Faculties that run institutions are idealistic, but senior leaders who negotiate with the federal government focus on the bottom line, say policy experts.
Eight months into President Donald Trump’s second term, four universities have reached settlements with the federal government following investigations into their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and anti-Semitism on campus.
Shortly after the president took his oath of office, he signed executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism on college campuses as well as DEI and transgender ideology in college classrooms and hiring practices. Investigations into the nation’s wealthiest schools ensued and the administration has taken action based on the findings.
The president has leveraged federal funding cuts—totaling hundreds of millions of dollars—and litigation from the Justice Department to bring institutions of higher education in line with civil rights policies and rein in unlawful behavior on campus.
Trump also threatened to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status and block visas for foreign students.
Harvard, hailed by academia as the champion of resistance, responded with lawsuits.
Several other embattled schools haven’t officially come to terms yet.
Still, proponents of higher education reform say the federal government’s recent $221 million settlement with Columbia University solidified a playbook for other schools to follow.
The measures also empower university leaders and trustees who longed for similar changes but lacked leverage against left-leaning professors, according to Jay Greene, senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
“Faculties had collectively owned universities, and problems had been allowed to fester for years,” Greene told The Epoch Times.
“Senior leadership at these schools gains back control. They are relieved, and they get to blame Trump. It’s a total win.”
The Roadmap
Shortly after taking the oath of office, Trump announced that his administration was investigating some of the country’s wealthiest universities for anti-Semitism on their campuses in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
The federal government also began looking into discriminatory campus practices such as race-based admissions or hiring, mandatory diversity training, affinity groups, ideological instruction, and Title IX violations such as allowing males to participate in women’s sports.
Additionally, the Department of Education announced that it would investigate 45 schools affiliated with the PhD Project, a nonprofit organization committed to boosting racial diversity among doctoral students.
Columbia University leaders, facing the loss of $400 million in federal grants, acknowledged their failures to deal with anti-Semitism. The university’s July 23 settlement with the government includes a $200 million fine and $21 million in total payments to Jewish employees harassed by coworkers and students.
The settlement also stipulates that protesting students are banned from wearing masks and prohibits hiring practices based on gender and race. In addition, student disciplinary procedures were moved from the faculty-based judiciary to the administrative-level provost’s office.
Columbia also pledged to increase scrutiny of admission applications of foreign students and agreed to a federal review of its Middle Eastern studies program, which played a role in the pro-Palestinian campus protests.
“Columbia’s reforms are a roadmap for elite universities that wish to regain the confidence of the American public by renewing their commitment to truth-seeking, merit, and civil debate,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “I believe they will ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.”
Greene said the Columbia deal takes rule-making control out of the hands of faculty and administrative staff and returns it to the university’s president and board of trustees.
“It’s a pretty small price for what they needed to do and wanted to do,” he said. “They regained the reins from radical faculty.”
