3/23/25: Universities Sprint from ‘We Will Not Cower’ to Appeasing Trump (Wall Street Journal) University leaders, pinned between liberal faculty and the Trump administration, are quietly trying to make friends in Washington amid widespread concerns about research budgets, student aid and the White House’s quest to push academia to the right. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/universities-trump-lobbyists-funding-washington-a2e5c77a
See also: Academia Confronts a Watershed Moment at Columbia, and the Right Revels (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/nyregion/columbia-trump-concessions-watershed.html
3/21/25: Under threat from Trump, Columbia University agrees to policy changes (AP) Columbia University agreed Friday to put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline, acquiescing to an extraordinary ultimatum by the Trump administration to implement those and other changes or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding. As part of the sweeping reforms, the university will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand “intellectual diversity” by staffing up its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, according to a letter published Friday by the interim president, Katrina Armstrong. https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-funding-trump-fa70143c715df8fd4ef337c0e1ccf872
See also: Columbia Agrees to Trump’s Demands (Inside Higher Ed) https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2025/03/21/columbia-agrees-trumps-demands
3/21/25: NIH has cut one mRNA-vaccine grant. Will more follow? (Nature) The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has expanded its cuts to science funding , terminating a growing list of research projects that now encompasses hundreds of grants funding studies on a wide range of topics — from HIV in children to reducing mould exposure and its effect on asthma. And concern is growing among scientists that research investigating mRNA vaccines might be next. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00828-3
See also: The effect of NIH funding cuts on vaccine access and hesitancy research (PBS News) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-effect-of-nih-funding-cuts-on-vaccine-access-and-hesitancy-research
3/21/25: Biomedical research takes hits in U.S. budget deal (Science) Biomedical research was mostly spared in the spending bill enacted on 15 March that keeps federal agencies funded for the rest of this fiscal year at the same levels as 2024. But the bill will mean major cuts for high-profile neuroscience and genomic medicine initiatives at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a massive research grants program at the Department of Defense (DOD). The legislation, called a continuing resolution (CR), extends a current spending freeze through the fiscal year’s end on 30 September. The law does not cut NIH’s $47.4 billion base budget. https://www.science.org/content/article/biomedical-research-takes-hits-u-s-budget-deal
