Undergraduate education

A Putnam County, Tennessee attorney, James Nathan "Jamie" Hargis, has been indicted after state investigators found he misappropriated more than $214,000 from the Kappa Sigma Alumni Association at Tennessee Tech University. Hargis served as the association's treasurer from February 2017 until his removal in September 2025. The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation launched the probe in October 2025 following allegations against him.

Investigators said Hargis used multiple bank accounts and a check-cashing account to divert association funds, including bank account withdrawals, undergraduate rent payments, and donations, to cover personal expenses such as sports wagering and debts. He repaid or covered roughly $160,000 in expenses, leaving about $54,000 unrecovered and several association bills unpaid. Investigators separately found he stole more than $10,000 from an estate he administered as an attorney. Hargis was indicted on one count of theft over $60,000 and one count of theft over $10,000, arrested, and released on bond. He had previously faced a separate theft charge tied to a real estate transaction.

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, sparked bipartisan backlash after posting on social media about Asian American students cheering at a University of Texas football game following a comeback win over Ohio State, calling them "foreigners" and saying they showed how "Americans have been displaced by foreigners." Two students identified in the photo, Dhairya Gupta and Rahul Kodali, said they are U.S. citizens and called the post racist; Gupta said the incident showed racism "isn't looked down upon as much as it used to be." UT Austin enrollment data show international students make up less than 10% of the student body, with Asian students, mostly U.S. citizens or permanent residents, accounting for about 22.4% of enrollment. French has refused to delete the posts, denied regret when asked directly, and said "Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth," using the controversy for fundraising.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn condemned the posts as racist, warning that tolerating such intolerance is "how great political parties self-destruct," and Rep. Dan Crenshaw also criticized French. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and GOP representatives including Jared Patterson, Jeff Leach, Matt Shaheen, and Lacey Hull called on French to delete the posts, while former Speaker Dade Phelan called him "unfit for office." Gov. Greg Abbott said the message wasn't his but stopped short of directly condemning French, instead touting support for freezing H-1B visas at universities; he has since endorsed French, as has Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Attorney General Ken Paxton, facing a Senate primary challenge from Democrat James Talarico, deflected criticism onto Talarico rather than address French's remarks. French previously faced calls to resign as county chair over a poll on Jews versus Muslims.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Arizona, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico over state laws granting in-state college tuition to immigrants without legal status, bringing the total number of states sued over such policies to 21. In Arizona, the challenged law is Proposition 308, a 2022 voter-approved measure allowing immigrants without legal status who attended an Arizona high school for at least two years to qualify for in-state rates. Oregon's 2013 Tuition Equity Act, which also covers veterans and lawful permanent residents, is likewise targeted, along with comparable statutes in Washington and New Mexico. The DOJ argues the policies violate a 1996 federal law by extending tuition benefits to immigrants without legal status that aren't equally available to out-of-state U.S. citizens.

The Arizona complaint cites estimates of over 3,600 immigrants without legal status potentially qualifying annually, with at least 720 already receiving in-state rates in fall 2025; in Oregon, an estimated 4,730 of 215,019 higher-education students are undocumented, with over 1,000 benefiting from the tuition program in 2023-24. The DOJ seeks court orders blocking enforcement. Federal courts have already struck down comparable laws in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Illinois, with a dozen more states, including California and New York, facing pending litigation; a Minnesota case was dismissed and is under appeal. Oregon and Washington officials have vowed to defend their laws; Arizona has not yet responded.