Elite Bay Area universities are carefully watching as the fight between Harvard University and the Trump administration plays out — and bracing for what the president calls a crackdown on far-left bias in higher education could mean for them.
Since his return to office, President Donald Trump has carried out several executive orders targeting higher education and diversity initiatives — a move California faculty and students have called an outright aggressive attack on academia, but one he has framed as crucial to his agenda.
“We are going to choke off the money to schools that aid the Marxist assault on our American heritage and on Western civilization itself,” Trump said in a speech in Florida in 2023. “The days of subsidizing communist indoctrination in our colleges will soon be over.”
The administration has promised to withhold elite universities’ funding if they don’t comply with demands to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and crackdown on student protests. Columbia University was the first to experience the Trump administration’s wrath when officials pulled $400 million in federal funding over allegations the school allowed antisemitism on campus. In response, Columbia leaders agreed to negotiations with the administration to tighten protest rules and restrict Middle Eastern studies in an effort to restore funding.
But when Trump officials turned their attention to Harvard and announced similar demands — threatening nearly $9 billion in federal funding — university leaders refused, becoming the first to defy the administration and sparking a standoff between the nation’s wealthiest and oldest college and the federal government. Trump has since frozen $2 billion in federal funds — leaving university researchers scrambling to salvage their research amid work-stop orders — and announced a desire to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.
Which side will prevail remains to be seen, but universities across the country — including Stanford University, Yale University and Princeton University — praised Harvard for not caving to Trump’s demands. And in a possible backtrack, Columbia University’s president, Claire Shipman, signaled the university could follow Harvard’s example in a statement earlier this week.
Here’s how Bay Area universities have responded and what this could mean for their own battles against the Trump administration.
Q: Why is this relevant for Bay Area universities?
A: UC Berkeley is one of 10 universities expecting a visit from the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force — a list that includes Columbia University and Harvard University. UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara are also included in the list of 60 universities facing civil rights investigations into antisemitism on their campuses. UC Berkeley is also one of 45 universities being investigated by the Trump administration for allegedly using “racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.”
San Jose State University has also been on the Trump administration’s radar and is currently under a federal investigation over a potential civil rights violation for allowing transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams. The university faced national scrutiny when the co-captain of the San Jose State women’s volleyball team joined a lawsuit in September accusing the NCAA of discriminating against women by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
Stanford University is also included in the list of 60 universities under investigation for antisemitic harassment and discrimination. Like Harvard, Stanford University is a private university, meaning they are not owned, operated or primarily funded by the federal government. But the Trump administration’s demands to Harvard University show that it won’t stop at public institutions in its efforts to increase federal oversight and control of American universities.
Q: Have Bay Area universities weighed in?
A: Some appear to be sitting on the sidelines for now, at least publicly. The California State University system declined to comment. The University of California did not respond to a request for comment by this news organization.
Stanford University president Jonathan Levin and provost Jenny Martinez issued a statement praising Harvard and criticizing the government’s attempt to take “command of a private institution.” But a group of nearly 1,500 Stanford faculty, students and alumni urged Levin and Martinez to issue a stronger statement standing in solidarity with Harvard, vowing to defend Stanford’s autonomy and condemning the government’s actions against higher education.
Q: What do Bay Area universities stand to lose?
A: The University of California receives more than $5 billion annually in federal funds for research and other programs, according to the university, with the National Institutes of Health as the largest source of UC federal funds.
California State University said federal agencies provide 63% of the university’s research funding — more than $410 million for the 2023-24 school year — and major federal agencies included $161 million from the Department of Health and Human Services and $114 million from the Department of Education.
Stanford receives approximately $1.6 billion in research funding each year from all sources, with $1.2 billion coming from the federal government, the university said Friday. The top federal funding agencies for university research include the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, among others.
Trump’s interest in revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status could also impact Bay Area universities, as nearly all colleges and universities are tax-exempt entities. Tax-exempt status allows universities to forgo paying income and property taxes and marks donations as tax-deductible, a big pull for wealthy donors. A change to that status, combined with the loss of millions in federal grants and funding, could spell disaster for universities already buckling under financial pressures.
Stanford University and the University of California announced a hiring freeze last month in preparation for serious potential funding impacts at the state and federal levels.
Like Harvard — which has a hefty endowment of $53 billion — Stanford University’s endowment is valued at more than $37 billion. But universities are hesitant to rely on those funds, the majority of which are restricted for specific purposes by donors, like supporting first-generation college students or advancing a particular field of study.
Reporter Ryan Macasero contributed to this story.