Students and faculty heading back to American campuses this fall are walking into institutions already bruised, destabilized, and stripped of core freedoms. The Guardian reports that universities across the country are reeling under the Trump administration’s most aggressive campaign yet to bend higher education to its ideological will. From shuttered student groups to frozen research funds and mass visa cancellations, the turbulence has left scholars warning that the threat now feels “existential.”
Cuts, closures and the collapse of diversity initiatives
At the University of Utah, the Black student union has lost both funding and space, one of many student organizations dismantled by Trump’s anti-diversity drive. Indiana’s public universities have eliminated or merged more than 400 degree programs, nearly one-fifth of their offerings, while dozens of others have followed suit under budgetary pressure.
Meanwhile, elite institutions such as Harvard and Columbia face new restrictions where certain criticism of Israel is punishable as antisemitism. For international students, the hurdles are mounting: The administration has erected multiple barriers to entry, forcing numbers to plummet.
“This is obviously the most intense assault on higher education by the federal government in the history of the United States,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), in comments to The Guardian. “Everyone is coming into fire.”
Settlements and coercion
The administration has weaponized federal funding to coerce compliance. Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania have already entered into settlements with the White House, paying millions and surrendering parts of their autonomy to preserve access to federal dollars. Education secretary Linda McMahon hailed the Columbia settlement as a model that would “change the course of campus culture for years to come,” according to The Guardian.
Harvard has been the lone university to sue the administration, contesting both funding cuts and a block on enrolling foreign students. Even there, reports suggest the school is negotiating a deal. UCLA has had $584 million in funding frozen, with Trump demanding $1 billion in payouts linked to antisemitism claims, though a federal judge has partially restored the funds.
Dozens of other universities remain under civil rights investigations, a process education advocates told The Guardian amounts to little more than “extortion.”
Fear, intimidation, and a chilling effect
The administration has moved aggressively to redefine antisemitism in ways critics say undermine academic freedom. It has forced out a university president, stacked public university boards with conservative appointees, and issued executive orders dismantling equity initiatives and accreditation systems.
The White House recently announced that 6,000 international student visas have been revoked since Trump returned to office, with immigration officials now screening applicants’ social media for “anti-American activity.” NAFSA, a global educators’ association, projected a 30–40% decline in new international enrollment this year.
“There is already a chilling effect, fueled by fear and intimidation, that stifles the free exchange of ideas, weakens innovation and curtails global influence,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, to The Guardian.
Faculty silenced, research stalled
For faculty, the sense of siege is palpable. Nadje Al-Ali, an anthropologist and former director at Brown’s Center for Middle East Studies, testified in court that she abandoned research in the Middle East after the arrest and detention of students for pro-Palestinian views. “I felt like, OK, next in line will be faculty,” she said.
The Guardian also notes how universities have preemptively gutted diversity initiatives, canceled courses, and disciplined professors to avoid federal wrath. Maura Finkelstein, an anthropologist who became the first tenured professor fired for her pro-Palestinian advocacy, told the paper the fear is material: “No one I know is feeling secure in terms of affording rent and groceries, or whether they will be expelled or fired.”
The result is an academic workforce demoralized, with some choosing to resign, censor their work, or leave the country altogether.
State politics, federal backing
Trump’s return to power has emboldened conservative governors who were already targeting universities. In Florida, Texas, and Ohio, legislatures have pushed bills restricting faculty independence and appointing partisan administrators — part of what Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has called a crusade against “woke indoctrination.”
By aligning federal might with state-level culture wars, Trump has transformed universities into battlegrounds for ideological control.
A looming showdown
Beyond campus politics, the cuts are reverberating across scientific and medical research after the administration slashed hundreds of millions from National Institutes of Health budgets. Hundreds of faculty jobs have already been lost.
Wolfson of the AAUP told The Guardian the time for a more “militant” response may be near: “We’re going to need to politicize this fight. It’s not an economic strike around our job conditions, it’s a political strike around the future of the sector.”
Unions and advocates now argue that the only viable response is broad coalition-building: Students, faculty, and businesses together resisting policies they say jeopardize America’s standing as a global leader in knowledge and innovation.
The breaking point
The crisis raises deeper questions: What happens when a nation deliberately weakens its own higher education system, one that has long been a magnet for global talent and scientific advancement?
The Trump administration’s campaign is not just about university budgets. It is about reshaping the role of higher education itself, from a space of inquiry and dissent to one of compliance and conformity.
