During his Senate floor filibuster, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) slammed President Trump's attacks on the Department of Education.
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00:00follows. One, the creation of a distinct cabinet level department of education would have a
00:05salutary impact on all who are involved in education, particularly parents, teachers,
00:11and students. The very innovation of upgrading the status of education from that of an adjunct
00:17to or division of another national agency would pointedly underscore its proper place
00:23among the nation's priorities. Number two, the workshops of education are the school
00:36and the home. For various reasons which need not be discussed,
00:41I'm worried about the home, he basically says. Too much of school is left to the streets.
00:48Insofar as the street is concerned, there is very little that we can do. As things stand,
00:53more can be done and needs to be done. But in the final analysis, it's the public school where the
00:58greatest improvement can and must be achieved. Among the factors that lie in the roots of the
01:03shortcomings of public education, two, in my opinion, command primary attention. One has to
01:07do with the general curriculum, which should place much greater emphasis on character building and
01:13character building and moral and ethical values. The other has to do with the quality of teaching
01:20by qualified, dedicated, motivating teachers. The latter point requires the upgrading of
01:26teachers' salaries on par with comparable professions in other fields of science and
01:33relieving them as far as possible of other frustrations and stresses. I just want to do
01:38a side note here. I'm a big believer that we should slash public school professionals' tax
01:44rates. We need the best minds coming into the profession. Why not, as a country, to say,
01:51if you're going to take a job as a teacher, which unfortunately pays too low in our country,
01:58let's do that instead of, again, giving these massive tax cuts disproportionately to the
02:04wealthiest in our country. The upgrading of our nation's educational system will, of course,
02:09require considerable federal investment, but this is one area where spending has built in returns,
02:15not only in the long term but also in the immediate gains in terms of diminishing
02:19expenditures in the penal system, crime prevention, reduction of vandalism, drug abuse. In the longer
02:24term, it would also bring savings in expenditure on health and welfare and, one may venture to say,
02:29even in the defense budget, since a morally healthy, strong, and united nation is in itself
02:34a strong deterrent against any enemy. And finally, five, he says, the creation of a separate cabinet
02:40level Department of Education, as I understand it, has been conceived not for the purpose of
02:45merely improving administrative efficiency nor merely as a coordinator of existing programs
02:50or for technical reasons. The main purpose is to breathe new life into the whole educational system
02:56of this nation and to involve the whole nation through its federal government in this massive,
03:01concerted effort. As such, I am convinced a national Department of Education cabinet level
03:08deserves everybody's support. Thank you, Labovitzer Reby.
03:16Unfortunately, this administration is not listening to the Rebys.
03:21What does Department of Education do and how is this administration attacking it?
03:26Let me read you an excerpt from the New York Times.
03:29Can Trump abolish the Department of Education? It's from March 20th.
03:34President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that directs the federal Department
03:38of Education to come up with a plan for its own demise. Only Congress can abolish a cabinet level
03:44agency and it is not clear whether Mr. Trump has the votes in Congress to do so. I will tell you
03:49in the Senate, if you need 60 votes, he doesn't. But he's already begun to dismantle the department
03:54firing about half of its staff, gutting its respected education research arm and vastly
04:00narrowing the focus of its civil rights division, which works to protect students from discrimination.
04:05Mr. Trump's long history of attacking the Department of Education represents a revival
04:09of a Reagan-era Republican talking point. It has unified Democrats in fiery opposition.
04:17But is shuttering the department possible? And if not, how has Trump begun to use the agency to
04:22achieve his policy goals? What does the department do? Founded in 1979, its main job is distributing
04:28money to college students through grants and loans. It also sends federal money to K-12
04:33schools targeted towards low-income and disabled students and enforces anti-discrimination laws.
04:38The money for schools has been set aside by Congress and is unlikely to be affected by Mr.
04:44Trump's executive order. I don't agree with the New York Times because time and time again,
04:49the money set aside by Congress is being clawed back by the president against
04:54the people that the Constitution of the United States of America says has spending power.
05:02The federal dollars account for only about 10% of K-12 school funding nationwide. While Mr.
05:07Trump has said he wants to return power over education to the states, states and school
05:12districts already control K-12 education, which is mostly paid for with stake in local tax dollars.
05:18The federal department does not control learning standards or reading lists in countries.
