Thursday, January 22, 2026-Under President Donald Trump’s second term, the federal government has launched an unprecedented campaign of investigations, funding freezes, and settlement demands aimed at American colleges and universities, particularly elite institutions accused of failing to meet the administration’s priorities on issues like antisemitism and campus policy.
What started as civil‑rights inquiries quickly morphed into sweeping actions affecting more than 75 universities across the country, drawing fire from educators and civil‑liberties advocates who describe the approach as politically motivated and coercive.
The Justice Department, under political direction, pressed teams of lawyers to pursue cases against campuses such as UCLA, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Northwestern, alleging civil‑rights violations and demanding sweeping changes in exchange for restoring federal funding.
Several schools struck deals that included hundreds of millions in payments and commitments to adopt policy changes, while others, like Harvard, fought back in court, successfully winning rulings that declared some federal actions unconstitutional or procedurally improper. Critics argue these tactics bend institutions and legal processes to executive will, threatening academic autonomy and due process.
The push has rippled through the higher education sector, with universities weighing the trade‑offs of compliance versus legal resistance and broader concerns about federal power. Proposals such as a “Compact for Academic Excellence” offering funding in return for agreeing with specified policy goals have drawn accusations of ideological coercion, and state leaders and faculty unions have condemned the federal approach as a political shakedown targeting academic freedom.
As debate continues, the controversy has reshaped national discussions on the role of education, civil rights enforcement, and the limits of executive influence over independent institutions.
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