The Trump administration has made numerous statements regarding U.S. colleges that may affect SRU students.
In November 2024, Trump stated colleges needed to be reclaimed and called for the privatization of student loans, scaling back funding for campuses with DEI programs and removing protections for transgender students.
There are also reports of the Trump administration wanting to eliminate the Department of Education and expand taxes on university endowment. Many believe these are gross exaggerations, but how much of it has already been put into action?
A federal funding freeze occurred in late January into February. This temporarily blocked the Medicaid system, early childhood education programs such as HeadStart, nonprofit organizations, forced colleges to pause research due to uncertainty, and paused programs the Trump administration disagreed with—DEI specifically.
Each of these impact college students individually and together.
The Medicaid freeze, which has since been resolved, affected the estimated 17% of college students who rely on the system for basic healthcare.
Additionally, colleges across the country have been strongly advised to pause all research, as funding may have to be privately sourced. Major projects such as cancer research, human trafficking projects and food research aimed at alleviating poverty have been affected.
On Tuesday, Feb. 6, Trump reversed legislation allowing transgender women and girls to play in federally funded school sports and stated that if any institution were to defy the order they would have federal funding withdrawn.
The N.C.A.A. released a statement claiming they would follow the new “national standard” in all federally funded college sports. The new legislation does not only impact transgender athletes but could lead to personal and invasive questioning and potential physical examinations of cisgender women in college sports.
The ability to pay for higher education affects almost all students.
There has been speculation around the Trump administration cutting federal aid in college. Alongside this, rumors of removing the SAVE Plan have emerged. The repayment plan for loans allows for people under the poverty line to pause their repayment on loans. This helps around 7 million student loan borrowers in the US.
Another potential issue is the proposal of taxation on scholarships, meaning any scholarship received from your place of education can now be taxed as income. With this, the idea of increasing college endowment taxes has been thrown around as well, effectively raising the cost of housing, tuition and on campus meal plans.
Currently the proposed increase in the tax requirement is 1.4% being raised to 14%. This severe increase would drastically affect many college students and the higher education system at large. Pew Research Center Reports that 49% of Americans already think higher education is less important now than in the past.
If passed, each of these actions would shift access to education further away from low-income students and could change the overall way colleges operate.
