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It's a difficult time to be a college president. A federal task force is reviewing billions of dollars in Harvard University's funding. A similar probe is underway at Columbia, where the interim president just stepped down after less than eight months on the job. Vice President JD Vance has said universities are the enemy and should be attacked, and President Trump is prepared to withhold federal financial aid if colleges don't comply with a number of executive orders and policy changes. NPR's Elissa Nadworny has been talking to the people who run colleges and university this week, and here she is.
ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: In a typical year, leading a university is still a pretty complex job. There are worries of enrollment declines, cuts in state funding, upset faculty, and in recent years, a global pandemic that closed many campuses. But in the last few weeks, things have felt really different.
ANDREW MARTIN: This is a really, really challenging time for American higher education.
MARY DANA HINTON: It feels like you have to be the calm in the center of a storm.
SUZANNE RIVERA: It can feel like a lot of abuse is being hurled at college and university presidents.
NADWORNY: You just heard Andrew Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Mary Dana Hinton at Hollins University in Virginia and Suzanne Rivera from Macalester College in Minnesota. One president described the current climate to me like a gladiator match where colleges are being sent into the pit for entertainment.
TED CARTER: I've served 38 years in the Navy. I flew in 125 under-fire combat missions.
NADWORNY: Ted Carter is the president of The Ohio State University.
CARTER: People ask me all the time do I miss flying, and I say no. The job that I'm in right now is as dynamic as it can be without actually being fired at.
NADWORNY: In just the last few weeks, Ohio State has lost about $4 million from federal funding cuts to grants and programs. It's among dozens of institutions under federal investigation for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination. Ohio State denies any wrongdoing. And like many universities, Carter closed their office of diversity and inclusion, which has been open since 1970.
CARTER: It was hard. It's difficult, a decision that nobody wants to make. I don't believe you have to have a centralized office under these categories to still be able to do that work. Kind of like in the "Top Gun: Maverick" movie, we have to still know how to play defense and offense at the same time.
NADWORNY: Playing offense means traveling to Washington to meet with congressional leaders. Nearly every president I talked to said that is part of what they're doing right now, trying to strengthen their relationship with people in power and to communicate that universities are essential for the economy and the nation. Andrew Martin is the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, a private university with more than a billion dollars in federal support for its research, much of it in health and science. He says cuts in funding don't just hurt students - they hurt local communities.
MARTIN: When we build buildings, that keeps people in the trades employed.
NADWORNY: The university, like many across the country, is the second-largest employer in St. Louis, employing tens of thousands of people.
MARTIN: If the university is under great financial pressure, some of those jobs, unfortunately, are going to have to go away.
NADWORNY: Many colleges have had to cut jobs. Last month, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore eliminated more than 2,000 positions. College presidents I talk to say their group chats with other presidents light up daily, sometimes hourly. They're working closely with legal counsel to make sure they're following changes to the law. And they're watching what's happening to Columbia and Penn and Harvard and are afraid they could be next.
HINTON: I have moments when the fear really does bubble up, and I think that's real.
NADWORNY: Mary Dana Hinton is the president of Hollins University in Virginia. She says she is, of course, stressed about losing financial aid dollars or removing the word diversity from their website. But she's been thinking deeply about how she needs to promote academic freedom and protect her students' ability to disagree and think differently, even if it's at odds with government leaders.
HINTON: It feels like, every minute of the day, what am I going to stand for? Every minute, I'm having to remind myself - I and my fellow college presidents - this is what we are called to do.
CARTER: Anytime I'm having a bad day over some of the things that we're talking about here, all I need to do is go engage with a group of students and then my faith is renewed.
NADWORNY: President Carter at The Ohio State University says he always goes back to the students.
CARTER: They're the ones that should be able to answer the question, are you being indoctrinated? And the answer is, of course, no. We don't teach students what to think. We teach them how to think.
NADWORNY: Elissa Nadworny, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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