Administrators, professors and prospective students at major universities across the country are expressing concerns about the future of higher education as the Trump administration restricts funding for DEI and investigates schools for charges of antisemitism.
School officials “are in an impossible situation with facing the unknown as to what may happen down the road,” Ohio University alumni association board member Kim Barlag told The Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s Department of Education announced Monday that 60 universities are currently under investigation for “antisemitic discrimination and harassment,” Fox News Digital reported this week. The change comes as the Trump administration has also moved to target DEI in the university system and in the federal government.
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The sudden threat to funding for university programs from the federal government has prompted some schools to cancel alumni events, institute hiring freezes for staff and even withdraw admissions offers for students.
The proposed budget cuts due to the policy actions of the Trump administration caused West Virginia University to announce that students admitted to its Ph.D. program, specifically in the pharmaceutical-sciences doctoral program, would have their offers revoked.
West Virginia University spokesperson April Kaull told The Wall Street Journal that “our nation’s research universities cannot maintain research programs essential for continued national prosperity” without continued funding from federal agencies.
“It felt like all the work I’ve put in these last few years was worth nothing,” Gracie Hines, a prospective student at West Virginia University who had her offer revoked by the university, told The Journal. “I was really heartbroken and sad about it.”
West Virginia University did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
60 UNIVERSITIES UNDER INVESTIGATION BY TRUMP ADMIN FOR ‘ANTISEMITIC DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT’
Some professors are even offering potential Ph.D. students advice: Don’t start a doctoral program.
“It’s a wasted investment,” Harvard Medical School associate professor Joseph Arboleda-Velasquez told The Wall Street Journal.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has defended her agency’s investigation into 60 universities for “antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”
“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers,” she said in a statement. “That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”
Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
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