I’m peeping from under my rock for a second, so please be gentle with me:

Can someone explain to me like I’m a 5 year old what is Trump doing that is freaking out higher education institutions so much? I hear grant money. What’s the status on that?

Please keep it as matter-of-fact as possible 🫣

@jtr https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/18/trump-administration-schools-dei-programs-deadline
May be useful. It seems everything is getting axed in the USA.

@jtr Here's a quick summary for a few things I'm aware of:

• Trump executive order barring NSF grants from anything DEI-related
• the NSF initially froze its "in progress" grant reviews to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders
• Now, the NSF is flagging existing grants that were identified by NSF or congressional committee as DEI-related. These flagged grants are candidates for getting their funding yanked
• Meanwhile, NIH put a cap of 15% on indirect expenses for both new and existing grants. for most modern research universities, this is way too low of a number and is expected to be quite disruptive.

@jtr In a nutshell: budget cuts.

Livelihoods that depend on budgets staying the same don't want to see massive decreases in funding. Especially with little time to prepare.

@7robots thanks for that, it helps