05:24The agency plays a big role in funneling and disseminating research on education,
05:29but those efforts have been significantly scaled back by the Trump administration. It also
05:34administers tests that track whether American students are learning and how they compare
05:38with their peers in other states and countries. God forbid we measure people's performance.
05:44It's unclear whether those tests will continue to be delivered given the drastic reductions
05:48in the staff and funding necessary management. Still, closing the department would not likely
05:52have much of an immediate effect on how schools and colleges operate. The Trump administration
05:58has discussed tapping the Treasury Department to disperse student loans and grants, for instance,
06:03and the Health and Human Services to administer funding with students with disabilities.
06:08Any effort to fully eliminate the department would have to go through Congress.
06:12Republican members would most likely hear opposition from superintendents,
06:16college presidents, and other education leaders in school districts. Schools in Republican regions
06:21rely on federal aid from the agency, just as schools in Democratic regions do.
06:27They're going to run into opposition, said Joe Volant, an education expert at the Brookings
06:32Institution. They have a laser-thin majority and a filibuster to confront in the Senate.
06:38Even if Congressional Republicans stuck together,
06:43Dr. Volant predicts their constituents would protest, given the department's role in distributing
06:49money from programs like Pell Grants, which pay for college tuition, and IDEA, which provides
06:56support to students with disabilities. It's a very hard sell. I'm skeptical.
07:03Efforts to eliminate the department threaten the enforcement of critical laws.
07:08There's the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which has supported school districts since
07:121965 in low-income areas. Individuals with Disabilities Act, which ensures 7.5 million
07:18students with disabilities receive an education. The Higher Education Act, which helps more
07:24students afford college Title IX protections to guard against sex discrimination. This doesn't
07:29just hurt our country, but undermining those resources for our students hurts generations
07:36to come. I want to submit, for the record, a New York Times article entitled,
07:42Trump Firings Gut Education Department's Civil Rights Division.
07:48Thank you, my friend. Thank you, Presiding Officer, sir.
07:58How education department cuts could hurt low-income and rural schools in particular.
08:03An article on March 21st, 2025. May I submit that too, sir?
08:09Again, rural communities are really taking a hit.
08:16And if I can give disability rights testimonials.
08:20Cutting the Department of Education will be devastating for students with disabilities.
08:25Right now, the Department of Education, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which guarantees
08:30more than 7 million students in America the right to a free, appropriate public education.
08:34It ensures it provides services like speech therapies, counseling, personalized learning
08:40plans. Without federal oversight, these protections could disappear. Schools could delay
08:45evaluations, cut corners, or deny support altogether for parents.
08:50Consider Catherine, a resident of Westwood, New Jersey,
08:56right by Harrington Park, where I grew up.
09:00Catherine has seven-year-old twin boys who receive special services.
09:06They currently attend an out-of-school district specialized program,
09:10but are very much a part of Westwood Regional School District,
09:14and may even one day transition back into the school. In her words,
09:20the Department of Education plays a critical role in enforcing the IDEA and ensuring that
09:25students with disabilities receive the accommodations and support they need to
09:28succeed. Without this oversight, many students risk losing essential services,
09:33widening existing gaps and disparities, and they will face greater barriers to academic success
09:40and reaching their highest potential. This is not a partisan issue. It's a matter of
09:44ensuring that all students, regardless of ability, have equal access to education.
09:49Her story is one of thousands of parents, educators, and advocates
09:53across the country who are standing up for children's rights to an equitable education.
09:57For Catherine's families, for her boys, and for every child who deserves a fair shot at success,
10:03their fight for an inclusive education is essential. Here's Ashley from Wayne, New Jersey,
10:09who knows firsthand how important the Department of Education's funding is. Her daughter,
10:14who is legally blind, relies on Bookshare, an online learning tool that provides accessible
10:19materials to students with print disabilities at no cost to schools or families. Without it,
10:25her daughter would be left behind. As Ashley put it, this is a service she absolutely needs in
10:31order to access information that regularly sighted people do not even have to think about.
10:37Cutting programs like this isn't just irresponsible, it would be cruel.
10:44Kimberly from Dumont, New Jersey, the mother of twin boys with nonverbal level 3 autism.
10:50They attend an amazing school in Nutley because of IDEA. Without it,
10:55their future would be uncertain. In her own words, she says,
10:59it was not long ago that kids like them would have had to have been institutionalized. Now,
11:04they are able to have a beautiful life and go to school. I am terrified of the future
11:09if IDEA is eliminated. I am begging you, please consider families like mine.
