Trump Vs Colleges, Cornell and Northwestern Funds Halted

United States President Donald Trump continues to beat the drums of war against various universities in the country. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, have found their federal funding for educational operations, research, and development cut.

So far, among all universities, Cornell has experienced the largest cut, amounting to 1 billion US dollars. The cut was announced by the White House on Wednesday (9/4/2025) local time or Thursday (10/4/2025) Indonesian time.

Cornell is a teaching place for the late Indonesian expert, Benedict Anderson. Several of Anderson's students are now active in Indonesia's academic world, including PM Laksono, Made Supriatma, and Burhan Magenda.

Meanwhile, Northwestern had its funding cut by 790 million USD. Prior to these two universities, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Harvard, and Columbia faced similar actions. Generally, the funding cuts for these universities ranged between 200 million to 450 million USD. The reductions for Cornell and Northwestern are the largest so far.

All of these colleges are on the list of 60 universities that the U.S. Department of Education will issue warning letters to in March 2025. The list includes the University of Hawaii Manoa, Emerson College, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford, Princeton, and the University of Washington Seattle.

The White House accused these 60 universities of acting in a racist manner by being antisemitic. In 2024, protests against Israel's genocide in Gaza, Palestine, took place at these 60 universities. The protests were also joined by various non-Zionist Jewish organizations and opposed the Israeli government.

However, extremist Jewish groups accused the university of neglecting the safety of Jewish academic members. Some of them were attacked or persecuted by protesters.

The university has stated that they are cooperating with law enforcement authorities to take action against individuals causing disturbances and to ensure that protests remain within the bounds of critical freedom of expression. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli government should not be equated with antisemitism.

“We are still working out the basis for this federal funding cutoff,” said Cornell Chancellor Michael Kotlikoff.

Northwestern spokesperson, John Yates, expressed confusion over the White House's decision. Northwestern has been open and cooperative with various investigations in Washington, D.C., regarding the alleged violations.

U.S. Board of Education Chairman Ted Mitchell said this was the wrong move by the White House. Preventing and addressing discriminatory behavior, including anti-Semitism, at universities is not about cutting funding.

“Cutting funding kills research, development and innovation, the very things that make American higher education the best in the world,” Mitchell said.

The pressure on universities has already caused some scientists who have careers in the US to move abroad. According to a poll by the scientific journal Nature published on March 13, 2025, three out of four scientists in the US plan to “just run away.”

The reason is because of Trump's cost-cutting and layoffs at various federal agencies. In addition, scientists are also uncomfortable with the government's attitude, which they consider increasingly authoritarian.

Northwestern, for example, is developing the world's smallest pacemaker. They also have the most advanced Alzheimer's research in the world. If their research stops due to lack of funding, the world loses.

Not only higher education institutions are under attack, foreign academics in the US are also being pursued. Based on CNN's findings, there are 340 foreign students and researchers whose visas have been revoked by the government.

The reason for the revocation was inappropriate behavior. The first case that attracted public attention was the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, on charges of organizing anti-Israeli attacks on Palestine.

But now, according to court documents obtained by CNN, the reasons are even more unclear. Several lawyers for students whose visas were revoked say the government has failed to provide evidence that their clients have broken the law.

“We see an attempt to create mass panic among students, so that rather than seek proper legal representation, they choose to leave the United States,” said Jeff Joseph of the US Immigration Lawyers Association.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Hanover, New Hampshire, ordered the government to immediately reinstate the student visa of Liu Xiaotian, a doctoral student at Dartmouth College. The university found on Friday (4/4/2025) that Liu's visa had been revoked by the government without any clear reason.

“Our students have no record of any violations of the law on or off campus. This was an arbitrary action,” Dartmouth said in a statement to the campus newspaper, The Dartmouth. (AP)