Primer on the Issues Facing Higher Ed and Yale
Primer on the Issues Facing Higher Ed and Yale
The Trump administration is pursuing an extraordinary and unprecedented attack on American higher education in general, and those institutions like Yale it smears as “woke” in particular, in multiple and ever-escalating ways, including, but not limited to: stripping away critical research funding and drastically increasing the costs of doing lifesaving research, violating the rights of international students, demanding curricular and administrative changes, threatening institutions' tax exempt status, slashing student loans, and increasing the endowment tax that would, among other harms, drastically curtail universities’ capacity to offer need-based financial aid. While this attack on higher education singles out elite universities as targets for reasons of obvious political utility, the impact of these changes already resonates far beyond those campuses, by endangering or even reversing scientific and medical advancement, normalizing the violation of Americans’ right to freedom of expression, further vilifying American expertise, diminishing access to education for students, and tarnishing the United States as a beacon of freedom and democracy in the eyes of the world. These harms will ramify for generations, perhaps irreversibly.
As this attack on higher education in general and Yale in particular is ongoing and multi-pronged, we cannot offer a thorough overview here, but we urge you to educate yourselves, and offer below some points of entry to understanding this fast-moving situation.
The NIH, DOE and NSF have tried to institute a drastic reduction in reimbursement for “indirect research costs” for their federal research grants. The caps, which would severely hamper both ongoing and new scientific research at US universities, are currently blocked by federal judges while the lawsuits challenging them work their way through the courts. In addition, thousands of grants have been terminated across the country either because they focused on research topics that the Trump Administration finds objectionable (e.g., LGBTQ health, women’s health, COVID, vaccine hesitancy) or because certain universities have been targeted for blanket termination of all grants (e.g., Harvard, Columbia)
Current status on indirect costs: https://www.highereddive.com/news/national-science-foundation-faces-lawsuit-over-15-indirect-research-cap/747385/
Yale impact (indirect costs): https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/02/11/mcinnis-slams-trumps-cuts-to-nih-indirect-research-costs/
NSF grant cuts: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/22/upshot/nsf-grants-trump-cuts.html
NIH grant cuts: https://www.statnews.com/2025/05/27/nih-cuts-tracked-in-grant-watch-database-q-and-a-with-harvard-researcher-scott-delaney/
Yale impact (grant terminations): https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/04/23/nih-cuts-funding-for-yales-public-health-equity-research/
The tax-and-spending bill passed by Congress included a significant increase to the endowment tax, from 1.4% to up to 8% for Yale and other institutions with similar-sized endowments. According to Yale, the university will be faced with a tax bill of $280 million in the first year of the tax.
Scores of international students have had their visas revoked and/or legal status terminated; some have been picked up off the streets and detained. Apart from the grave injustice to current international students, this will also cool the desire of talented students to study in the US in the future. In late April the Trump administration restored legal status to many students, but emphasized that this was only temporary as they prepared plans for a new policy that will expand their authority.
Report on forthcoming ICE policy: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/global/international-students-us/2025/05/02/new-ice-policy-puts-international-students-greater
The administration has demanded sweeping changes to governance and policies at certain campuses — most prominently, Harvard and Columbia — and has imposed draconian funding cuts when their demands were not met (or, in Columbia’s case, even when they were). The demands on Harvard would have significantly infringed on academic freedom on campus, including an ideological audit of students and faculty, and targeted admission and hiring of those with viewpoints favored by the administration. On May 22, the administration escalated its threats by revoking Harvard's ability to enroll international students, which is currently on hold due to a court ruling.
NYT report on targeting colleges: https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-university-college.html
NYT report on Harvard international student enrollment: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/trump-harvard-international-students.html