The US Justice Department really has its hands full.

In addition to investigating itself for involvement in an array of scandals, it looks as if some institutions of higher learning may be on their radar for violation of anti-trust laws. Kevin Kiley of Inside Higher Ed has the details:

Higher education officials often catch flak for being too deliberative when action is needed, and it looks like that tendency toward talking could be getting them in trouble.

The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter last month to several private colleges saying the department opened an investigation into a “possible agreement among colleges to restrict tuition discounting and prevent colleges from changing or improving financial aid awards to individual students,” a move that the letter said would be in violation of federal antitrust regulations. News of the department’s letter was first reported Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The letter cites a session at the Council of Independent Colleges’ 2013 Presidents Institute in January entitled “Collaborative Efforts on Student Aid and Admissions Policies: A Report on Progress, Prospects, and Possibilities” in which a group of private college presidents discussed potential ways to limit the use of non-need-based aid and shift money toward need-based aid. One approach discussed was seeking to expand an exemption the permits discussions on aid policy among colleges. Currently that statute only allows a small group of colleges that admit students without considering financial need and award aid only on the basis of need to get together to discuss common principles of financial aid.

The Justice Department’s letter also asks institutions to preserve documents and information related to “proposed or actual agreements or understandings among colleges not to change financial aid awards or the amount of money that students receiving financial aid will pay to attend college” and “communications with other colleges or associations, or their representatives, or communications to your employees or other representatives of your college about any proposed or actual agreements or understandings among colleges not to change financial aid awards or the amount of money that students receiving financial aid will pay to attend college.”

While the department’s letter seems to hint at some form of agreement, several administrators involved in January’s session said they know of no agreement between colleges and that they were confused about why the department launched the investigation. A spokesman for the Department of Justice did not return a request for comment on deadline.