Three weeks after Trump cut Princeton’s funding, no demands have been publicly issued. Here’s what we know.

Twenty-four days since the suspension of $210 million in federal grants to the University, Princeton has yet to publicly receive any demands from the Trump administration. Harvard University and Columbia University, both of which had grants and contracts from federal agencies suspended for antisemitism investigations, received a specific list of demands from the Trump administration within 10 days of their funding pauses.

University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 revealed that the federal grants had been suspended in a letter to the University community on April 1. Princeton received a total of $455 million from all levels of government in the 2023–24 fiscal year, according to the 2023–24 Report of the Treasurer, more than double the amount that was recently paused.

The lists of demands received by Harvard and Columbia included reformations of academic programs, auditing of professors, and removals of DEI-related programs. Columbia received their demands six days after they received funding cuts; Harvard received a second list of demands eight days after they received their funding cuts. For Princeton, however, $210 million remains in limbo.

So far, grants from the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, and the National Aeronautical Space Administration have been suspended. Additionally, the Department of Commerce ended $4 million in funding to Princeton for climate research on April 9.

In an April 9 interview for The New York Times podcast The Daily, Eisgruber said that there had been little communication between the presidential administration and the University.

“All the Trump administration has said to us and all — actually the funding agencies have said to us — is that the grants are being suspended and there are a small number of cancellations,” Eisgruber said. “They’ve been suspended pending a period of time during which the administration is determining whether or not the grants are in accordance with law. So they haven’t asked us to do anything.”

Other universities who have lost funds, such as Northwestern were not even been officially notified by the Trump administration of the cuts.

In Harvard’s case, the government initially sent a list of demands to the university in private late last Friday. They proved so extreme that Harvard rejected them in a highly public way, issuing a strongly-worded letter from its president, Alan Garber and launching a series of webpages showcasing its research.

In response, the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion of Harvard’s federal grants and contracts. The administration is threatening an additional $1 billion in funding from federal agencies to Harvard Health Research. Harvard sued the administration over the multibillion dollar cuts on April 21.

Eisgruber expressed support for Garber’s stance in a LinkedIn post on April 14, writing that “Princeton stands with Harvard.” Eisgruber’s name later appeared alongside Garber’s on an April 22 letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) calling for “constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.”

Luke Grippo is a senior News writer and Features contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey and usually covers administrative issues, including Undergraduate Student Government, the Council of the Princeton University Community, and institutional legacy.

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