“With much of their funding at stake, schools are quietly hiring lobbyists and reaching out to politicians amid Washington’s quest to rein in academia”
When University of Michigan President Santa Ono sat down for breakfast earlier this month with a group of lawmakers from his home state, the message was clear: The school was ready to play ball with Trump’s Washington.
It was time for universities to “wake up” and start addressing the reasons why they have lost so much trust, Ono told the bipartisan group in a hotel conference room near the Capitol, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. Ono added that universities should listen to their most “vocal critics.”
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.
During his election campaign, President Trump vowed “to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left,” and he has moved quickly to target diversity, equity and inclusion programs, alleged antisemitism and anything perceived as “woke.” He has threatened to pull funding from universities that don’t comply.
