Columbia folds, academia buckles: How Trump is reshaping US higher education

• President Trump vowed during his 2024 campaign to “reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.” Since taking office again in January, he’s wasted little time:
• Freezing federal funds for schools perceived as failing to address antisemitism or campus unrest.
• Threatening to impose steep taxes on university endowments.
• Pressuring schools to curb DEI initiatives, restructure departments, and comply with a stricter definition of antisemitism.
• Columbia became the first major university to publicly bow to Trump’s demands—a move critics say could set a chilling precedent.
• Columbia agreed to ban face masks during protests, give arrest powers to campus security, and place its Middle Eastern studies department under heightened oversight.
• These moves come after months of tension over alleged antisemitism on campus and in response to Trump’s aggressive push to root out “woke” culture and left-wing ideology in academia.

• Trump isn’t just targeting Columbia—he’s executing a broader ideological and financial offensive aimed at reshaping the identity, purpose, and politics of America’s universities.
• With hundreds of billions in research funding, student aid, and federal grants on the line, even elite institutions like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are hiring lobbyists and making quiet appeals to Republican lawmakers, a Wall Street Journal report said.
• Many are abandoning defiant rhetoric and pivoting to self-preservation, aware that without federal dollars, entire academic ecosystems—from scientific research to scholarships—could collapse.

• Security upgrade: 36 peace officers will soon be authorized to make arrests.
• Academic oversight: A senior vice provost will now monitor Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department—an area targeted by conservatives.
• Speech limitations: New restrictions on protests and disciplinary changes are being rolled out.
• Redefining antisemitism: Columbia pledged to formally adopt a new definition aligned with Trump administration expectations.
• Education secretary Linda McMahon praised Columbia on Sunday, saying the school is “on the right track” and calling Armstrong’s conversations with the White House “great.”

• Rutgers professor Todd Wolfson called it “arguably the greatest incursion into academic freedom…since the McCarthy era.”
• Columbia student leader Mohammad Hemeida said the university “gave in to government pressure instead of standing firm on the commitments to students and to academic freedom.”

• Dozens of schools, including the University of California system and Harvard, have paused hiring amid fears of losing federal funds, the Wall Street Journal report said.
• The National Institutes of Health, which usually delivers billions in medical research funding, is already seeing legal challenges over proposed cuts.
• At least 50 institutions, from Vanderbilt to Wake Forest, have brought in politically connected lobbyists with GOP ties.
• Stanford, for example, tapped former Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Harvard hired Ballard Partners, whose principal, Brian Ballard, has deep ties to Trump’s inner circle, the WSJ report said.

• As per the WSJ report, University of Michigan President Santa Ono urged colleagues in a private meeting with lawmakers earlier this month to "wake up" and listen to critics. “It’s time to play ball,” he reportedly said.
• Columbia biologist Brent Stockwell told the NYT: “There is no scenario in which Columbia can exist in any way in its current form if the government funding is completely withdrawn.”

There is a lot of fear. I’ve never seen anything like it. People are afraid to speak out.

Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, in WSJ

• The Trump administration’s campaign is as much about optics and values as it is about dollars.
• Trump allies like activist Christopher Rufo, who helped popularize the fight against DEI, have declared Columbia “just the beginning.”
• Vice President JD Vance has labeled universities “the enemy.”
• Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation see higher ed as the frontline in a broader culture war.
• The administration’s strategy: Use federal purse strings to force what it calls “course correction.” Privately, some officials describe it as “existential leverage.”
• The pressure tactics have worked before. Earlier this month, Trump froze $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania after citing concerns about transgender inclusion in sports. Faculty backlash was immediate—but so was compliance.

Columbia is folding and the other universities will follow suit. They must restore the pursuit of truth, rather than ideological activism, as their highest mission. This is only the beginning.

Christopher Rufo, an activist, to NYT

• Universities are reeling from uncertainty:
• Research projects are being paused midstream. At Columbia, this includes studies on uterine fibroids and AI tools for hospitals.
• International students face delays and rescinded offers as visa programs are scrutinized.
• Schools like Davidson College have hired lobbyists for the first time to explain how endowment taxes would gut their financial aid programs.
• Davidson President Douglas Hicks said the strategy is to “listen first and ask questions later.” Still, he admitted, “Taking a combative approach is a last resort.”

• Capitol Hill is preparing a new wave of hearings on campus antisemitism—reigniting fears after last year’s debacle, when the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT struggled under bipartisan grilling and two resigned afterward.
• As per reports, Trump allies in Congress are pursuing more aggressive policies:
• JD Vance wants to hike the endowment tax from 1.4% to 35%.
• Senator Tom Cotton is pushing for a one-time windfall tax that could raise $16.6 billion from elite schools.
• Rep Tim Walberg wants to penalize universities financially if their graduates don’t repay student loans.
• Many of these measures could pass via the budget reconciliation process, bypassing the usual 60-vote hurdle in the Senate.
• But one thing is clear: the Trump administration has found its leverage point—and the nation's universities, once self-assured and insulated, are now playing defense on unfamiliar ground.
• As Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber put it, “Once you make concessions once, it’s hard not to make them again.”