Elias Pike | News Editor | epike2@mail.smcvt.edu
Since the Trump administration took office in January, it has cut or threatened to cut billions of dollars of federal funding for higher education. The Trump administration alledges certain schools are not doing enough to combat antisemitism or are pursuing what the administration sees as illegal DEI initiatives. So far, according to the New York Times, seven universities in particular have been singled out for punitive funding cuts including Harvard, Columbia and Cornell. But these are not the only schools under investigation and in potential jeopardy of losing funding.
In addition to funding cuts to specific colleges and universities, the Trump administration, through an executive order signed on March 20 is proposing dramatic cuts to the Department of Education.
In 2023, over $60 billion in federal dollars went to colleges and universities across the United States according to the New York Times. At St. Michael’s in 2024 approximately $10 million came to the college via federal student aid, according to Robert Robinson, vice president of finance. So, could any of these actions impact St. Michael’s College?
According to Robinson, the federal funding St. Michael’s receives comes to the college in many different ways. “It comes in SCOG, the supplemental educational opportunity grants that certain students receive. It comes in federal work study. It comes in Perkins Loans, Pell Grants, and then direct to student loans,” Robinson said. An additional $700,000 came in research grants. These grants are used to fund scientific studies and can come in direct forms that go straight to faculty or in indirect forms coming in through an outside entity. “UVM is a good example where the primary grant holder is at UVM, but the depth and breadth of the grant is larger and they need more collaborators, so some of our faculty become sub award recipients,” Robinson said.
When asked about what would happen if federal loans and grants were to cease Robinson stated, “I think it all depends.” According to Robinson this has been an important topic among the leadership team at the college. “We’ve spent a lot of time contemplating those things as a leadership team, but have not really reached any conclusions, because there’s simply too many variables to hypothesize about at this point.”
Brigid Lawler, vice president for Enrollment Management is also closely watching the potential cuts. “While it looks like existing programs like Pell Grants and federal student loans will not be directly impacted by the cuts to the Education Department’s staffing, it is hard to say what will come down the road,” Lawler said. “For now, the issue is the potential disruptions that the downsizing/cuts to the department will create with regard to the how efficiently programs like Pell and the federal student loan program are administered.”
Universities like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and even University of Vermont, have research one status (R-1 status). “They have whole areas of their university and whole positions that are funded through federal grants,” said Gretchen Galbraith provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “We have very, very little of that. So, our grants make it possible for students, for faculty, to do state of the art research, but that grant is not paying for them to teach. The impact would be diminished opportunities for our faculty and students to be part of cutting-edge research.” But Galbraith said our grants do not impact how the majority of our professors are paid and would likely not directly impact jobs.
While Trump Administration has threatened to cut or freeze funding for a number of colleges, only a few have actually seen their funding impacted. The situation is evolving, and it is unclear what will happen. Despite this uncertainty, school administrators like Galbraith and Robinson said they are following changes closely and developing strategies to address any cuts to funding if they arise.