Colleges and universities nationwide are scrambling to respond to a wave of federal actions by the Trump administration that have threatened research funding and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Amid widespread uncertainty, The Herald recaps how higher education institutions have responded to the recent slew of federal actions.
Federal funding cuts impact graduate admissions, hiring and research
On Feb. 25, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported that Penn Medicine plans to reduce PhD admissions by 35% due to “funding uncertainty,” as the university faced a 15% cap on indirect research funding from the National Institutes of Health. According to Penn’s Interim President Larry Jameson, the university may lose up to $240 million as a result of the proposed cuts.
Federal research funding cuts have also forced some Penn graduate programs to rescind acceptances, with one program having to rescind offers from 10 of its 17 admitted candidates, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.
Cornell instituted a university-wide hiring freeze citing “significant financial insecurity.” On Feb. 26, Stanford University also issued a staff hiring pause for an unknown period of time, the Stanford Daily reported.
Several institutions have expressed concerns over the potential impact of federal funding cuts on research output, including Duke University, the University of California system and Johns Hopkins University. Brown, along with 12 other universities, signed onto a lawsuit against the NIH’s federal research funding cuts, The Herald previously reported.
At Harvard, administrators initially instructed faculty and staff to comply with stop-work directives issued during the early days of the Trump administration, the Harvard Crimson reported.
Institutions respond to Trump’s DEI executive order with website changes
Following President Trump’s executive order targeting DEI initiatives, several higher education institutions have removed references to DEI from their websites. On Jan. 13, Stanford removed a section on diversity from their “About” page and other websites that previously expressed support for DEI initiatives.
At the University of Chicago, the Maroon reported that mentions of DEI have been “quietly erased” from University websites, while the UChicago Office of the Provost’s Diversity and Inclusion site began requiring UChicago login credentials. Various Penn undergraduate and graduate schools also removed diversity-related statements from their websites.
Northwestern University took down its Women’s Center website, which provided resources related to gender responsive health, gender-based violence and the LGBTQ+ community.
Antisemitism investigations threaten federal funding
As of Monday, the federal government’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is “considering Stop Work Orders” for more than $50 million of Columbia’s federal contracts, following concerns over antisemitism on the university’s campus, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release.
Over $5 billion of federal grant commitments to Columbia will also be reviewed by the task force to “ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations.” The HHS, U.S. Department of Education and U.S. General Services Administration are conducting a “comprehensive review” of Columbia’s contracts with the federal government.
Harvard is also facing two federal investigations over the school’s approach to addressing on-campus antisemitism. Officials with the Department of Justice’s Federal Task Force To Combat Antisemitism are slated to visit the school and nine other institutions facing an investigation opened in late February.
Harvard’s medical school and Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School are among four medical schools facing a separate DHHS investigation over alleged antisemitism.
Ethan Schenker is a university news editor covering staff and student labor. He is from Bethesda, MD, and plans to study International and Public Affairs and Economics. In his free time, he enjoys playing piano and clicking on New York Times notifications.
Claire Song is a university news and science & research editor for The Herald. She is a sophomore from California studying Applied Math-Biology. She likes to drink boba in her free time.