The result, scholars warn, could be a permanent chilling of academic freedom in the United States, and a breaking point for one of its most vital institutions.
TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here.
Cuts, closures and the collapse of diversity initiatives
At the University of Utah, the Black student union has lost both funding and space, one of many student organizations dismantled by Trump’s anti-diversity drive. Indiana’s public universities have eliminated or merged more than 400 degree programs, nearly one-fifth of their offerings, while dozens of others have followed suit under budgetary pressure.
Meanwhile, elite institutions such as Harvard and Columbia face new restrictions where certain criticism of Israel is punishable as antisemitism. For international students, the hurdles are mounting: The administration has erected multiple barriers to entry, forcing numbers to plummet.
“This is obviously the most intense assault on higher education by the federal government in the history of the United States,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), in comments to The Guardian. “Everyone is coming into fire.”
Settlements and coercion
The administration has weaponized federal funding to coerce compliance. Columbia, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania have already entered into settlements with the White House, paying millions and surrendering parts of their autonomy to preserve access to federal dollars. Education secretary Linda McMahon hailed the Columbia settlement as a model that would “change the course of campus culture for years to come,” according to The Guardian.
Harvard has been the lone university to sue the administration, contesting both funding cuts and a block on enrolling foreign students. Even there, reports suggest the school is negotiating a deal. UCLA has had $584 million in funding frozen, with Trump demanding $1 billion in payouts linked to antisemitism claims, though a federal judge has partially restored the funds.
Dozens of other universities remain under civil rights investigations, a process education advocates told The Guardian amounts to little more than “extortion.”
Fear, intimidation, and a chilling effect
The administration has moved aggressively to redefine antisemitism in ways critics say undermine academic freedom. It has forced out a university president, stacked public university boards with conservative appointees, and issued executive orders dismantling equity initiatives and accreditation systems.
The White House recently announced that 6,000 international student visas have been revoked since Trump returned to office, with immigration officials now screening applicants’ social media for “anti-American activity.” NAFSA, a global educators’ association, projected a 30–40% decline in new international enrollment this year.
“There is already a chilling effect, fueled by fear and intimidation, that stifles the free exchange of ideas, weakens innovation and curtails global influence,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, to The Guardian.
Faculty silenced, research stalled
For faculty, the sense of siege is palpable. Nadje Al-Ali, an anthropologist and former director at Brown’s Center for Middle East Studies, testified in court that she abandoned research in the Middle East after the arrest and detention of students for pro-Palestinian views. “I felt like, OK, next in line will be faculty,” she said.
The Guardian also notes how universities have preemptively gutted diversity initiatives, canceled courses, and disciplined professors to avoid federal wrath. Maura Finkelstein, an anthropologist who became the first tenured professor fired for her pro-Palestinian advocacy, told the paper the fear is material: “No one I know is feeling secure in terms of affording rent and groceries, or whether they will be expelled or fired.”
The result is an academic workforce demoralized, with some choosing to resign, censor their work, or leave the country altogether.
State politics, federal backing
Trump’s return to power has emboldened conservative governors who were already targeting universities. In Florida, Texas, and Ohio, legislatures have pushed bills restricting faculty independence and appointing partisan administrators — part of what Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis has called a crusade against “woke indoctrination.”
By aligning federal might with state-level culture wars, Trump has transformed universities into battlegrounds for ideological control.
A looming showdown
Beyond campus politics, the cuts are reverberating across scientific and medical research after the administration slashed hundreds of millions from National Institutes of Health budgets. Hundreds of faculty jobs have already been lost.
Wolfson of the AAUP told The Guardian the time for a more “militant” response may be near: “We’re going to need to politicize this fight. It’s not an economic strike around our job conditions, it’s a political strike around the future of the sector.”
Unions and advocates now argue that the only viable response is broad coalition-building: Students, faculty, and businesses together resisting policies they say jeopardize America’s standing as a global leader in knowledge and innovation.
The breaking point
The crisis raises deeper questions: What happens when a nation deliberately weakens its own higher education system, one that has long been a magnet for global talent and scientific advancement?
The Trump administration’s campaign is not just about university budgets. It is about reshaping the role of higher education itself, from a space of inquiry and dissent to one of compliance and conformity.
The result, scholars warn, could be a permanent chilling of academic freedom in the United States, and a breaking point for one of its most vital institutions.
TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here.
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