Exposed: How Trump unleashed 'utter turmoil' on prestigious southern school

Just three days after President Donald Trump unleashed a record-breaking flurry of 26 Inauguration Day executive orders, professors at the nation’s largest historically Black college began learning their research funding was threatened, prompting exasperation and concern.

Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by Raw Story through a North Carolina Public Records Law request reveal how administrators and faculty at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C., navigated the cultural hot button issues addressed in Trump’s executive orders — from DEI to immigration — in an attempt to keep federal funding and protect students.

“Much like [Trump’s] first presidency, it's just literally utter turmoil,” said Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

“It feels like you're in an abusive relationship, or you're in an abusive family, and that every single day you're dodging punches … there's just so many fires to put out, how do you put them all out? How do you do that as a leader, and what is the impact of that on students?”

In five months since coming into office, the Trump administration has created “whiplash” and “frustration,” particularly for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions with its attacks on higher education, Gasman said.

In March, Trump signed an executive order beginning the process of dismantling the Department of Education. The administration canceled billions of dollars in research grants and withheld funds from elite universities such as Harvard, accused of antisemitism (Harvard sued the administration in April for what it says is the “flatly unlawful” withholding of research dollars).

Researchers, science groups and states have been pushing back too — the National Institutes of Health began reinstating 900 grants after a Massachusetts judge ruled the cancelation of some of it grants on diversity-related topics to be “void and illegal."

Still, the strain on higher education institutions hasn’t “died down at all,” with universities going to great lengths to comply with executive orders to keep their research funds and are “really, really worried about how to protect students,” particularly as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement partners with some universities to crack down on illegal immigration,” Gasman said.

A spreadsheet tracking grants affected by executive orders was shared as a part of the public records request, revealing 12 terminated grants, four projects with orders to “cease DEI activities,” and two stop work orders that were lifted, as of April 3. The awards totaled more than $6.1 million.

Spokespeople for North Carolina A&T acknowledged Raw Story’s request but did not respond to questions by the time of publication.

‘This is sad’

Kathleen Liang, a professor of sustainable agriculture, emailed colleagues, the university’s provost and a national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on January 23 with concerns about “many DEI contents” being challenged in a research project focused on “public investment assessment related to Environmental Justice.”

Liang also shared a message from a USDA colleague with university leadership, looking for guidance on writing a research proposal about socially disadvantaged farmers, due the following month.

“USDA is re-evaluating all funded projects and proposals with DEI components … We are HBCU, and many of our projects serve minority and socially disadvantaged stakeholders,” the message said.

Tonya Smith-Jackson, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, acknowledged Liang’s concerns, saying “as they continue to pile on, we are also monitoring the situation and seeking more information to understand direct and indirect impacts.”

Liang, also director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, a partnership of three North Carolina universities, offered to “twig my proposal to meet the new executive order” but asked for confirmation that no DEI references should be in any new proposals.

“This is sad, but we have to work with the current situation,” Liang wrote.

A month later, Liang’s counterpart at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems from North Carolina State University, sent an email to the center’s faculty and staff informing them “all DEI activities at the university and those contracted by the institution must stop no matter the funding source.”

“Prior to that, we were supported and able to do this important work through our private foundation funding and only DEI activities supported with federal funding was Restricted,” wrote Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, chair in sustainable community-based food systems, on February 20. “All education institutions must comply or risk federal funding losses.”

Schroeder-Moreno instructed that all DEI activities needed to cease by the next day and DEI references removed from the center’s website, including shutting down the website for its Committee on Racial Equity in the Food System.

“I am so proud of this very work we are being asked to censor; proud to be part of an organization that lifts this up, and honored to work with so many of you who share these similar values and especially those who are leading this important work that was already hard to begin with,” Schroeder-Moreno wrote.

Schroeder-Moreno was unavailable for an interview, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University declined to comment. Liang could not be reached for comment.

‘Keeps me up at night’

Leadership at North Carolina A&T debated how to communicate about the executive orders, particularly how federal funding pauses created “uncertainty” for faculty.

A message from Elizabeth Morra, federal liaison for the UNC System, was shared with administrators, noting that the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities encouraged the university not to “overreact to this pause.”