11:16Kimberly, I see you. Michelle from New Jersey shares this fear. Her daughter,
11:24who has neurofibromatosis and has aproxia, depends on in-class support to succeed.
11:35She knows firsthand how essential the Department of Education is in protecting students with
11:41disabilities. This is her words now, quite, quote, gutting, weakening, and ultimately closing
11:46the Department of Education is disastrous and dangerous for the disabled students who depend
11:50upon it. She reminds us that education is a civil right and laws like IDEA and Section 504 ensure
11:58that students with disabilities receive the support they need to succeed. Alana from my
12:04state is deeply concerned about her 20-year-old son who depends on the protections of Section 504
12:09to have a fair shot at the future. Her 10-year-old child with autism relies on these protections
12:16every single day. She is asking for help because, as she put it, Section 504 and its rules are very
12:22important to the disability community. We need your help to save it. Roger, who is a grandfather
12:29from New Jersey, is also pleading for action. His granddaughter has relied on a 504 plan since
12:34seventh grade and will continue to need it as she applies to college. He raises the essential
12:39question, which programs are directly helping students? The answer is clear. Laws like IDEA,
12:45IEPs, and Section 504, they're not luxuries. They're lifelines. Again, this is not about politics,
12:54and as we see from various writings, people from both sides of the aisle are worried and concerned.
13:05I'd like to submit for the record
13:10I'd like to submit for the record this article from one of the publications in my state,
13:16What Happens to Special Education Programs in New Jersey If Trump Shuts Down the Department
13:21of Education? It's by Gene Myers. Without objection. Thank you very much.
13:34I want to say something about student loans, too. The Department of Education is also responsible
13:43for operating the $1.6 trillion student federal loan program, which benefits 42.7 million borrowers
13:50in America and allows students to access higher education, something that is shown unequivocally
13:57to strengthen our economy. This administration plans to move student loan funding to the Small
14:03Business Administration, a plan that even some of my Republican colleagues in Congress
14:08have expressed serious concerns about. Here's an article that Republicans are hesitant to stand
14:13behind Trump's plan for student loans. Although SBA managed a wealth of COVID relief programs,
14:19it normally runs a much smaller operation than the student debt program. President Trump
14:25has yet to win over his own party to push immediately, in quotes, transfer of the
14:29Department of Education's massive student loan operation to another agency that's slated for
14:35deep staff cuts. Trump was expected to propose moving the agency's $1.6 trillion portfolio
14:42to the Treasury Department, a concept long discussed on Capitol Hill and suggested in
14:47Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's conservative policy blueprint. Instead,
14:52the president announced this month that the SBA would get it, surprising many lawmakers
14:57and conservatives who track the issue. Although the SBA, which provides financial support
15:07to companies for disaster relief, training and other needs, managed a wealth of COVID
15:12relief programs, it normally runs a much smaller operation than student debt. It's also slated to
15:19lose 43 percent of its staff. Now Republicans are worried about the size of the debt and the
15:26staffing needed to manage the complex system of service borrowers and loan applications.
15:32And with about 43 million borrowers and a record number of them starting to fall behind on their
15:37payments since the pandemic era hiatus ended in 2023, transferring this work may be one of the
15:44most challenging hurdles for unwinding the agency President Trump has pledged to close.
15:50A lot of us were thinking it would go to Treasury. We're talking about the huge nature
15:55of student loans. House Education and Workforce Chair Tim Wahlberg said in an interview,
16:01they have much larger staffing capabilities right now than SBA, but the president may have
16:05something specific in mind that I'm not aware of. Early legislation from Senator Mike Rounds aimed
16:11at dismantling the Education Department also recommended the Treasury Department for the job.
16:15At a recent House Rules Committee meeting, Wahlberg suggested that moving the portfolio
16:20to the SBA, which likely requires an act of Congress to complete, might not be permanent.
16:27Some Republican lawmakers have been hesitant to say the move is official.
