President Donald Trump’s executive orders and federal agency actions are roiling higher ed. 

The National Institutes of Health proposed a major cut to biomedical research funding and the Education Department told universities to end all race-conscious policies and programs. And that’s just a taste of what has come from the administration recently. 

It all adds up to one thing: uncertainty. The NIH funding cut is already locked up in legal battles. And the race-conscious directive, while sweeping, is a Dear Colleague Letter that lacks the force of law. 

As our reporters across the country have checked in with their universities in recent days, they hear a common refrain, if they hear anything at all: “We’re looking into it.”

And when presidents put out statements, they sometimes say very little: 

• “I urge patience while the issue is addressed, and I’m hopeful this will ultimately produce a healthy conversation about the benefits of university research to America’s competitiveness while ensuring accountability to the taxpayers,” University of North Carolina System President Peter Hans said Feb. 10 of the NIH cuts.

• “We do not yet have all the answers about the impact of these directives, but as we gain clarity, we will provide further information,” Kent State University President Todd Diacon said Tuesday.

While presidents figure out what the administration’s directives mean for their campuses, it’s important that they also publicly explain how they’re assessing the situation and where they’re getting information from, said Matt Gerien, senior vice president for strategic communications at higher ed marketing and enrollment strategy firm Carnegie.

“Transparency builds trust, builds confidence, builds connection on campus, and presidents have to remember that,” Gerien, who advises public and private university leaders, told me.

The NIH plan would slash the rate — by at least half — at which federal grants can be spent on research overhead. It’s currently held up in court amid several lawsuits, including one that names several research universities as plaintiffs. But that hasn’t kept some presidents from spelling out exactly what the cuts would mean.

The University of Kentucky, for example, would lose tens of millions of dollars in support for scientists and clinicians “who are asking the most important questions about the biggest health challenges” facing the state, said Eli Capilouto, the university’s president.

• Texas universities could face funding cuts for health care research under new Trump administration policy (via our partner the Texas Tribune) 

• NIH funding cuts could have ‘crushing effect’ on Colorado’s health care, research, and economy (via our partner Chalkbeat Colorado) 

• Indy medical research targeted in Trump funding cuts (via our partner Mirror Indy) 

Louisiana State University President William Tate’s statement on the NIH cuts struck a notably emotional chord. When Tate’s grandfather got sick with cancer, he participated in a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of a new treatment. “He told me, ‘I am not doing this for myself; I am doing it for others,’” Tate recalled.

So far, university presidents seem even less willing to publicly push back against the administration’s moves to curtain diversity, equity, and inclusion programming. That could be because many universities have already dropped DEI efforts, or because a Dear Colleague letter doesn’t have the force of law.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, reminded college leaders of that fact on a webinar earlier this week. He warned them not to engage in “anticipatory compliance.” The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race-conscious admissions remains the law, he said, not the letter.

Case Western University President Eric Kaler called the directive a “gross overreach” earlier this week. (The Dear Colleague letter takes aim at all aspects of college life: scholarships, extracurricular activities, graduation ceremonies, and student housing.)

The university is reviewing its processes and programs “while remaining firmly committed to our core values as an institution,” including the embrace of differences, Kaler said.

(These Kentucky, Louisiana, and Ohio examples stand out to me in particular because Republicans control the legislature in those states. While that’s keeping institutions quiet in Texas, that isn’t the case everywhere.)

• Uncertainty around Trump administration directive on DEI is unsettling, says Case Western Reserve president (via our partner Signal Cleveland) 

• ‘Let us do our jobs’: Mississippi universities growing weary of Trump’s crusade on diversity (via our partner Mississippi Today) 

• UIC faculty and students fought for cultural centers. New federal guidance could take them away. (via our partner WBEZ Chicago) 

It’s vital that presidents publicly defend their institutions and “be brave right now,” Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, told me last week. (We spoke before the Dear Colleague letter was released, but in a statement this week, Wolfson said it’s a “gross distortion” of campus life and “a naked effort at gaslighting.”) 

Presidents need to recognize what the administration is trying to do by attacking higher ed, Wolfson said: It wants “to control our institutions, to control what we research, to control what we write, to control what we say, to control what our students read and learn, to control curriculum, to control — in the case of Florida — who the presidents are.” 

• Why do so many Florida universities hire politicians as presidents? (via our partner The Tampa Bay Times) 

• UF’s presidential search will be led by same firm that brought in Ben Sasse (via our partner The Tampa Bay Times) 

Wolfson — who’s also an associate professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University at New Brunswick — said he’s concerned some presidents think they can stay quiet, keep their heads down, and things will blow over. 

“But that’s not how this is going to go,” he said. “We need them to recognize that, if you don't stand up now, no institution is safe.”

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Elsewhere on Open Campus

From Illinois: Just a fraction of the nearly 30,000 incarcerated people in Illinois are enrolled in college classes. 

Legislation reintroduced in the General Assembly this session could change that, writes Lisa Kurian Philip, our reporter at WBEZ Chicago. The measure would restore state financial aid for incarcerated students, which could prompt more universities to bring their programs to prisons. 

From Texas: Sneha Dey, our pathways reporter at The Texas Tribune, went to McAllen, Texas to visit one of the country’s first nursing apprenticeship programs. Apprenticeships make it possible for Texas nursing students to make money right away, instead of waiting years to finish a degree first. 

“Our students, many of them, have to prioritize work. And so work oftentimes interferes with their ability to have time to study,” said Margo Vargas-Ayala, the dean of nursing at South Texas College. “The opportunity to be able to earn while they learn … they won’t have to come to their classes, do clinical and then work.”

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