Oliver Thomas, associate vice chancellor of external affairs, said federal agencies received “very very limited guidelines” about the executive orders.

“Based on the information we currently have, which is very limited, internally we should think of the pause like preparing for a government shutdown,” Thomas wrote on January 24.

“With regard to the executive orders and potential legislative changes, the effects on higher education are not known (air quotes).”

The email from Morra noted that the pause was likely due to “skeleton staff at NIH and the agency needs time to get people hired.”

Smith-Jackson, the provost, expressed skepticism about new government hiring. The Trump administration would go on to slash thousands of government jobs under the guidance of the Department of Government Efficiency, including 1,200 at the National Institutes of Health.

“Time to get people hired? Interesting. It takes a long time to hire into federal government positions. I’ve been there a few times….” she wrote on January 24.

Smith-Jackson also shared that faculty were concerned about grant funding from USDA and NIH, worried about the "ability to sustain their livelihoods" and “continuing to meet payroll for the employees who work in their labs and centers.”

“There are certainly implications for our research journey; as well as outreach projects funded on fed grants,” Smith-Jackson said.

Alton Thompson, executive director of the Association of 1890 Research Directors, emailed colleagues in February expressing what “keeps me up at night" related to developments from the Trump administration.

“Given the current volatility in government—marked by deep federal budget cuts (including immediate reductions of billions of dollars in biomedical funding), proposed agency eliminations, a wave of Executive Orders, a new Congress, the Department of Government Efficiency, and an OMB Director instrumental in Project 2025—it would be naïve to assume our capacity and other funding streams are not at risk. NextGEN funding is frozen,” Thompson wrote.

The Association of 1890 Research Directors coordinates research initiatives between 1890 land grant universities, 19 HBCUs. Thompson advised accessing NextGEN funds while it was still possible and honoring awarded scholarships but refraining from awarding new ones.

Faculty also had logistical questions related to Trump’s executive orders around immigration.

When news came out that U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials would no longer be off-limits on college campuses, school leaders began to question how to interact with ICE officials.

Mitchell Croatt, interim dean of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering at North Carolina A&T and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, emailed the schools’ provosts about how to handle a potential ICE visit to the building, proposing not letting ICE into private spaces and alerting campus police to verify credentials while agents waited in public areas.

J. Alan Boyette, provost and executive vice chancellor at University of North Carolina Greensboro, referred Croatt to general counsel for guidance.

“The federal administration's recent flurry of Executive Orders, with at least one subsequently rescinded, has created a dynamic situation in which guidance is subject to change,” Boyette wrote.

Croatt’s concerns about ICE coming to college campuses played out at universities across the country as ICE detained students, particularly those expressing pro-Palestine sentiments, from schools such as Georgetown University, Columbia University and Tufts University.

‘Evolving drama’

Minority serving universities largely avoided speaking out against the executive orders during the first few months of Trump’s administration due to fears of losing funding, experts exclusively told Raw Story in April.

Records revealed that HBCUs like North Carolina A&T also received guidance from college funds invested in supporting Black students such as the United Negro College Fund and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in order to present a “united front and a united response … to do the best by HBCUs” and to strategize their asks of the Trump administration, Gasman said.

David K. Sheppard, chief business and legal officer at Thurgood Marshall College Fund, emailed presidents and chancellors to encourage “measured” reactions to moves from the Trump administration, promising to avoid “bombarding you with emails about the latest about face from the White House.”

Sheppard said the fund would “remain vigilant in our efforts to protect and enhance such funding streams regardless of what signals are emanating from the White House,” providing some reassurance about the “evolving drama” with pausing federal financial assistance programs such as Pell Grants, which support students with exceptional financial need.

“What we hope to assure you is that, as of now, acts passed by Congress and signed by the President are still law in this country,” Sheppard wrote.

Sheppard shared a memo from the Office of Management and Budget clarifying the pause on federal assistance programs which he said “oversteps Congress’ ‘power of the purse.’”

Spokespeople for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities referred questions to North Carolina A&T, and spokespeople for the United Negro College Fund did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment by the time of publication.

The Thurgood Marshall College Fund did not make any representative available for an interview.