16:32Neither the Education Department's Federal Aid Office, which manages the loan program,
16:37nor the SBA have provided a timeline or detailed plans to move the portfolio,
16:42but Education Department officials, skeptical of Trump's SBA plan,
16:49met the week after his announcement to discuss if the Treasury Department should manage this
16:53massive portfolio instead of the SBA, according to a person with granted anonymity to discuss
16:59the matter. Some conservatives are concerned about the SBA's lack of experience with colleges
17:03and universities, and the time crunch in staff will be under to learn the complex student loan
17:09system. The plan to move the portfolio sounds rushed. It sounds like no one has been briefed
17:15on it. And it's not clear what the purpose is, said Jason Delcey, who served on the Education
17:21Department's review group on Trump's presidential transition team. FSA largely works with direct
17:27loans, meaning that instead of a bank lending the money, the Education Department disperses
17:33the funds directly to institutions and the students' names. Colleges and universities,
17:38however, aren't on the hook if the loan isn't repaid. The borrower is. The SBA only started
17:44working with direct loans at a massive scale in the aftermath of the pandemic.
17:49They're laying off 43 percent of the SBA staff at the same time.
17:56SBA is being handed a $1.6 trillion portfolio that's three times the size of what they have,
18:02and they're laying off 43 percent of the staff,
18:07said Michael Negron, who worked on the small business and student loans for the National
18:11Economic Council during the Biden administration. The administration has not clearly stated whether
18:16the FSA workers who have expertise on the student debt system would be transferred to the SBA,
18:22which is concern for Negron. That doesn't mean it's impossible. The SBA could be a fit, he said,
18:27but the conditions need to be right. There is a world where this can work, he said optimistically,
18:33who is now a fellow at Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think tank.
18:36The White House did not acknowledge questions about how it would transfer.
18:40President Trump is doing everything he can within his executive authority to dismantle the Department
18:44of Education and return education back to the states while safeguarding critical functions
18:50for students and families, said Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt in a statement. The president
18:55has always said Congress has a role to play in this effort, and we expect them to help the
18:59president deliver. You know, that sounds like a president who doesn't care about Congress,
19:07cares about what he's trying to do, hasn't approached this in an intelligent way, making
19:13grand statements and opinions, without not considering that the department you're transferring
19:18loans to might actually be incapable, with a severely diminished staff, of doing the job.
19:29Here's an incredible article by Fareed Zakaria
19:34about what this is really going on and how it affects the United States, especially relative
19:39to other nations. There is no area in which the United States' global dominance is more
19:47total than higher education. With about 4% of the world's population and 25% of its gross domestic
19:54product, America has 72% of the world's top 25 universities by one ranking and 64% by another.
20:03But this crucial U.S. competitive advantage is being undermined by the Trump administration's
20:09war on colleges. Hat tip to the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg for raising this issue as well.
20:15We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country. The professors are
20:21the enemy, said J.D. Vance during a speech to the National Conservatism Conference in 2021.
20:30The administration has put those words into action. The most dramatic assaults have been
20:36financial, a freezing or massive reduction in research grants and loans from the federal
20:41government. Some of these efforts are under court review, but the culminative impact could
20:46be that billions of dollars in cuts to basic research, much of its disrupting ongoing projects
20:51and programs, high quality research in the United States has emerged in a unique ecosystem. The
20:58federal government provides much of the funding through prominent institutions such as the
21:02National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Private foundations and
21:09companies account for the most of the rest. Professors at universities, both public and
21:14private, use these funds to conduct research. No other country has a system that works as well.
21:21What is at risk now is what Holden Thorpe, the editor-in-chief of Science, family of journalists,
21:28calls the social contract that the federal government institutions have had
21:33to enable the scientific research enterprise in America in the last 80 years.
21:39That is what is at risk. Take Duke University, which ranked number 11 in total grants received
21:46from the NIH last year. Of its $1.33 billion research budget, $863 million came from Washington,
21:57according to the AP. That includes funds for critical research projects on cancer and other
22:04diseases, but also supports more than 630 PhD students at the medical school. If the cuts go
22:14through, these projects and students will have to be pared back substantially. Just on Thursday,
22:20John Hopkins announced huge layoffs, saying it would let go of more than 2,000 employees
22:29after losing $800 million in federal grants. One crucial mechanism to cut funding is through
22:37a massive reduction in the overhead or indirect costs that universities get reimbursed for
22:44by the federal government. Overhead makes up 40 or 50 percent of a grant. But last month,
22:53the NIH ordered that it be capped at 15 percent. That sounds more rational than it is.
23:01Universities divide their costs on science grants into research costs, the salaries of the professors
23:09and graduate students, and overhead, the costs of the buildings, labs, energy, and utilities
23:16and administrative staffs. When you are building a complex lab to conduct experiments,
23:24the structure and equipment is often far more costly than the salaries and stipends of the
23:30researchers. Michigan State University has declared that these cuts could make it stop
23:37construction of a 330 million research building for cancer research, for cardiovascular disease,
23:46and neuroscience studies. Government funding plays a unique role in America.
