In the first weeks of his presidency, President Donald Trump and his administration have issued a slew of executive actions, many of which are poised to impact on Princeton University and its students and faculty. The Daily Princetonian has compiled a list of such actions, which range from chaotic guidance on federal funding to new directives on Title IX.
The University has yet to issue definite guidance on the executive actions, with President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 writing in a campus-wide email last week that “At this time, there is much that we do not know.”
DEI programs
On Jan. 20 and Jan. 21, Trump signed executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at colleges and other “influential institutions of American society,” prohibiting DEI initiatives in federally-funded programs. This comes following the Supreme Court’s reversal of race-conscious affirmative action in 2023 and a wave of recent anti-DEI legislation proposed by Republican lawmakers.
As many universities, including Princeton, depend on federal research grants and contracts, these orders have prompted cautious responses across higher education. Following the executive orders, Rutgers University canceled a virtual “HBCUs and Registered Apprenticeship Mini-Conference,” and Missouri State University ended its DEI programs.
Trump also called for compliance reviews at institutions with endowments exceeding $1 billion. Despite Princeton being among 131 universities across the nation with endowments over $1 billion, the University reaffirmed its commitment to “inclusion, excellence, equality, and free speech” in its fourth annual DEI report released on Jan. 30. Michele Minter, Princeton’s vice provost for institutional equity and diversity, estimated in December that approximately 75 DEI practitioners are employed across various departments and offices on campus.
Federal funding freezes
In a Jan. 27 memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) obtained by NPR, funding for federal grants and loans was to be temporarily paused until the administration “complete[d] a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by” the Trump administration’s executive orders. Following a federal judge temporarily blocking the order, the OMB rescinded the spending freeze on Jan. 29. Over 20 states, including New Jersey, have sued the Trump administration to prevent the implementation of the policy.
Many universities, including Princeton, receive federal funding and research grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation. Between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024, the University was awarded $58 million from the NIH, which paused grant review following a Trump-imposed ban on communications.
A Jan. 30 memo from the Office of the Dean for Research urged researchers to pass on any stop-work orders they receive and directed them to a newly launched webpage for further information. With confusion remaining around federal funding, several faculty members from the School of Public and International Affairs and Neuroscience departments are organizing a “teach-in and briefing” on Feb. 4 to discuss the legality of executive actions and their implications for scientific research.
Financial aid and Pell grants will not be impacted by this executive order, the Department of Education said last week.
Granting ICE greater authority in ‘sensitive areas’
On Jan. 20, Trump revoked Biden-era guidelines that prevented ICE raids in certain “protected areas,” including places of worship, schools, medical facilities, and other “sensitive areas.” Since the repeal of Biden’s policy, a number of Quaker organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
This new precedent has the potential to affect schools and universities at all levels, including Princeton. Many K–12 schools in New Jersey have released statements regarding potential raids in their schools. Additionally, the language of Biden’s policy included “college[s] and universitie[s]” as examples of protected areas, which means these institutions are now no longer protected.
Title IX Directive
A directive sent out by the Department of Education on Jan. 31 announced that 2020 Title IX rules, created under the Trump administration, would be enforced. Previously, the Biden administration’s Title IX rules expanded regulations to protect LGBTQ+ students, though a decision from the Eastern District of Kentucky on Jan. 9 struck down the rule. This final defeat followed a string of state court injunctions this summer. The 2020 policy narrows the definition of sexual harassment and reduces the liability for colleges when reviewing such cases.
Scrutiny of antisemitism on campuses
A Jan. 29 executive order calls for Princeton and other universities to “monitor” and “report activities by alien students and staff” for actions that constitute antisemitism. Trump vowed in an attached fact sheet that he would “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91, the director of the Center of Jewish Life, made a clear distinction between the protests that have occurred on campus and antisemitic actions that the executive order targets. He also praised the acknowledgement of antisemitism as a key concern of the new administration.
“We have to be very, very careful to make sure that students who want to engage in free speech have their civil liberties protected, and that any criminal actions should only target those we know are engaging in actual material support of terrorism,” he said. “To my knowledge, that is not a reality on our campus, and we want to keep it that way.”
More coverage can be found here.
Civil service hiring
Hours after taking the oath of office, the Trump administration placed an immediate hiring freeze lasting 90 days, during which officials at the OMB, the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Government Efficiency will “reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.” Until late April, the policy stipulates that “no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.”
Job and internship offers are being rescinded across departments in the federal government, impacting Princeton students’ summer and post-graduation plans. In a Jan. 27 email to students who applied for Princeton Internships in Civic Service, applicants were informed that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice were “not able to move forward” with applications. According to the annual senior survey conducted by the ‘Prince,’ the number of undergraduates entering the non-profit and public service sectors post-graduation has fluctuated between 5.9 percent and 7.1 percent in the past three years.
This page will be updated as more information becomes available.
Cynthia Torres, Sena Chang, Devon Rudolph, Leela Hensler contributed reporting.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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