By SUSAN JONES
No matter who you voted for in last week’s presidential election, it’s hard to ignore the potential impact a second Trump administration might have on higher education.
For instance, the former president vowed during the campaign to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and to continue the crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at colleges and universities across the nation. Other areas that will likely face scrutiny under Donald Trump and his running-mate, J.D. Vance, are student loan relief and Title IX reforms.
Then there’s the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services. Kennedy, a prominent promoter of discredited anti-vaccination rhetoric, said during his failed 2024 presidential bid that if he won he would order a pause in drug development and infectious disease research, which Pitt definitely has a stake in.
“I think institutions of higher education may be in for an even rockier road than expected in the next four years,” said Chris Bonneau, Pitt political science professor and former University Senate president. “Both Trump and Vance have expressed hostility to colleges and universities, with Vance saying they propagate ‘deceit and lies’ and proposing to drastically increase the tax paid by university endowments.
“I think there is a real concern that the federal government will take an increasingly active and combative approach to universities, conditioning federal funding (and student aid) to curricular changes and the erosion of academic freedom,” Bonneau added. “I am hopeful that higher education will be able to successfully defend itself against attacks like these, but we are in for some choppy waters ahead.”
Trump has said he thought that colleges needed to be reclaimed from “Marxist maniacs,” and his running mate, Vance, has described universities as “the enemy,” according to the New York Times.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 outline for a new Republican administration — whose writers include several former Trump aides, but which has been downplayed by the former president — leans heavily on post-secondary workforce development and has some harsh words for traditional institutions of higher education.
The document says institutions that receive federal dollars should “bolster economic growth, and recipient institutions should nourish academic freedom and embrace intellectual diversity. That has not, however, been the track record of federal higher education policy or of the many institutions of higher education that are hostile to free expression, open academic inquiry, and American exceptionalism.”
It says federal postsecondary policy should be rebalanced to focus far more on bolstering “the workforce skills of Americans who have no interest in pursuing a four-year academic degree. … Rather than continuing to buttress a higher education establishment captured by woke ‘diversicrats’ and a de facto monopoly enforced by the federal accreditation cartel, federal postsecondary education policy should prepare students for jobs in the dynamic economy, nurture institutional diversity, and expose schools to greater market forces.”
“I think the thing to remember about the new Trump administration is that governing is notoriously difficult. Saying you want to do something is not the same as actually doing it,” said Kristin Kanthak, associate professor of political science and vice president of the University Senate.
She points out that the Reagan administration also wanted to abolish the Department of Education in the 1980s and the department survived. But the Biden administration’s push to forgive student loan debt and create new civil rights protections face greater challenges, “because those were done via executive order so they can be changed via another executive order.”
“That said, I do think higher education in general should expect significant headwinds over the next four years. Part of the difficulty is not knowing what is coming next,” she said. “I’m not sure we will see much new legislation that is harmful to higher education, because it will be hard to pass through the Senate. But I wouldn’t hold my breath for new initiatives to support higher education.
“But the reality is that higher education is not particularly popular right now. We have not done a good job of communicating our value to society,” Kanthak added. “Changing public opinion is probably where advocates on behalf of higher education ought to expend their efforts, because they are not likely to get much sympathy from Washington.”
Department of Education
One of Trump’s pledges has been to dismantle the federal Department of Education and push all its responsibilities out to states. Those responsibilities include administering federal grant programs, like Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools.
As it relates to higher education, the department oversees the federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate, collects data on enrollment and other issues, and enforces civil rights laws that bar discrimination in federally funded schools on the basis of race, sex and other factors.
Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, dean of Pitt’s School of Education, said it is “disheartening to consider the U.S. Department of Education being dismantled.”
“Given that the DOE plays a critical role in providing federal oversight for maintaining uniform educational standards nationwide, I am concerned that a lack of federal oversight would create significant disparities in educational quality, equitable student experiences, and outcomes between states and regions. The opportunity gap that already exists would only be exacerbated, and this would further hinder students from underserved and disadvantaged backgrounds from having a high-quality education.”
She also is concerned about what happens with the enforcement of federal civil rights laws in education, including at universities. “If the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights is removed, it is unclear whether discrimination, harassment and ensuring equal access to educational opportunities will be enforced if the responsibilities are left to states. Given the current anti-DEI climate, the decreased enforcement of civil rights protections could fuel increased discrimination and inequities in PK-20 education, and I’m especially troubled by what this would mean for racially minoritized and LGBTQ students.”
Eliminating the DOE would need “considerable political effort,” including Congressional approval, but Zamani-Gallaher said it’s not impossible. “Even if achieved, some responsibilities currently managed by the department would likely still need to be handled by another federal entity or redistributed to state agencies, leading to complex restructuring.”
If the DOE is removed from administering student loans and financial aid programs, “I’m deeply concerned that the process would be more fragmented, less efficient and mismanaged, which would potentially lead to increased costs, less financial aid and reduced affordability for many students,” she said. “Lastly, data collection to inform policies and promote evidence-based educational practices would not be uniform and would likely be impeded in the absence of federal oversight.”
Title IX
During the first Trump administration, Title IX rules on how colleges must address allegations of sexual misconduct were changed to give a more restrictive definition of sexual harassment or violence — that it must be severe and pervasive. The Trump-era rules also allowed for a live hearing process where the accused can question the complainant and provided limits that said only current students can report incidents and schools can’t take action if incidents occur off campus, including in off-campus housing.
In August, the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations went into effect at many U.S. colleges and universities, but not at Pitt or at the numerous schools that fall under injunctions temporarily blocking the Education Department rules. The injunction concerned a provision that expanded prohibited sex-based discrimination to include gender identity.
During the campaign, Trump vowed to roll back protections for transgender students, including Title IX rules. The most likely scenario under the new administration is the rules would revert to those from the first Trump administration.
This is another goal listed in Project 2025, which says: “Work with Congress to amend Title IX to include due process requirements; define ‘sex’ under Title IX to mean only biological sex recognized at birth; and strengthen protections for faith-based educational institutions, programs, and activities.”
Diversity initiatives
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have long been a target of conservatives. Project 2025 says that “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory.”
Several states have already made moves to limit diversity initiatives at their public colleges. The Chronicle of Higher Education has tracked DEI changes at 207 college campuses in 32 states since January 2023, including Penn State closing its Multicultural Resource Center this year.
During the campaign, Trump said as part of his Agenda 47: “Schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”
He also said in a July video that he would use new accreditors to impose these rules and “fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.”
While no one in Pitt’s administration would comment on the new Trump administration, Chancellor Joan Gabel has repeatedly voiced her support for diversity and equity on campus. Last year, she said, “I’m committed to building a campus community where a sense of belonging is strong, accessibility is valued, and equity and diversity are actively promoted.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.