23:52It often supports basic research, the kind that companies have less incentive to do,
23:58and its results cannot be hoarded by any one company, but rather are provided free to the
24:04entire scientific community, to the entire technological community, so that all can use
24:11it to experiment and innovate. It's an incredible American system that has reaped
24:20billions and billions of dollars of rewards to our economy.
24:26Take the mapping of the human genome. It cost less than $3 billion and took 13 years
24:34because it was government funded. One of its key requirements was that the research should be made
24:39publicly available for all within 24 hours of being generated. The other assault on the
24:47universities is a strange new attack on free speech, Farid writes. It began from a principled
24:54critique that bureaucracies, universities, and elites all became too woke. But the government
25:02response to this problem has been Orwellian. Searching through these institutions for any
25:08mentions of the words diversity, or identity, or inclusion, and then shutting down those programs
25:15without any review. Worse, it now punishes universities on their campuses, people who
25:23might espouse certain views on topics like Israel and Palestine, and now is punishing the protesters
25:30themselves. I have long argued that universities have a huge problem. They have far too little
25:38intellectual and ideological diversity, which is the most important kind of diversity on a campus.
25:44But the way you fix that is not to restrict radical left-wing speech, but to add voices and
25:51views from other parts of the spectrum. The answer to censorship by the left is not censorship by the
25:57right. The fury with which the Trump administration has turned on academia resembles nothing
26:07so much as the early days of the cultural revolution when an increasingly paranoid Mao Zedong
26:14smashed China's universities, their established universities, and a madness that took generations
26:23in China to remedy. Meanwhile, in Beijing last week, the Chinese government announced its intention
26:33to massively increase funding for research and technology so that it could lead the world
26:40in science in the 21st century. So as America appears to be copying the worst aspects of
26:48Chinese history, China is copying the best aspect of America's, striving to take the edge
26:57away from the United States as though we are going through our own cultural revolution.
27:05Learn from the fascists in China. Fareed's article is over. This is me now.
27:11Learn from the fascists in China and don't do what the Chinese did.
27:15Do what America has done to lead humanity in the sciences, in innovation, in research,
27:23in breakthroughs, in science. We are the global model and one administration in 71 days
27:34has our best universities cutting the number of PhD students they bring in,
27:41cutting the research that they're doing, cutting the planned development of research buildings.
27:48This is insanity. Insanity. We are America. Why is the President of the United States attacking
28:04the science and research at the top universities on the planet Earth, bullying them, undermining
28:14them? I've had universities from my state. I've had universities from my neighboring state,
28:22not Connecticut, New York. I've had my college, Stanford, come to see me, top researchers,
28:30the academic community, not the political community, not the history majors,
28:35not the political scientists, not the literature students, not the FAM departments.
28:40The scientists of America have been coming to the Senate to say, what the heck? What is going on?
28:52How could you take America's edge, America's advantage, America's strength,
28:57America's brilliance, and undercut it in 71 days of your administration?
29:02We are killing the golden goose. Why? Because we have a president who is taking money that we
29:11already approved, the Article 1 branch of government, and claiming that he could claw it
29:15back, all on some trumped-up charge that these institutions are too woke. The solution to that
29:22is not to cut science funding. This should make people mad. This should make people angry.
29:31But more importantly, it should make people stand up and not be bystanders and wait until we lose
29:38our edge because our adversaries globally are smiling as we destroy our institutions from Duke
29:48to Rutgers to University of Michigan to Berkeley to Stanford.
29:54This is madness. This is insanity. And one of a dozen reasons we're going through, a dozen reasons
30:07I'm standing here, that we should not be doing things normal. If we are complicit in what Donald
30:13Trump is doing, I'm hearing it not from political people, but from scientists that show up in my
30:18office from Cornell. Medical researchers show up in my office from our research hospitals in New
30:24Jersey and are saying, they're not political, they're just saying, what the heck? You are
30:31undermining the research of today that will affect the breakthroughs five years from now,
30:35ten years from now. What's China doing while we're doing this? They're investing. Record
30:40numbers, record levels. The country of Tiananmen Square cracking down on college students is now
30:46trying to out-America America while America is acting more like them because our president
30:53is violating the separation of powers, taking away the money we approved, and we're letting
30:59it happen by doing things normally here and not holding one hearing.
