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 on Jan. 28 that “At this time, there is much that we do not know.”
University publishes “Campus Resources on Federal Actions” page, Feb. 25
Rochelle Calhoun, the Vice President for Campus Life, sent an email to all undergraduate students titled “Resources for Support and Information.” The email provided a link to a new website on campus orders in light of recent administrative actions targetting higher education, though no other new information was provided.
Calhoun quoted the message University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 sent to the campus community on January 28, where he stated that the University is “proceeding carefully to ensure that the steps we take are sensitive to the needs of our community, consistent across the University, and in compliance with applicable laws.” She also pointed to his recent 2025 State of the University Letter.
In addition to information about the University’s response to significant changes in federal funding for academic research, the website features resources on policies regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity; information for students who do not hold U.S. Citizenship from the Davis International Center; and several different sources of support for students who require sex/gender/gender-affirming care, including the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC), University Health Services (UHS), and Human Resources. For any further concerns, the site contains a list of administrators that faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates can contact.
Datasets disappearing from federal websites, Feb. 16
Thousands of federal web pages containing health guidelines, census reports, and climate data were taken offline beginning Feb. 16. Some reappeared in the following days without clear explanations of any changes but included disclaimers stating that further updates may occur.
Scholars in the Princeton Office of Population Research (OPR), the Department of Economics, and the Department of Sociology have expressed concern over how these changes may disrupt their research, with some moving to download and save datasets they fear may become inaccessible in the future.
“The power to not collect data or to remove data — it not only weakens science, but it weakens anyone’s ability to question what the government is doing,” Edward Freeland, Executive Director of the University’s Survey Research Center, said. “So it’s not hard to see why the Trump administration has an interest in preventing easy access to data.”
Read coverage from the ‘Prince’ here.
DEI deemed to violate civil rights law, Feb. 14
Race-based scholarships, cultural centers, and any other race-conscious student programming were deemed illegal by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in a letter on Feb. 14.
The letter, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor, reads that “a school may not use students’ personal essays, writing samples, participation in extracurriculars, or other cues as a means of determining or prediction a student’s race and favoring or disfavoring such students.”
The letter includes a broad interpretation of the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action ban. The racial diversity of Princeton’s Class of 2028, the first class to be admitted following the ban, did not change substantially.
NIH cuts to indirect funding, Feb. 7
On Feb. 7, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a directive limiting the portion of grant funds allocated for indirect costs, which typically cover administrative and operational expenses at universities. The cap, which has been set at 15 percent, is significantly lower than the national average of around 30 percent, although some universities, including Princeton, had a 2024 indirect cost rate of 64 percent.
The directive is set to take effect on Monday and has raised concerns among Princeton scientists.
“Without NIH grants, I cannot pay the salaries of people in my lab or for the experiments that they perform,” Professor Joshua Akey wrote to the ‘Prince.’
Between Oct. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024, Princeton was awarded over $58 million from the NIH. According to the NIH, the change is expected to cut $4 billion in spending annually.
“The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” the announcement from the Office of the Director of the NIH read. “It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”
On Feb. 11, the Association of American Universities (AAU), Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the American Council on Education (ACE), and 13 colleges — including three Ivy League schools — filed a joint lawsuit to stop the NIH’s cuts to indirect funding. While Princeton is not among the plaintiffs, provost Jennifer Rexford ‘91 submitted a declaration supporting the suit.
Ban on transgender athletes in sports, Feb. 5
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” In the order, Trump threatened to “rescind all funds from educational programs” that do not comply with his rules, citing Title IX rules, which have also changed recently. Transgender athletes’ participation in athletics has been a controversial topic in college athletics: according to the Daily Princetonian Frosh Survey, over 40 percent of students in the Class of 2028 hold “favorable” or “strongly favorable” opinions about “athletics rules that bar trans women from competing in women’s sports.” In 2022, Lia Thomas, a transgender female swimmer who competed for the University of Pennsylvania, caused controversy and discord within Princeton’s athletics community when she beat a record set by a Princeton swimmer.
DEI programs, Jan. 20-21
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.
On Feb. 4, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed a lawsuit against Trump’s executive orders on DEI initiatives in higher education. AAUP has said that Trump is exceeding his power and that the orders are “unlawful” and “unconstitutional.”
Federal funding freezes, Jan. 27
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,’ Jan. 20
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.
In the wake of these actions, the University has issued new guidance instructing faculty and staff to not consent to ICE raids and instead direct them to the University’s Office of General Council (OGC) and the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Title IX Directive, Jan. 31
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, Jan. 29
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, Jan. 20
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 was last updated on Feb. 16, and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Cynthia Torres, Sena Chang, Devon Rudolph, Leela Hensler, Christopher Bao, Victoria Davies, and Douglas Schwartz contributed reporting.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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