In even a typical year, running a college or university is a complex job. There are worries of enrollment declines, cuts in state funding, disagreements among faculty and boards and, in recent years, a global pandemic.
But in the last few weeks, the people who run colleges and universities say it's been like a typical year – on steroids.
"It's been a challenging time to lead," says Suzanne Rivera, the president of Macalester College, a private liberal arts institution in Minnesota. "Higher education institutions have become targets for political conflict. It can feel like a lot of abuse is being hurled at college and university presidents. Taking care of our campus communities has become more challenging."
Rivera is one of many college and university presidents, both public and private, who spoke to NPR in recent days about the challenges they're facing and their struggle, amid the political attacks, to keep the focus on their students, and education.
They're facing enormous pressure to comply with federal executive orders and policy changes or risk losing federal funding (which has always been within the power of the federal government, but has rarely been used).
Vice President JD Vance has said universities are the enemy. One president described the current climate as like a gladiator match, where colleges are being sent into the pit for entertainment.
"It feels like you have to be the calm in the center of a storm," says Mary Dana Hinton, the president of Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., one of the oldest private colleges for women in the U.S. "I don't think anyone should be a target for wanting to help others get an education. But if that's the moment in which we live, so be it."
Dozens of schools are being investigated for alleged antisemitism on campus, many more are accused of failing to follow the Trump administration's guidance on diversity and inclusion.
A federal task force is reviewing billions of dollars in Harvard University's funding, and a similar probe is underway at Columbia University – where the interim president stepped down last month after less than eight months on the job. An official at the White House says the administration plans to freeze funds at Brown University next.
"This is uncharted waters for us," says Andrew Martin, the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, a private university with more than a billion dollars in federal support for its research – much of it in health and science. "We're in a moment with great uncertainty about what the future of the relationship between the federal government and American institutions of higher education look like."
Tough decisions about layoffs or eliminating programs
Universities get money from the federal government for lots of different things, though much of the money that's been frozen is for research in the sciences, including grants from the National Institutes of Health and the United States Agency for International Development.
But the range of impact has been felt throughout nearly every discipline, from an international writing program in Iowa, to a project helping farmers grow soybeans, to researchers studying Alzheimer's, diabetes and developing new drugs.
Some higher education leaders say that may mean layoffs or program cuts. But it can also impact an institution's overall budget.
As Martin explained, cuts in funding don't just hurt students; they can also hurt local communities: "When we build buildings, that keeps people in the trades employed."
Washington University is the second largest employer in St. Louis, employing thousands of people. "If the university is under great financial pressure," Martin says, "some of those jobs, unfortunately, are going to have to go away."
Many universities have had to cut jobs. Last month, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore eliminated more than 2,000 positions.
Leaders of smaller colleges that don't have big grants say they're also worried. Because the federal government also provides financial aid for their students, including work-study grants and Pell Grants for low-income students.
"Even though small liberal arts colleges don't have hundreds of millions of federal research dollars at risk, we do have financial aid dollars at risk," says Rivera in Minnesota. "If there were a loss of support, the focus would be how it would affect students on financial aid."
Playing offense and defense
Ted Carter, the president of The Ohio State University, served in the Navy for 38 years, much of that as a fighter pilot.
"I flew in 125 under-fire combat missions," he says, "People ask me all the time, do I miss flying? And I say, 'no.' The job that I'm in right now is as dynamic as it can be, without actually being fired at."
In just the last few weeks, Ohio State has lost about $4 million from federal funding cuts to grants and programs, Carter says, though the university has yet to lay people off.
It's also among dozens of institutions under federal investigation for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination on their campuses. Ohio State denies any wrongdoing.
In late February, like many universities have had to do, Carter closed their office of diversity and inclusion, which had been open since 1970.
"It was hard," he says. "It's difficult, a decision that nobody wants to make." He adds that the University is now reimagining the work that office did, to include all students. "I don't believe you have to have a centralized office under these categories to still be able to do that work."
Still, despite the many challenges, Carter remains optimistic about higher education: "Kind of like in the Top Gun: Maverick movie, we have to play defense and offense at the same time."
Keeping the focus on students
Playing offense means that university administrators are traveling to Washington to meet with congressional leaders – and what's left of the U.S. Education Department. They are trying to strengthen their relationship with people in power and to communicate that universities are essential for the economy and the nation.
They are also relying on associations and networks of other college leaders for support. Many presidents NPR talked with say their group chats with administrators at other institutions light up daily – sometimes hourly.
They're working closely with their legal teams to make sure they're following changes to the law, and they are watching the funding battles at Columbia, Penn and Harvard, afraid they could be next.
"I have moments when the fear really does bubble up, and I think: That's real," says Hinton, the Hollins University president. She's been thinking deeply about how she needs to promote academic freedom and protect her students' ability to disagree and think differently even if it's at odds with government leaders.
"It feels like every minute of the day, [I think] what am I going to stand for?" she says. "I'm having to remind myself, 'This is what we – I and my fellow college presidents–are called to do.' "
At Wesleyan University in Connecticut, President Michael Roth has been outspoken about the need for institutions to stand up and protect academic freedom. He says his students are worried that the university won't be able to protect them from the government.
That, he says, has created a climate of fear. In one of the classes he teaches, they are discussing Freud's theory of aggression in societies, and he says it's hard not to draw parallels to what's happening today, and to reflect on his job.
"What I realize now is how important it is for us to protect that space of freedom in educational institutions, because that's how people learn – when they feel free enough to try things, to fail, to experiment," he explains. "Protecting these spaces of freedom, where you don't have to agree with the leader, I think is an urgent task these days."
Carter, at Ohio State, says that whenever he is grappling with these existential issues of higher education at this moment, he goes back to the students.
"All I need to do is go engage with a group of students and then my faith is renewed," he says. "They're the ones that should be able to answer the question, 'Are you being indoctrinated?' "
The answer, he says, "is, of course, no. We don't teach students what to think. We teach them how to think."
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