31:17Here's another example of what Farid was talking about. It's an article entitled,
31:23graduate student admissions paused. Graduate student admissions paused and cut back as
31:28universities react to the Trump orders on research. And again, this is not from a political
31:36magazine. It's not from the New York Times or the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal.
31:42This is from Stat News.
31:48When did science become political?
31:52Acceptances for biomedical graduate students and professional scholars are being cut back
31:58at some universities and medical centers across the country as many grapple with the potential
32:04impact of the Trump administration's order to cut National Institute of Health research funding.
32:10That paragraph alone should have people all in this chamber upset.
32:17Let's just give European universities,
32:22Australian universities, Canadian universities, Chinese universities a leg up because we're
32:28going to cut the number of graduate students and postdoctoral students. The geniuses in our country
32:34will have less opportunity. Here goes the article. It continues. The cuts come even as the
32:41proposed reductions to funding for overhead expenses set to start on February 10th were
32:47temporarily halted last week by federal judges, at least until a court hearing.
32:53Universities appear to be exercising caution with some freezing positions and not taking
32:59new applications or accepting fewer students than normal according to interviews, public
33:06announcements, and internal emails obtained by stat. The abrupt narrowing of training opportunities
33:13is leaving many future researchers at the start of their scientific journey in limbo.
33:20The academic calendar runs to the rhythm of its own sessions right now.
33:25It's typically this time of year when offer letters for PhD programs and postdoc positions
33:30in labs start hitting inboxes. Universities and academic medical centers were in the thick of
33:36that process when the NIH under President Donald Trump put out a policy about overhead costs known
33:45as indirect costs. This couldn't be worse timing for doing this. Waverly Ding, an associate professor
33:53at the University of Maryland who studies the biomedical sciences workforce. It's creating a
34:00jolt in the market that is going to be disabling for labs, especially the smaller labs because
34:08they won't have the human capital to do their science. It's also going to create chaos for PhDs.
34:17It's going to be a cascading chain effect through the entire ecosystem.
34:26I know we don't read science. Actually, we have a few doctors in here that do.
34:33But look at the alarm that they're sounding that this is not normal.
34:39The slowdown is happening at some universities and not at others. Some students may be unaware
34:43of the issue as they anxiously await acceptance letters without fully understanding the role
34:48national politics is playing in those decisions. Some faculty are grappling with admissions
34:54that are paused and then unpaused while others say they're receiving little information or guidance
34:59from leadership. At the University of Southern California, and as a former Stanford football
35:04player, it's hard for me to talk about USC. I had to jab them, Senator Murphy.
35:10At the University of Southern California, faculty in some departments were told last
35:15week to pause admissions and not formalize offers to students, even those who had visited
35:23and been given verbal acceptances. The awkward part is that we are already told these applications,
35:30these applicants, that they were provisionally accepted and invited them to an in-person
35:36recruitment day. Many have already purchased a flight and made hotel reservations.
35:41I mean, that is just cruel. One professor said in a faculty discussion listserv observed by STAT,
35:50I know Senator Murphy hangs out in faculty discussion listservs,
35:54that pause on admissions in psychology was lifted this week, STAT was told.
36:00Jennifer Unger, a professor who runs a doctoral program in health behavioral research in the
36:05Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California
36:09Keck School of Medicine, said Wednesday she was still not able to admit the six graduate students
36:16for her department that had been accepted after a visit day on February 3rd. We had flown them out.
36:22We told them, we love you. We want to admit you. And then everything just stopped, Unger said.
36:33On the day Donald Trump announced they were cutting indirect costs, USC paused all PhD admissions.
36:46I just don't know what to tell them, Unger said to the students. Some of them have their offers
36:52and will likely go somewhere else. We've probably lost them. Despite USC's unpausing of all admissions
37:01in many departments, Unger said Wednesday she was still not able to admit students.
37:06She hoped her portal of admissions would be able to get them to admissions.
37:12She hoped her portal of admit students would open soon, but said this disruption was coming at a
37:20time when her field, public health, was already reeling from the actions of the Trump administration.
37:27Something affecting potential graduate students as well. It's very stressful for them.
37:34This is a major life decision, she said, adding they were already worried about their futures.
37:39They were asking, quote, do you think we'll be able to get jobs in this environment?
37:46Do you think we'll get grants? The dean of the graduate school at USC told STAT late Friday
37:54that universities briefly paused PhD admissions to assess the uncertainties around federal funding.
