Message from the President

Recent Actions from the Department of Education

Several Department of Education actions – reduction in Federal loan limits along with the elimination of Grad PLUS loan program, the RISE negotiated rulemaking (professional degree definition) and the AHEAD negotiated rulemaking (accountability metrics) –  pose an existential threat to the naturopathic medical, nutrition, and mental health counseling workforces. Other actions by the Department around inclusivity, foreign students, research dollars are additional issues.

OBBB Federal reconciliation bill passed in the summer of 2025:

• GradPLUS is eliminated as of July 1, 2026 (with limited grandfathering)
• Loan caps were established effective after July 1, 2026 (cumulative limit of $200,000 for professional degree programs and cumulative limit of $100,000 for graduate degree programs)

RISE: Professional Degree Definition (Student Loan Access)

• The draft RISE rule excludes the Naturopathic Doctor (ND) degree from the federal definition of a “professional degree” despite NDs being a profession in the eyes of the Department for over twenty years. The reason for this was that the Department went back to the mid-1990s to the programs listed as professional degrees at that time and put that list forward. This pre-dated the time when NDs were added to the professional degree designation. Also eliminated from the professional degree categorization were healthcare professions such as nursing, OT, PT, PA, Public health, social work, and counseling.
• This change in designation cuts federal student loan access for ND students by more than half of the already lowered Federal loan limit, making accredited medical education financially inaccessible for many students. The new Federal loan cumulative limit for each graduate education is $100,000. Notably, the Grad PLUS loan program, used by students to make up prior Federal loan shortfalls to cover education and housing, is also no longer available.
• ND programs meet all statutory criteria for professional degrees (doctoral-level education, licensure preparation, clinical training) and were historically treated as such.
• Exclusion sharply reduces the pipeline of licensed NDs entering practice.
• The Master programs in Nutrition and Mental Health Counseling remain classified as graduate programs with the associated $100,000 Federal loan limit.

AHEAD: Accountability Metrics (Program Viability)

• Proposed accountability metrics applied to educational programs in an effort to determine if the degree confers an economic advantage to its graduates, thereby justifying the cost of the education. The proposed metrics rely on short-term earnings comparisons that disadvantage primary care, prevention-focused, small business, female-majority professions.
• Department data presented last week indicates 98% of complementary and integrative medicine programs would fail the proposed earnings test.
• Failure leads to reputational harm and eventual loss of federal loan eligibility – effectively forcing program closures.
• The rules do not adequately account for residency training, self-employment, part-time work due to caregiving, or rural/underserved community practice – common in ND, nutrition and mental health counseling careers.

Impact on our Communities:

These policies will:

• Aggravate the nation’s healthcare workforce
• Reduce patient access to licensed providers of complementary healthcare, and in the case of naturopathic medicine, of primary care providers.
• Undermine state investments in preventive and integrative care.
• Threaten the viability of educational institutions training these providers.

What is Sonoran University Doing:

• Actively participating in Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges (AANMC) and American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) monitoring and advocacy efforts. There will soon be a public commentary period posted by the Department of Education. We will convey guidance for submitting comments. Importantly, the AANP and AANMC have formed extensive coalitions and coordinated actions with other affected professions, and have hired specialized lobbyists and governmental relation firms.
• Instituting a major curriculum innovation to shorten the duration of the ND program from 3 ¾ years to 3 ¼ years. The largest drivers of educational cost are not tuition alone, but time in training and associated living expenses. This will give students the option to reduce housing costs and allows graduates to enter the workforce sooner. This curricular revision does not compromise the rigor of the program. We are actively working with CNME and NABNE/NPLEX on standards flexibility and examination timing to facilitate these changes.
• Exploring additional education cost-containment strategies
• Preparing alternative loan counseling pathways for students to make up for the Federal loans no longer available.
• Meeting with state and Federal legislators to be included in new legislation that will seek to adjust these Department regulations. We are specifically lobbying for the inclusion of our professions in these legislative proposals so that we can preserve the positive impact that our graduates have on the health and wellbeing of our community and can preserve accessibility of Sonoran programs to all students.