Ramifications of Trump’s College Crackdown at Reed
By Sinim Duguma
After entering office in January, President Donald Trump has taken many steps to drastically alter the government’s presence in the United States from that of the Biden administration. Part of this shift includes making significant changes to the way universities operate, such as aiming to police what can and cannot be taught, as well as attempts to cut universities’ federal funding. Over the summer, Trump zeroed in on a select few elite U.S. colleges—particularly Harvard University—with targeted actions, such as trying to ban international students and cutting billions of dollars in federal research funding to the university. In both of these cases, federal courts decided against Trump’s actions due to failure to follow the necessary procedures to carry them out, according to the New York Times.
This level of federal interference is something very new for colleges to face. “I've been affiliated with higher education for over 40 years, and I have never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like the federal government attempting to micromanage individual decision making in college campuses,” said Paul Gronke, professor of political science. Historically, the government has not always been directly involved in educational institutions. According to Time Magazine, elevated involvement began around the 1940s, during wartime, because universities possessed experts on foreign nations who could aid the U.S. government in strategizing and learning about their allies’ and enemies’ cultures. Since then, as colleges have grown in size and number, the government has become more invested in funding, and now regulating, these institutions.
As a small liberal arts college, Reed has not garnered as much attention from the federal government as the aforementioned schools, which has its benefits. There is less pressure for Reed to align strictly with federal guidelines. Still, uncertain times naturally bring calls for action, which can be difficult for administrators to act on while trying to keep all members of the community safe. “I know there are a lot of folks here [at] Reed and in the broader community that would like the institution to be more active. I think Reed is a lot more vulnerable than people realize… we have a very diverse undergraduate body, people from lots of backgrounds, different identities, and I don't think that we want to be under close scrutiny of the federal government,” said Gronke. Rolling mostly under the radar, Reed has not faced much, if any, direct conflict with the government, but that doesn’t mean there will never be any in the future. “[The federal government is] slowly moving through liberal cities and bringing in more federal personnel, to put it politely, and it's not unlikely that they'll get to Portland at some point. Do we want them to be coming onto our campus?” said Gronke.
Reed is currently dealing with processes regarding a Reed official providing a former student’s data to a federal agency without following the college’s rules for disclosing private information, leading to the graduate’s arrest. The event sparked questions of how the college acts in interactions with the federal government and the extent to which private information provided to the college is secured and handled. “The stance that Reed [has] and will continue to [have], is that we do not provide any data or information without a warrant or a subpoena sent by a judge, or some other legal process,” said Sheena McFarland, Reed College Chief Communications Officer. Unless provided with a warrant or an equally compelling reason, the college is not to, and should not, reveal private student or faculty information, despite the recent breach of this policy.
Another issue facing the nation are attacks against the right to public assembly. At Reed, students and staff utilize protesting as a way to come together and show support for many different causes. While the federal government has made attempts to crack down on protests, gathering on campus is fully permitted unless there are safety concerns. “Students are absolutely able to gather to protest and rally and make their voices heard. We just ask that they do that in a way that doesn't block access to buildings or that interrupts a person's ability to be in the classroom,” said McFarland. Non-violent or disruptive protests, like the recent protest in support of Reed’s custodial staff, are actively encouraged by Reed administration.
As far as federal funding goes, Reed has not had any direct issues with retaining and receiving funding. In one instance, a federally funded grant given to another college that had a member of Reed faculty as a secondary contributor was taken away. In the event that the college does lose some federal funding, it might not be as much of an issue as some may think. “A fairly small portion of our budget is supported by federal grants… Our budget is mainly driven by income from the endowment and student tuition,” said Gronke. Lessened dependence on federal funding is a positive trade-off of Reed’s above-average tuition cost.
Overall, while Trump’s recent actions have led to significant issues for other institutions, the effects have been more subtle at Reed. Mostly, the necessary changes seem to be social ones, like taking greater care when dealing with sensitive information. During this time, it is important to remember that, although things might be scary, Reed is one of the safest places to be. The impact of Trump’s actions have led to minimal changes on Reed’s campus. While it is possible some changes could come in the future, it is unlikely they will be very severe, and highly unlikely they will reach the level of that on other campuses around the country. “Things can change quickly. So, yeah, it's a very tough time right now, and I know that many of the students and people in the community want things to change fast, but we got another three and a half years in this administration. So I guess I would ask folks to, if they can, to try to play the long game here,” said Gronke.