cap Indirect Research Funding

Since President Donald Trump began his second term, at least four federal agencies have moved to cut funding for research overhead at colleges.

So far, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense have all sought to limit reimbursement for colleges’ indirect research costs to 15%.

Federal Judge Strikes Down NIH Directives Against DEI Research

The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling “a major victory for public health.” Federal officials are exploring their legal options, including an appeal. This year, NIH notified grant recipients that DEI-related research no longer carried out its priorities. A plaintiff whose research focuses on sexual violence in minority communities had six grants terminated, the ACLU lawsuit alleged. Another cut grant had funded a study seeking to develop interventions to reduce drug use and promote mental and physical health in Black men.

U.S. Universities’ Investment in Sustainability Eclipsed by International Peers

Arizona State University, a pioneer of sustainability, is the only U.S. institution in the top 50 of Times Higher Education’s 2025 Impact Rankings. Trump’s policies may make it even harder for American universities to improve in the years to come. Colleges and universities in the United States lag behind their peers around the globe in working toward the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals—including ending poverty and hunger, climate action, and expanding access to education.

18 Colleges Seek to Support Harvard’s Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration

In a court filing Friday, the colleges argued that the elimination of Harvard’s federal funding “negatively impacts the entire ecosystem.

On Friday, the 18 universities — a mix of public institutions like the University of Oregon and selective private ones like Brown University — argued that the nation’s “essential research would not be nearly as fruitful if conducted by institutions outside academia.”

Arrest of Dreamers Highlights Plight of Undocumented Students

The detention of Dreamers has intensified the spotlight on immigration issues in higher education. The Change.org petition “Free Scholar Caroline Dias Goncalves from ICE Detention” has received over 7,000 signatures. A 19-year-old nursing student at the University of Utah with no criminal record, Goncalves was stopped by a Mesa County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office deputy on June 5 and released with a warning after driving too close to a semitruck. Minutes later she was pulled over, arrested by ICE agents and brought to an immigration detention center.

In Public, Harvard Is Fighting Trump. Quietly, It’s Dismantling a Program the White House Doesn’t Like.

Harvard University has spent the last year slowly dismantling a religious-studies program that critics said was biased against Israel, five current and former university employees told The Chronicle. Last week, the final hammer fell: The five remaining staff members employed by the Religion and Public Life program were called, one by one, into meetings with a representative from Harvard’s human-resources department.

Mangroves Show Surprising Resilience to Storms in a Changing Climate

Researchers at the Yale School of the Environment found that mangrove forests in the Florida Everglades can recover rapidly from disturbance, underscoring the value of restoration efforts.

Dense, spindly mangrove forests line the coast of tropical regions, buffering coastal flooding and providing a valuable sink for carbon, but there is concern that more intense and frequent storms due to climate change could have prolonged impacts on these ecosystems.

Clark-built Dashboard Reveals Success of Conservation Efforts Where the Wild Things Are

Elephants in Tanzania, walruses in the Arctic, bison in Montana, and bears in the New York Adirondacks: These animals and their habitats have benefited from research by graduate students in Clark University’s  Wildlife Conservation GIS Research Seminar over the past 13 years. Each spring, a cohort has tackled a vexing biodiversity project for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a global nonprofit organization.

Microplastics Are Everywhere. Here’s What Duke Research Is Doing About Health Concerns

Here’s a few things to consider the next time you think about throwing a plastic item in the trash, the ocean or anywhere other than a recycling bin.

A recent survey suggests that every hour people around the world discard 5.7 million toothpaste tubes, 570,000 cell phones and 2.3 million pairs of sneakers. By 2050, researchers believe the plastic and microplastic particles in the oceans could outweigh the fish.

Sea to Soil Symposium: Uniting Ocean and Earth for a Regenerative Future

The Sea to Soil Symposium at Stony Brook Southampton brought together a powerful convergence of scholars, practitioners and community leaders to explore the interface between marine environments and terrestrial food systems. Framed by urgent environmental challenges and grounded in community-rooted solutions, the May 2 event drew students, scientists, Indigenous leaders and policymakers into one of the most forward-looking conversations on the future of coastal resilience and sustainable agriculture on Long Island.

SDSU Achieves Sustainable Libraries Initiative Certification

SDSU named first academic library in California to earn certification from the Sustainable Libraries Initiative.

Under the leadership of Sarah Tribelhorn, sciences and sustainability librarian, and members of the University Library’s Green Team, San Diego State University Library has become the first academic library in California to earn certification from the Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI).

Filthy Rich

From food scraps to a flourishing farm, Kris Steele ’08, ’12 and Eric Theys ’13 are building a cleaner, greener Charlotte — one compost bin and backyard at a time.

