In the first hundred days of his presidency, US President Donald Trump’s administration has commanded a crusade on American universities. He has obliterated the Department of Education, coerced Columbia into appeasement, and gone to war with Harvard. In response, universities have begun to prepare for the assault, forming inter-university legal coalitions to get ready as Trump creates justification to open new fronts.
Trump has used the Department of Education in his fight against “woke” institutions. The Department of Education (DOE) has forced Columbia into negotiations, freezing $400 million in university funding. Columbia’s acting president, Claire Shipman, has expressed some resistance towards full capitulation, hoping for some middle-ground agreement where the university will still have independence. Harvard, conversely, has treated The Trump administration’s demands as fully illegal, rejecting them and lawyering up. The institution, older than the United States itself, has sued the administration over its threats to withhold $1 billion. Meanwhile, the Trump administration halted the distribution of all Harvard funds over their refusal to comply with Trump’s demands around alleged tolerance of antisemitism, pro Palestinian protests, and immigrant students on campus. These conflicts could be localized territorial battles that lead to nothing more, but the actions of other universities are creating legal defense pacts that suggest that these conflicts could go nationwide, tying the universities’ fates together.
On top of this, the DOE, whose responsibilities include overseeing the FAFSA and other higher education monetary programs, have seen their workforce cut in half. According to CNET, this probably won’t result in the FAFSA being cut, but could increase uncertainty in a program already struggling with bureaucratic shortcomings.
The Trump administration has taken particular attention to international students. Originally, the administration completely removed thousands of international student’s legal status completely, but backtracked on Friday April 18, while saying that more was still to come. Regardless, international students are subject to some of the most uncertainty of anyone in American higher education today.
This conflict between Trump’s administration and American universities will ultimately come at the expense of American students. Due to the volatility of the conflict, students will have difficulty relying on the funding that supports their education, and many students face the risk of deportation. These uncertainties will continue as long as the current administration prolongs this crusade
