Colleges and universities taking Trump cuts

It’s been one month of the second Trump administration and the impacts on higher education have been arriving at scale.

Today I want to draw attention to real damage done to academic institutions, both directly caused by the new government as well as by institutions themselves in response to Trump actions.

I’m going to try assembling as much evidence as possible in this post – not speculation, nor possibilities, but cases of adverse effects felt in the academic world.  If I missed something, please share in comments or, if you feel uncomfortable doing to in public, by contacting me privately.

It may be useful to follow up by creating an open, crowdsourced spreadsheet like we did for campuses going online because of COVID in 2020.  Let me know what you think in comments.

At the federal level

Most of the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) unit, a research team that’s part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), have been laid off.  Nearly $1 billion in IES research contracts has been cut.  More than $330 million was cut from the Center’s Regional Educational Laboratories and Equity Assistance Centers.

At least thousands of students have seen internships with the federal government vanish, or at least become unclear if they will happen, due to cuts.

Academic institutions taking hits

The University of Pennsylvania told graduate programs to cut back admissions for fall classes, even to rescinding acceptances already sent out.  One department “which submitted its choices for admits to its graduate program on Feb. 14 — will be forced to rescind the acceptances of 10 of the 17 students.”  The reason: Trump’s cuts to research funds.

Along similar lines, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), expecting federal losses of $100 million or more, suspended non-faculty hiring.

The University of Louisville has ordered a hiring freeze, apparently across the board, until summer.  The Trump administration’s actions against research funding are the cause.

North Carolina State University is going to implement a total hiring freeze.

Columbia University’s medical school announced a hiring freeze.

The administration cut people working at two tribal institutions, Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, both operated (unusually) by the federal government’s Bureau of Indian Education.

At Haskell Indian Nations University, about 40 people have already lost their jobs across campus departments, out of about 160 employees, according to a Monday letter from the Haskell Board of Regents to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The board urged in the letter that the university be exempt from the staff cuts. The Lawrence Times reported that the institution has had to postpone or cancel some campus events. Meanwhile, roughly 20 employees were laid off at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, out of a staff of about 100, according to Indian Country News.

Northwestern University announced a 10% cut to non-personnel expenses. In that official statement the administration cited the NIH changes as well as a proposed endowment tax hike.

Louisiana State University removed law professor Ken Levy from teaching duties after he criticized Trump and the state’s governor. He sued and there have been multiple court rulings since.  Note that this is a tenured prof with an endowed chair.

Millsaps College fired a tenured professor outright after he criticized the United States following the November election.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) cuts

Various effects, have followed Trump’s moves against DEI, notably the anti-DEI “Dear colleague” letter.  The new administration put some Department of Education staff on leave for attending a DEI training.  It cut $600 million in DEI-related campus grants; we should expect multiple program and personnel cuts to follow.

The Department of Defense ordered an end to race-based admissions at the nation’s military academies.

Boston University shut down its Center for Antiracist Research; its founding director, Ibram X. Kendi, left for Howard University.  Missouri State University terminated its DEI programs as well as its office for inclusive engagement.  West Virginia University shut down its DEI office.

Curricular cuts have occurred. The United States Naval Academy, for example, removed all materials “that promote ‘critical race theory,’ ‘gender ideology’ and other topics targeted by the Trump administration.” The University of North Carolina system ordered the removal of DEI class work from general education requirements.

Some campuses have altered or deleted public-facing content. The University of Pennsylvania removed DEI content from its website.

West Point shut down affinity clubs based on race and gender.

At least two accreditors, the American Bar Association and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), have dropped DEI language from their institutional assessment processes.

Rutgers University-New Brunswick canceled an event, the “HBCUs and Registered Apprenticeship Mini-Conference.”

In terms of gender identity, the Department of Education removed nonbinary as a gender option from the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).  New Title IX guidance states that the government will no longer protect or recognize trans students.

The department launched investigations into two universities, San Jose State University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, for violations under this new Title IX interpretation.

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) banned transgender students from playing with women’s teams for competition, but allowed them to practice.

At the state level, following or inspired by Trump

There are also stories of Trump-influenced or -inspired actions at the state level against universities.  Two members of Congress asked three of their state’s institutions to cut ties with China:

U.S. representatives John Moolenar and Tim Walberg wrote letters to the presidents of Eastern Michigan University, Oakland University and the University of Detroit Mercy demanding that they cancel their partnerships with institutions in China, expressing concerns that sensitive research could help the Chinese military advance its technological capabilities.

One, Oakland University, promptly did so. (archived)

Ohio’s senate approved, and its other house now considers, a law which would take multiple actions against higher education.  The “Enact Advance Ohio Higher Education Act”

seeks to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, change the way universities can instruct and endorse certain topics the state deems controversial, decrease term limits for state school board of trustees, create a mandatory American civics course for students and prohibit faculty from striking, among other things.

I have to stop there for now. As I said above, please add any corrections or more stories in comments below. Reach out to me privately if you prefer. And let me know if I should fire up a crowdsourced spreadsheet for this evidence.

(thanks to Tom Stroup and other friends; Penn photo by chenyuming)