Trump’s ongoing battle with universities
Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald J. Trump and his administration have released a flurry of federal funding changes, policy changes and executive orders aimed at higher education institutions. Trump’s actions reflect issues he pledged to address throughout his campaign including overhauling the higher education system, tackling antisemitism and enacting tougher immigration policies.
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly emphasized the need to “reclaim our once great educational institions from the radical Left” and “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
Allegations of antisemitism against universities came following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and the widespread protests that were seen on college campuses across the country last year. Since Trump took office, more than 1,800 international students, many on F-1 and J-1 visas, were removed from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Maintained Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) [Inside Higher Ed]. The SEVIS allows international students to legally remain in the United States, and with their names removed from the database, many were suddenly hit with the prospect of having to immediately leave the country or face detention and deportation.
In an interview with Fox News in early March, Samo alum and current White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephan Miller (’03) detailed the administration’s goals and plans.
“The universities must discipline the students, they must break up these protests, they must expel the terrorist sympathizers and reclaim their campuses,” Miller said. “Furthermore, as we speak, under President Trump’s direction, federal law enforcement is identifying any foreign nationals who are engaged in these protests or demonstrations or support for a foreign terrorist organization and those of foreign nationals will have their visa stripped and they will be arrested and they will be deported from the country.”
Some students have already been detained. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and green card holder, was arrested without a warrant in March for his involvement in the protests on the New York campus. Currently, he is being held at a Louisiana Immigration Detention Facility. Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student in the U.S. on a visa, was allegedly detained for co-writing an op-ed in a student newspaper calling for Tufts to divest from ties with Israel. She is also currently being held in a facility in Louisiana.
On April 11, Santa Monica College reported that 10 student visas were cancelled. The Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper, also reported on April 13 that at least 19 UCLA students and alumni had their visas revoked. While many of these students were participants in pro-Palestinian protests or publicly expressed support for Palestine, others were reportedly flagged for minor infractions such as speeding or parking violations, or for no clear reason at all.
Wth widespread confusion, hundreds of students filed lawsuits and were granted temporary orders to stay in the country. This led to the Trump administration’s announcement on April 25 that it would temporarily restore all the revoked student visas until it developed a new system to remove and terminate student records for international students.
The Trump administration has also leveraged federal funding to coerce universities into complying with their desired policies, alleging that the universities were not doing enough to combat antisemitism. Many of these investigations of antisemitism are being spearheaded by the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism under the Justice Department, which announced on Feb. 3 that its “first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”
Penalized for the allegations, many universities have had their funding cut, particularly elite research institutions such as Cornell, Northwestern, Columbia and Harvard. Many others, such as Princeton, Brown, the UCsystem and community colleges like SMC are being investigated by the Department of Justice, Department of Education, or both.
In March, the Trump administration hit Columbia University with a $400 million freeze in funding alongside a list of several demands. These included key policy changes related to student protests on campus and the implementation of new oversight and review over programs in “regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East.” Columbia’s compliance with these demands faced widespread criticism in the following weeks, particularly as the university’s submission was not rewarded with the return of the $400 million. The Trump administration is also reportedly discussing a consent decree in which judicial oversight will ensure that these policies are met. Columbia has pushed back against this proposal.
On April 11, the Trump administration also sent a letter to Harvard University calling for reform in hiring, admissions and their “programs with Egregious Records of Antisemitism or Other Bias” in order to “maintain Harvard’s financial relationship with the federal government.” Harvard refused to comply with these policies, and the situation further escalated when the administration froze $2.2 billion of its $9 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard. Trump also threatened Harvard’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and its ability to host international students, with renewed threats since then on his Truth Social account.
Following these actions, the university announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the federal government on April 21. In their 51-page complaint, the university labeled the funding freeze as “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority,” quoting Harvard’s President Alan M. Garber that “the University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
In the first court appearance on April 28, District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs set July 21 as the next hearing date, meaning Harvard will go without their federal funds at least until this date.
Hundreds of universities are pushing back with Harvard. On April 22, the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a public statement stating that “we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” The statement was signed by over 400 presidents of various institutions, including all University of California and 11 California State University presidents.
As part of a broader attack on higher education and scientific research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal departments have cut hundreds of grants in research and funding to universities, hospitals, and nonprofit research organizations. CNN reports that 780 grants have been cut by the NIH in the first month, with these cuts affecting various fields of research such as those for HIV, vaccines, environmental studies and more.
Bella Santiago (’25) was one of the students affected by Trump’s new policies. A senior heading to the University of Michigan in the fall, Santiago applied to the University of Michigan Alumni Association’s LEAD Scholars Program, which was created “to improve diversity and opportunity.” However, following Trump’s nationwide purge of DEI programs, the LEAD scholars program was discontinued, citing concerns to “comply with all applicable laws.”
“I qualified for the LEAD scholarship. I think it was like a $40,000 scholarship a year and it would have been a lot,” Santiago said. “I did the entire application process, I scheduled my interview, and then I got an email a couple of weeks later that they canceled the program. It would have been really helpful to have this scholarship, because now I have to apply to a bunch of other things too.”