Chad de Guzman
President Donald Trump has placed the higher education system in a pressure cooker. A number of Ivy League and other elite universities have been forced to make a tough choice: either comply with his Administration’s agenda or lose critical federal funding.
Harvard, the nation’s oldest and perhaps most prestigious university, was the latest target. Hours after the school announced it wouldn’t accede to the Trump Administration demands, the federal government on April 14 froze more than $2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts.
Harvard is just one of several U.S. universities targeted by the Trump Administration to force compliance with its agenda. Pressure is being placed on these educational institutions not only through slashed budgets but also via government orders and probes into schools’ diversity-related practices. Trump has promised funding cuts to schools that pursue diversity initiatives since he was on the campaign trail last year; his Administration has also targeted universities that were involved in last year’s wave of campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Experts have previously warned that such cuts to academic institutions pose a risk for the U.S., a global leader in research and innovation. The impact of taking away government grants—lifeblood for many of these research universities—could include hampering advancements in medicine and technology, and could cost the country economically as well by weakening American competitiveness.
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