38:02But that the admissions process was now open.
38:05Some schools, though, were continuing to accept students who had accepted graduate students before
38:10the recent turmoil and said that offers were there intact. We have no knowledge of any disruptions
38:16to graduate student admissions in the science fields, Rachel Zentz, senior director of
38:21communications said. In some cases, the pauses in hirings and admissions were implemented ahead
38:27of the NIH policy change. Evidence of how quickly the Trump administration threats to withhold
38:32federal research dollars over diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are shifting the financial
38:37footings of universities. On February 6th, faculty at Vanderbilt University were instructed to reduce
38:43graduate admissions by half across the board, according to an email obtained by STAT.
38:50Reduce graduate admissions by half. On the same day, the faculty at the University of Washington
38:58School of Public Health received an email to pause offers to doctoral students as well as offers
39:05of financial support to graduate students. Faculty hiring was also frozen, the email said.
39:10This Tuesday, the public health school sent out another email informing the community
39:14that some faculty hiring and PhD students would continue. Some, but at a greatly diminished level.
39:23The school is also planning to take more cost containment measures, including a hiring freeze,
39:28a re-importment freeze, through the end of the academic year due to the volatility caused by the
39:36Trump administration. Existing offers will be honored, wrote Hillary Goodwin, dean of the
39:42University of Washington School of Public Health. Marion Pepper, chair of UW's immunology department,
39:51said she was instructed by the university leadership to keep her program's next generation
39:56cohort smaller than the usual five to nine students admitted each year. That's easier said
40:02than done, because the proportion of students who accept offers of admissions varies year to year.
40:09Pepper told STAT that while she expects the incoming class to be slightly smaller than usual,
40:16she has spoken with program heads at UW and elsewhere who are reducing class sizes by half
40:23or more. I know for other programs, they're feeling bleak about how they're going to keep
40:30labs running without funding or students, Pepper said. It's pretty overwhelming. Medical schools
40:36are hit hard. Medical research hit hard. It's unclear how many other universities are taking
40:44similar preemptive belt-tightening measures, but schools of public health and medical schools
40:49are particularly vulnerable because they tend to have many faculty postdocs
40:54and graduate students supported by grants. Boston University School of Public Health has also ordered
41:00an across-the-board hiring freeze on all new faculty and staff positions, including student
41:06workers and postdocs. In a campus-wide announcement, dean ad interim Michael Stein said the move was
41:14being made due to the uncertainty of the moment. A spokesperson for the school told STAT that the
41:22graduate admissions are unaffected by the freeze. Unger said USC had cut funding for some teaching
41:29assistants in their department early in the year, before the executive orders, which reduced the
41:34number of graduate students in her program from 10 to 6. On February 11th, Columbia's University
41:39Medical School faculty were told that the school was putting a temporary pause on hiring, as well
41:44as other activities like travel and procuring equipment, according to an email obtained
41:51by the Columbia Student Newspaper. The Columbia Spectator, a spokesperson for Columbia, declined
41:56to comment on the pause. In other cases, schools may accept fewer graduate students than they had
42:01planned, not because of an overt directive from university leaders, but because faculty feel
42:07unsure about the future, given the Trump administration's intent to cut billions of
42:12dollars in overhead funding. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 25% fewer graduate
42:20students will be admitted this year. 25% fewer. Based on a survey of faculty members taking new
42:27students, said Mark Pilfer, a professor in cell biology there. That means the school will admit
42:34about 75 students across the biomedical sciences. He noted the number of graduate students vary each
42:40year, so the decline was not unprecedented, as the numbers continue to go down. In an interview with
42:52STAT, Robert Farms, director of UNC's Leinberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the hiring
42:57freezes, fewer PhD students, and other similar cost containment measures are being considered
43:03as the center is eyeing the same financially turbulent waters of other research institutions.
43:10Every one of these things is on the table, unfortunately, Farris said. There's so much
43:14uncertainty. Can we hire this faculty member? Can we purchase this equipment? They just don't
43:19know exactly what or how many measures the center has to take, he said, as there are simply still
43:26too many unknowns. For instance, the outcome of the NIH indirect rate cut policy is still up in the
43:32air, not knowing how it's going to stake out. It just freezes everybody into inaction.
43:40Adding to the uncertainty is disruptions to key parts of the National Institute of Health
43:45approval process for proposed grants. Although some meetings of study sections in which grant
43:51applications are reviewed resumed at the start of the month, meetings of advisory councils have not.
