Given the recent funding cuts by the Trump administration, how will academia in the US look like going forward?
Specifically-
1. Is there any way universities can push back and restore the lost funding?
2. Will the mid-terms change anything assuming democrats gain a majority?
3. If a democrat comes into power in 2028, will universities ever receive previous levels of funding?
Comments
Intelligence will be shunned and falling in line with alternative facts will be the norm. People will be less educated but more indoctrinated.
The more you resist the worse it will get
As of now democrats have a mess so big to clean up it will take longer than four years
And midterms should provide temporary relief IF we make it to midterms
> 1. Is there any way universities can push back and restore the lost funding?
To be determined.
> 2. Will the mid-terms change anything assuming democrats gain a majority?
If they find themselves with a veto-proof majority in both houses, maybe. What do you think a small majority in one or both houses would produce except maybe gridlock (if that)?
> 3. If a democrat comes into power in 2028, will universities ever receive previous levels of funding?
You mean the money we should have gotten 2024-28 in addition to new money? Where do you think that would come from?
This also depends on where university funding is on the list of priorities. It’s high on our priority list, but we’re professors. What if the massive university funding cut turns out to be popular? Do you think a newly elected president would spend political capital on getting that?
My 2c:
It’s unclear whether or to what degree universities can hope to push back on this. These events are reflective of a cultural shift in the U.S., where expertise and knowledge are no longer venerated and where a vast majority of voters actively chose to defund the universities, seeing little value in supporting science and technology, medicine, the arts, humanities, and higher education. In the past couple of decades, the universities seemingly went out of their way to navel-gaze and alienate much of the population, leading to their being far less sympathetic figures in the eyes of many. The prevailing narrative among many is that natural allies were shunned when they didn’t pass ideological purity tests, “free speech” only applied to politically correct speech, and DEI became more important than competence. Not saying it’s right or accurate, but it’s what the voting majority of the country came to believe.
Now, older U.S. Republicans view the universities as literal “enemies of the people.” Younger types don’t see the value of a college degree matching the hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt they need to take on. Add to this the demographic changes/reduced class sizes and you’ll see a dramatic change in how universities operate in the U.S. irrespective of who is in power and I fully expect a wipeout of many existing universities, making academia a desolate place to work. I anticipate a large fraction of regional public universities and mid- and low-tier private institutions shuttering. Tenure and intellectual freedom will be memories. Many of the institutions that survive will be pale imitations of their prior selves, dropping “useless” majors like physics, mathematics, the humanities, the arts, religion, the classics, etc. in favor of “remaking” themselves as AI shops and business schools. This has been going on for awhile but will accelerate.
I don’t see this changing irrespective of political outcome–assuming we even have elections in 2026. Even if the Dems were to control the House next term (they have essentially no hope to flip the Senate), the Executive will simply ignore them as he’s ignoring the courts now. They have no power to enforce their authority since the Constitution is a quaint idea, not a ruling document.
The good news is that China, Japan, S. Korea, Europe, Canada, etc. will have their picks of the best academics that the U.S. universities have to offer. So academia writ large will survive, just not in the mediocracy that the U.S. aspires to.
[Slight edit for clarity.]
Well, as an Austrian I can tell you exactly how your academia will look like because we experienced the Brain drain first hand during and especially after WWII when the Nazis had basically murdered or forced Academia to flee. Non-existent because your academics will either vanish or flee to other countries who will all profit by getting them. The US did profit A LOT from Jewish academics who manages to flee to the US.
God willing, the whole ponzi scheme will come crumbling to the ground
Research is certainly under attack and may take decades to recover if we see 4 years of the same from this administration. However, I think AI is also a huge risk to the classroom over the next 5 years. Academia is likely going to get hit from multiple fronts and may look very different in 5 years than it has for the last 70 years or so. Since academia is generally run by older senior people that have risen through the ranks, it tends to not be very nimble when it comes to sudden change. It will be interesting to see who successfully adapts and who doesn’t.
Everyone keeps saying there will be a brain drain from the USA. Will some people leave? Sure. Will a LOT of people leave? I doubt it. At my (very large public R1), I know of exactly zero people that are leaving. And, frankly, my own state’s budge situation is far more destructive to my university that the federal budget cuts (well … perhaps not at the medical school).
The fact is, salaries for US academics still far FAR outpaces salaries in Europe and Asia. Most Americans, Europeans and Asians aren’t willing to live in Latin America. And, most logical people know that Trump will be in office only 4 years. Plus, you really think the USA has a monopoly on electing idiotic leaders? Did the UK not have Boris Johnson? Did Italy not elect Meloni? Did S. Korea not elect Yoon Suk Yeol? Do you want to live in China under Xi Jinping (okay … not exactly elected)? At least in the USA we have separation of powers and term limits.
Are we going to pretend like the present isn’t already bleak?
Tuition costs have been outpacing inflation for the last 45 years, student debt is $1.7 trillion, the earning gap between college grads and non-grads has narrowed, more students are underemployed and credentialism via higher education is being dropped by more and more employers.
Let’s also not forget that the U.S. has by far the richest universities in the world (excl federal funding) + the 2nd highest spending per student (double the OECD average). A lack of money has clearly not been a problem so I’m not sure what the fuss is all about. Throwing money at a broken system is NOT fixing it.
As with everything that has happened to academia in the US over the past 3 decades what’s needed is for the very comfortable tenured professors in every school to actually act in the interests of the group rather than opt for their own comfort.