Since being sworn in for his second presidential term, 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump and his administration have targeted higher education institutions across the country — including Penn — through a series of funding changes, executive orders, and policy measures.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to abolish the Department of Education, ban the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports, cut funding for scientific research, and protect conservative speech on college campuses. Just seventy days into his second term, his administration has aggressively delivered on nearly all of those promises.

Penn President Larry Jameson wrote in a Feb. 24 email that the University is closely monitoring the “existential threat” posed by recent federal actions to higher education and reaffirmed its commitment to academic freedom, inclusion, and compliance with the law. 

“The future of higher education may alter dramatically depending on how courts rule, how agencies implement new policies, and how future orders and legislation are enacted,” Jameson wrote at the time. “The anxiety and frustration many people feel at this moment is deep and often quite personal.”

On March 7, Penn launched a webpage — titled “Federal Government Updates” — tracking federal policy changes and their impacts on the University dating back to Jan. 28. The site intended to centralize updates on ongoing federal actions impacting higher education, research funding, immigration, and other essential areas of Penn’s operations.

Ten weeks into Trump’s second presidential term, The Daily Pennsylvanian compiled the impacts of federal policy changes on Penn — and examined how the University has responded.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order mandating all federally funded universities to eliminate DEI programs that could be in violation of federal civil rights laws. In response, Penn quietly revised longstanding University policies and began implementing widespread changes to its DEI initiatives. 

On Feb. 6, Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and Stuart Weitzman School of Design shut down central offices, initiatives, and web pages related to DEI. That same day, Penn Athletics took down its DEI webpage — which housed an inclusion policy toward transgender student-athletes — following the launch of an investigation into Penn’s alleged Title IX violations that allowed 2022 College graduate and transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete with Penn’s women’s swimming and diving team.

---

---

Four days later, Penn announced plans to revise its nondiscrimination and affirmative action policies as part of its broader effort to comply with the executive order and dismantle DEI-related initiatives across the University.

On Feb. 13, Penn continued its overhaul by removing DEI content from additional websites — including the DEI page for the Wharton School of Business and Penn Libraries — and relabeling Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science Office of DEI website to the Cora Ingrum Center for Community and Outreach. 

The next day, Penn scrubbed its central Diversity and Inclusion website, renamed it “Belonging at Penn,” and replaced detailed DEI content with a three-sentence statement affirming Penn’s “commitment to equal opportunity.” 

By Feb. 24, Penn’s four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools had all systematically removed references to diversity, equity, and inclusion from their websites. Among those changes were the revisions of more than a dozen titles of Penn staff members formerly associated with DEI.

On March 20, the Wharton School’s undergraduate concentration and MBA major in diversity, equity, and inclusion were both renamed to “Leading Across Differences.”

Federal funding

In January, the Trump administration restricted National Institutes of Health funding, external communication, and activity, affecting health and research systems, including Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A month later, the Senate Commerce Committee flagged 15 Penn research grants totaling nearly $11 million in funding, alleging that the initiatives promoted DEI and “neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.” 

On March 4, Trump announced that he would pull federal funding from educational institutions that “allow illegal protests.” 

---

---

Trump issued an executive order on March 14 dismantling the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which awarded Penn Museum over $1 million in the fiscal year 2024.

On March 19, the Trump Administration froze over $175 million in federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. The White House attributed the decision to Penn’s failure to bar transgender athletes from women’s sports. Penn has 21 active contracts and 596 active grants that receive funding through the two agencies — totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — according to a DP analysis of U.S. Department of the Treasury fiscal year 2025 data. 

On March 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education. The federal action attempted to dismantle the department, which manages federal student loans through its Office of Federal Student Aid and funds Penn through grants. A 50% reduction to the ED’s workforce began the next day.

The same day, three Penn research projects funded by the NIH had been terminated. In the termination letters, NIH wrote that the awards were “incompatible with agency priorities, and no modification of the project could align the project with agency priorities.”

On March 27, the House of Representatives passed a bill to increase oversight over universities that receive foreign donations and investments, cutting the foreign gift reporting threshold for universities — including Penn — from $250,000 down to $50,000, with a $0 threshold for “countries and entities of concern.”

Academics

On Feb. 7, a directive from the NIH capped “indirect costs” — which provide funding for overhead research costs such as lab spaces and support staff — at 15%. The proposed funding cuts jeopardized $240 million for the University, according to an email from Jameson. Penn medical practitioners and researchers expressed uncertainty for the future of their work and warned of severe consequences for the future of Penn’s research programs.

Three days later, a lawsuit filed by Penn and peer institutions resulted in a judge temporarily halting the NIH funding cuts. Senior Associate Vice Provost and Senior Associate Vice President for Research Elizabeth Peloso wrote that the 15% cap would result in a loss of $170.9 million for the remainder of the 2025 calendar year, threaten 529 jobs staff members directly affected by indirect costs, and impact an additional 4,020 Penn employees.

On Feb. 21, Penn notified graduate department chairs that it would reduce admissions across the University’s graduate programs, a decision faculty alleged was made after programs had already accepted students. 

---

---

Two days later, Interim School of Arts and Sciences Dean Jeffrey Kallberg attributed the school’s decision to restrict graduate admissions to the NIH funding cuts. Kallberg wrote that the “difficult” decision to reduce graduate program admissions rates by one-third was a “necessary cost-saving measure to help mitigate the impact of these new funding realities.” 

In response, 22 graduate chairs from the School of Arts and Sciences sent an open letter to senior administrators the next day, voicing concern over the school’s decision to cut graduate admissions. 

On March 10, Provost John Jackson Jr. and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli announced six University-wide “proactive financial measures” — including a hiring freeze and a review of capital spending — in the face of federal funding cuts. 

In a March 25 email, Jameson wrote that faculty across seven of Penn’s schools received “stop work orders” notifying them that their federally contracted research was halted. The notices totaled approximately $175 million and came after the White House announced the March 19 funding freeze.

A wave of layoffs initiated by Trump’s second administration affected more than 175,000 federal workers, including Penn students and alumni. The job cuts are reported to have particularly impacted recent graduates who have just entered the workforce.

Immigration policy

On Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to identify and deport non-citizen participants — including college students — in pro-Palestinian protests. 

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump wrote on a White House fact sheet for the order. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

On March 6, International Student and Scholar Services at Penn sent an email — two days before Penn’s spring break began — to international students advising the citizens of several countries to avoid “non-essential” travel ahead of a possible federal travel ban. 

ISSS stated that the countries likely to be affected by the travel ban are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. ISSS strongly advised students who are citizens of one of the listed countries to avoid “non-essential travel outside of the United States” until more details are available.

In a March 18 email to the Penn community, Provost John Jackson Jr. and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives Ezekiel Emanuel issued recommendations for individuals impacted by evolving immigration policies, reiterating that they should avoid non-essential travel and encouraging them to seek guidance from campus and legal resources, among other actions.

“We are taking action to offer direct support to impacted community members, plan for disruptions caused by potential policy changes, and provide information to ensure that we can continue to support students, scholars, and others,” the email read.