Institutional researchers are scrambling as a federal push for expanded admissions and student‑outcome data ramps up, creating heavy compliance burdens for colleges. Requests for granular admissions files are taxing campus IR offices, which warn about capacity and privacy implications. In parallel, a new group has formed to recommend reforms to the National Center for Education Statistics after criticism that the agency’s systems are outdated and under‑resourced. The twin developments point to a near‑term increase in federal data demands and a medium‑term effort to modernize how the federal government collects and publishes higher‑education metrics.