President Donald Trump has taken several steps to change the way universities operate in the United States, and a new report suggests that two experts may have figured out why.
The Trump administration has been embroiled in conflict with universities since he was inaugurated. For example, he has sued Harvard University and multiple others for their on-campus protest policies. He's also signed an executive order requiring universities that receive public funding to get rid of their diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs and to create more meritocratic admissions processes.
Trump's latest move to use the Education Department to collect data on the race and gender of college applicants set off alarm bells in the ears of Justin Driver, a law professor at Yale University, and Aaron Ament, president of the National Student Legal Defense Network.
“It signals the Trump administration’s efforts to depress Black and brown enrollment, and intimidate universities into decreasing Black and brown enrollment,” Driver told The New York Times.
Driver added that the policy represents "another catastrophic blow in the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on American higher education.”
Ament added that the move could impact students from low-income households the most.
“There is a real need for reporting and transparency on what actual prices are,” Ament said. “This is a tactic to try to stop institutions from helping disadvantaged students.”