43:58Each of the 27 institutes of the National Institute of Health have its own advisory council,
44:04which meets three times a year to issue final recommendations on new research projects. None
44:09of these councils, none, have met since January 22nd. Communications freezes were ordered across
44:17all health agencies. A law called the Federal Advisory Committee Act requires that advisory
44:23councils post meeting details in the Federal Register 15 days prior to their scheduled date.
44:30But because submissions to the Federal Register have been put on hold indefinitely, these meetings
44:35can't take place. And without these meetings, no new grants can be funded. According to one NIH
44:42employee, at least one NIH meeting scheduled for this Friday to allow an institute director to
44:48provide updates that could proceed because it has been posted to the Federal Register was
44:53nonetheless canceled Wednesday. This was because the meeting was specified it would include a
45:00season session open to the public. But because a ban remains in place on any public communications,
45:07meetings with open sessions cannot be held. And they can't update the Federal Registry
45:12with a revised agenda stating no open session because the Federal Registry is closed.
45:16Principal investigators who had been counting on awards to pay the salaries of new graduate
45:23students and postdocs are now left wondering if their labs will be able to make it through the
45:28summer, let alone take on new members. Referencing the hold on submissions to the Federal Register,
45:37MIT neuroscientists, MIT neuroscientists, Nancy Kanwisher proposed on social media Wednesday,
45:48so much for the grant I submitted last September, which was supposed to be reviewed last week,
45:52hardly the biggest tragedy on the current scale of things, but it will force me to severely downsize
45:59my already small lab. Fears were similar for one computational genomics researcher
46:07at a prominent East Coast institution who asked for anonymity for fear of being targeted by the
46:13Trump administration. We have people coming to visit the lab next week, and these are students
46:19we haven't made offers to yet because we can't. I don't know what I'm going to tell them. Beyond
46:25the immediate harm to young scientists, he worries about the long-term damage to fields like
46:31computer science and biomedical engineering, areas where the U.S. has long been the world leader.
46:39If we stop training students, we're going to lose the lead very quickly, he said. It's not clear
46:47anyone else is going to pick up the ball. We're just going to be worse off and people won't even
46:53be aware of it. It's hard to notice when it takes 20 years instead of 10 to get a cure.
47:01Cuts within the NIH are also adding to the rapidly constricting pool of places prospective
47:07scientists can go and train. Since the 1960s, the NIH has provided opportunities for recent
47:13college graduates to spend one or two years in a full-time research position within one of the
47:19Institute's labs, which many scientists see as a key tool for recruiting young people into
47:26biomedical fields. On February 1st, a notice appeared on the NIH website announcing that all
47:33training programs had paused recruitment pending guidance from Health and Human Services.
47:40The NIH post-bac program, which provides recent college graduates with research positions and
47:46career advising, and last year admitted roughly 1,600 people, will not be accepting any new
47:55applicants for 2025, according to an NIH employee who asked for anonymity for fear, of course,
48:02that's my ad, of repercussions. It's a vital link in the training of doctors and biomedical
48:10scientists in the country. The NIH employee said you can't find a medical school or a biomedical
48:18program that doesn't have students from the post-bac program. And it's ended.
48:28While the Trump administration may be hoping that the headwinds in creating
48:33for academic hiring may push recent graduates or newly minted PhDs into the private industry,
48:38it's unlikely to play out that way because of the spread, speed, and scale of the disruption.
48:45Pharmaceutical firms are not going to suddenly open up more jobs for graduates to adapt to this
48:50situation, said Ding. More likely is that people will start looking for opportunities outside the
48:55United States or wind up without jobs altogether. At this point, it's still too early to say
49:03if these are the first signs of losing a generation of scientists. But even people like
49:11Ding, who track the data that could provide clues about how extensive the damage will be,
49:16are facing uncertainty about their ability to continue their own work.
49:21Her plan to hire a postdoc are currently on hold as she waits to find out if a grant she has
49:28through the National Science Foundation, which is facing its own dramatic cuts, will come through.
49:33I mean, honestly, I'm here because I said at the beginning some nine hours ago
49:45that I was going to stand here because what is going on in America is not normal.
49:50We've gone through health care cuts. We've gone through Social Security being attacked and
49:58undermined and slashed. Department of Education. But if those things don't worry you,
50:06statements like this should. It's still a little too early to say that the