Early in the spring semester, Lori White had lunch with some DePauw University students and asked how they were doing.
The students didn’t raise concerns or complaints about the economic and political uncertainty plaguing the country, said White, who’s been president of DePauw since 2020. Instead, their answers were about their college experience.
“Most of the things they talked about are, I’m really excited about my athletic team, I’m excited about my research project, you know, I’m excited about my club and organization,” White said.
Since President Trump was inaugurated, hardly a day has passed without news of the administration’s latest plans for higher education, including cutting research grants, punishing alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination law, and apprehending foreign students accused of antisemitism.
The most punitive measures have, so far, been focused on the nation’s wealthiest and most-selective research institutions, which serve a small percentage of the nation’s undergraduate students and control a disproportionate share of endowment wealth. Harvard University has borne the brunt of the fallout: Trump has threatened its tax-exempt status and canceled billions in funding. (Those dollars had previously been frozen, but the government is now clawing it back grant by grant.)
At institutions like DePauw, presidents are closely monitoring the administration’s higher-education agenda, though those actions may have less-direct impact, for now. DePauw has little in common with the members of the Ivy League, except that it is a private university that emphasizes the liberal arts.
Still, campus leaders at community colleges and four-year public regional and private institutions — representing the vast majority of higher ed — say they do see impacts of Trump’s policies. Fear, particularly about the future of financial aid and immigration crackdowns, is pervasive.
Michael H. Gavin, president of Delta College, in Michigan, said he is doing what he can at the moment, but has no idea what the future holds.
“We think we’re poised for 12:54 p.m., today, right?” he said during an afternoon interview. “You know, a lot of things that are happening right now I didn’t see coming so quickly, to be honest.”
Managing the news, policy shifts, and threats coming from the Trump administration has become a task all its own, college presidents said. They face constant demands to analyze the changes and communicate with students and faculty in real time — even if their campuses are outside of the immediate political fray.
You know, a lot of things that are happening right now I didn’t see coming so quickly, to be honest.
That’s in addition to managing the headwinds that long predated this administration, including financial pressures from declining enrollment and increased expenses; public skepticism about the price and value of a college degree; the ongoing effects from the pandemic on mental and physical health; and the mounting state-level backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion.
At Delta College, some students heard news of Trump’s intentions to close the Education Department, Gavin said, and were afraid that their federal financial aid would disappear. The administration has cut nearly half of the department’s staff and issued an executive order calling for the agency to be shuttered, though a full closure would actually require legislation. At the same time, officials have pledged that student aid will continue.
Faculty were concerned, Gavin said, that executive actions targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts would force them to change what they were teaching or how they were supporting students. The federal government is prohibited from controlling the curriculum. But the wording of some Trump directives — such as one demanding that colleges erase any consideration of race in “all” aspects of “student, academic, and campus life” — put people on edge. (Last month, a judge temporarily blocked that “Dear Colleague” letter as a lawsuit against it proceeds.).
So far, nothing has changed in Delta’s programs or course offerings, Gavin said: “We still call things diversity, equity and inclusion.”
But the college is also planning for contingencies. “If somehow the government is going to withhold federal financial-aid dollars going to students based on something,” Gavin said, “then that will be where we have to change.”
David Tandberg, president of Adams State University, said he has tried to sort the administration’s actions into several buckets based on whether they would have a direct impact on his campus — a public regional institution in rural, southern Colorado — and whether they’re probably just rhetoric.
“We’re seeing all of those, and it takes a lot to sort through them,” Tandberg said. “The first month it was coming like a fire hose.”
Similar to Delta College, an urgent concern for a university like Adams State is whether federal cuts could slow or stop the flow of student financial aid, Tandberg said. More than 40 percent of students at Adams State receive student loans from the department, according to federal data, and about 44 percent of students come from low-income families that are eligible for Pell Grants.
The university is also monitoring the possibility of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Adams State is designated as an Hispanic-serving institution, with about 37 percent of its students identifying as Hispanic, according to federal data.
To keep students and faculty informed, the university has hosted several all-campus forums and sent out regular emails, as well as updated their policies and procedures to prepare for the possibility that federal agents would try to apprehend students on campus.
Likewise, Gavin has held town halls at Delta College every two weeks to flag updates and dispel misperceptions.
But the time and energy spent analyzing and reacting to the Trump administration, Tandberg said, is time not spent helping students who “desperately want a high-quality education, and to graduate and reap the benefits of their degree.”
At DePauw, White said she and her staff have been in close contact with international students — a group that has been targeted for deportations by the Trump administration — who make up nearly a quarter of the university’s undergraduates.
White said she and her staff have also sought to change some of the negative perceptions about higher education, by communicating to elected officials the economic and educational value of the university as one of the region’s largest employers.
That messaging could help insulate DePauw from another threat: an increase in the number of colleges that pay a tax on endowment interest. The current endowment tax applies a 1.4-percent levy on colleges that enroll more than 500 students and have an endowment valued at more than $500,000 per student. Republicans in Congress are considering increasing that tax and applying it more widely.
DePauw’s endowment of more than $900 million works out to about $478,000 per student, according to the university’s own figures. Some estimates suggest that DePauw could be subject to the tax if Republicans’ changes go through. College leaders have argued that higher taxes on endowment interest will harm financial aid.
Even as many colleges contemplate the possible impacts of the White House’s threats, they may face more acute challenges closer to home.
“While all this is happening at the federal level,” said Gavin, “what concerns a lot, a majority of us, is the state-level stuff.”
In Iowa, for example, both public and private colleges were initially included in a bill that bars the consideration of race for admissions and hiring, as well as any “effort to promote differential treatment of or provide special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity.”
“We’re a private entity, and we’re facing legislation that would restrict what we could say,” said Earl F. Martin, president of Drake University. “If we do say these things,” he said, “then our students, our low-income Iowa students, would not be eligible for the Iowa tuition grant. So just let that sink in.” (Martin spoke to The Chronicle just before the state Senate amended the bill this month to remove private colleges.)
Another Iowa bill would condition state financial aid on having a certain percentage of students at private and public colleges enrolled in “high-demand fields,” Martin said. That could penalize Drake for an offering like its well-regarded theater program, he said, even though the university places all of its theater majors in jobs or graduate school after they complete their bachelor’s degree.
The state also passed a new law that removes state civil-rights protections for persons based on gender identity. That measure prompted a rare public statement from Martin, who sent an email to the campus community, calling the legislation “one among many current state and federal efforts that seek to turn our differences into division.”
“This is a moral failure against which we stand in opposition,” Martin wrote. “It is our duty to respect, support, and affirm anyone in our community targeted by these actions.”
Martin’s public statement highlights another ongoing challenge for campus leaders: deciding when to speak out. In this case, he said, the issue struck at the core of what the university stands for.
“We have been a place of welcome and encouragement for all to come and study and work and be a part of this community,” Martin said, “and that legislation impacted members of our community who we invited to be here.”
Beyond speaking out on occasion, Martin acknowledges that much of what will happen in Washington or Des Moines is out of anyone’s control. He isn’t giving up, but he knows that the efforts may often be futile.
“Some of what we’re going to be doing over the next whatever period of time is going to be the equivalent of pounding sand,” Martin said, “but we’re going to pound it really well.”
