At UVA, the Department of Justice successfully pressured the school’s president into stepping down from his post on Friday. On Monday, the Trump administration declared that Harvard remains in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, citing its lackluster response to antisemitism on campus. And on Tuesday, the Department of Education, wielding Title IX, announced that Penn will bar biological males who identity as female from participating in female sports and erase the school records set by Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who competed for the university’s women’s teams.
This week marks the latest chapter in the ongoing White House-led reckoning for college campuses nationwide. Harvard, in particular, has absorbed much of the president’s ire. In April, the administration sent a letter to the Ivy League school with sweeping demands for its admissions, hiring practices, and curriculum. When Harvard President Alan Garber did not comply, the White House froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to the university. Harvard sued, alleging the funding freeze had been politically motivated. The administration doubled down in early June, ordering the suspension of international visas for foreign students enrolled at Harvard—a move promptly blocked by a federal judge.
But the Trump team’s most recent maneuver followed glimmers of hope for a detente. On June 20, President Donald Trump said the university had “acted extremely appropriately,” alluding to the possibility of a forthcoming “deal.” Such an arrangement is likely still on the table, but on Monday, the administration alleged that the university had violated civil rights law by failing to protect its Jewish students and faculty from antisemitism on campus. A report detailing a task force’s findings cited instances in which Jewish and Israeli students were harassed, spat on, and even assaulted. The majority of Jewish students said they had experienced negative bias or discrimination, while a quarter reported feeling physically unsafe.
“The Trump administration found that Harvard had indeed violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students, and it is my personal hope that many of these federal funds are cut permanently,” Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish Harvard student who sued the university after his encounters with antisemitism, told TMD.
“My understanding is that the settlement reached will be very similar to the list of demands that [was] initially released to the university,” he added. “It’s a $54 billion business that has classes on the side. And when the bottom line is being threatened, they will change as a result.”
Other universities have already begun to acquiesce to Trump’s demands. UVA’s saga began in March, when the school’s Board of Visitors voted unanimously to eliminate the university’s office of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to comply with Trump’s January executive order calling for an end to DEI programs in the public sector. UVA missed the deadline to comply with the board’s directive, prompting the Department of Justice to ramp up pressure on the school and culminating in the resignation of President Jim Ryan on Friday. His decision to step down reportedly followed a threat by the administration to eliminate millions of dollars in funding to the public school.
Students and Democratic lawmakers alike condemned what they described as the White House’s intrusion into higher education. The editorial board at UVA’s student-run newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, described the move as a “gross manipulation of federal power which has overstepped due process.” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, meanwhile, described the incident as a “direct attack on public education,” adding, “When you attack UVA, who is next?”
Just this year, the school earned the top spot in annual free speech rankings by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). UVA also has a better, albeit imperfect, track record than most elite universities when it comes to creating a safe environment for its Jewish students. The Ryan administration has shut down multiple efforts by anti-Israel protesters to occupy public spaces on campus, including by requesting police assistance in clearing encampments.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that Ryan was engaged in any clear wrongdoing,” Hess told TMD. “It opens a really troubling new front that I don’t think actually serves anybody’s interest long term.”
The University of Pennsylvania became the most recent school to bow to the Trump administration’s demands on Tuesday. The Title IX dispute between Trump and his alma mater began in February, when the Department of Education launched a probe into Penn. A month later, the White House froze $175 million in funding to Penn for permitting Thomas to compete in women’s sports.
This week, however, the administration released the funds after reaching a settlement with the Ivy League school. The university agreed to restrict transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports and pledged to “adopt biology-based definitions” for male and female. On Tuesday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon hailed the deal as “a major accomplishment and a milestone in our fight to restore sanity, fairness, and integrity to women’s sports.”
For many in the world of higher education, the White House’s pressure campaigns targeting college campuses mark a troubling development for academic freedom. However, as we’ve noted in past newsletters, federal intrusions into schools and universities are not new, spanning multiple administrations. In 2011, for example, the Obama administration issued a “Dear Colleague” letter directing universities to significantly reduce the standard of proof needed to find students and faculty members guilty of sexual harassment or assault. The Department of Education rescinded the letter and its 2014 guidance document in 2017 after dozens of lawsuits.
Nor are concerns about free speech, political bias, or illiberal curricula unfounded. But some analysts argue the administration is, in essence, trying to cure illiberalism with more illiberalism. “I believe passionately in the need for higher education reform, but the way the Trump administration has gone about it oftentimes assumes powers that the government simply does not have,” Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of FIRE, told TMD.
And the strategy could ultimately backfire on the values the White House says it’s seeking to protect. “I’m really uncomfortable with the idea of Attorney General Elizabeth Warren in the next administration saying to the University of Florida, ‘Hey, unless you guys reinstitute transgender participation in sports, you’re going to lose funds,’” Hess said. “This is just not a door I think we want to open.”