Alumni Kris Steele ‘08, ‘12 and Eric Theys ‘13, along with partners David Valder and Marcus Carson, are at the helm of Charlotte’s successful Crown Town Compost and Crown Town Landscapes. The mission is simple: reduce food waste and improve the environment through composting.

Planting the Garden of Eden at Eden Hall Campus

There’s a flourishing garden bed surrounding the Solar High Tunnel at Eden Hall Campus thanks to the work of Holly Tyson, MSUS ’25.

The small garden of perennials, blueberries, rhubarb, and more is located just behind the Esther Barrazone Center. It was Tyson’s idea of a southwest Pennsylvania Garden of Eden. “It’s along a path that’s walked pretty frequently by community members, students, faculty, and staff,” Tyson said.

Environmental Policy Expert Janet McCabe Returns to IU Faculty

Janet McCabe, an environmental policy expert with a distinguished career in public service, law and academia, will rejoin the faculty at Indiana University for a yearlong appointment beginning July 1. “I am so pleased to be returning to Indiana University,” McCabe said. “The opportunity to work with students, faculty and researchers in the law and public policy schools, and with the amazing staff at the IU Environmental Resilience Institute, brings together so many issues and ideas that I have spent my career working on.”

“If Only I Could Hibernate” – Not Just a Film

I decided to walk home with Uvuljuu by Magnolian playing in my ears, and its dreamy melody felt like a lullaby for the freezing city around me. My cheeks turned a blushy red. There was ice on my eyelashes and a crust forming on the scarf I had wrapped up to my nose. I was wearing three layers of pants, two hats (one from my coat), and still moved stiffly, like a robot in a snow globe.

This was the kind of winter I thought I knew.

How to Create a Generation of Environmental Stewards

Cloaked in the mottled shade of young campus oak trees, Duke Campus BC Plaza is filled with a sea of people and ripples with life. The excited bustle and noise of chatter emanate as always from the central campus hangout spot, carried by the cooling North Carolina summer breeze. T-shirts and shorts adorned, summer dresses flowing in the wind, and sunglasses gently reflecting the dappled beams of light reaching through the camouflage netting of leaves, a gaggle of chattering students gathers.

Elevating and Learning from a World Down Under

Panic began to set in. I was about 400 feet away from the dive boat when, in an instant, I couldn’t move my right leg. I was moments away from flailing my arms in distress to signal for rescue.

Minutes earlier, I had been hovering above a coral reef off the coast of Port Douglas, Australia, mesmerized. It was my first time snorkeling in the open ocean, and seeing a reef right before my dive mask was surreal.

Defying the Fool’s Errand

Sitting in a room surrounded by other climate-focused students, my attention was rapt at the Rachel Carson Council’s 2025 National Wood Pellet Forum. Following a day of advocacy on Capitol Hill, the forum featured grassroots advocates from communities impacted by the wood pellet industry and other professionals working to combat the climate crisis. Midday Andy Wood, a conservation biologist, took the stage and gave the most moving in-person climate-centered speech I have heard to date.

Bike Through a Forest Before it’s Too Late

Creaks and groans fill my ears as my bicycle’s gears struggle to keep up with my legs, hauling me up the last hilly road before I reach the Rock Creek Trail. My German mountain bike is seven years old and has accompanied me across continents. As I glide down the steep slope that connects my neighborhood to the trail, I am enveloped by the forest of Rock Creek Park. The palm-sized, emerald green leaves of the abundant, native tulip trees shield me from the sun and give a crisp freshness to the air.

The True Cost

We live in a world built on convenience. People search tirelessly for the perfect meal, chase the latest food trends, spend hours scrolling through restaurant reviews, and debate over which milk froth makes the best latte. Whether it’s meat-lovers looking for the juiciest cut, or dessert fanatics who won’t settle for anything less than chocolate mousse, our taste preferences drive choices and increasingly, they drive entire industries. What we demand on our plates becomes the cause for excess industrial production, often leading to unethical overproduction to meet this demand.

Carving Space in Uncharted Waters

When I first began Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham, I thought I was diving into a book about sharks. What I got instead was something much more personal––a story about identity, resilience, and learning to take up space in a world that often tells individuals like us to shrink. Graham’s words echoed something I’ve felt but couldn’t always articulate. “Sharks don’t sink,” she writes. “They keep moving, even when the water gets dark.” It’s a metaphor for the kind of quiet perseverance that so many Black women in science come to know intimately.

Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Botanist Who Braids Worlds

As a child growing up in upstate New York, Robin Wall Kimmerer fell in love with the Earth one moss patch at a time. In her family’s backyard and in the wild spaces beyond, she listened not only with her ears but with her spirit. Every stone, leaf, and lichen held a story. Every breeze reminded her that there are many ways to know a world. Born in 1953 to Robert and Patricia Wall, Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her journey would eventually take her through degrees in botany, a PhD in plant ecology, and a pioneering career.