Colleges raking in millions in federal dollars hold their breath as Trump vows to shakeup US education

President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory has colleges and universities on high alert after he vowed to take on higher education as part of his plan to overhaul the U.S. education system.

U.S. universities have come under scrutiny in recent months for their lackluster response to antisemitism as protests and encampments overtook campuses nationwide amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Many universities chose to look the other way, prompting a mass exodus by donors who withdrew millions in grants and severed relationships with their alma maters. 

The same universities, meanwhile, continued to rake in billions in U.S. taxpayer-backed federal funds. Since 2018, $33 billion of federal contracts and grants have been handed to a handful of elite universities, averaging $6.6 billion annually, an Open the Books study from last year revealed. Some universities even collected more money in federal dollars than they did in tuition payments in a single year, according to an audit done by the government watchdog. 

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Trump has repeatedly targeted colleges and universities on the campaign trail, pledging to free higher learning in America from the grip of what he called “Marxist Maniacs.” His platform for 2024 calls for “deporting pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.” Trump has also vowed to combat “wokeness” and progressive culture in education, repeatedly railing against DEI initiatives, which he believes are inadvertently discriminatory. 

In July, Trump said that he would advance a measure to have schools “fined up to the entire amount of their endowment” if they do not desist DEI programs that engage in “explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity.”

He has also threatened to withhold federal dollars from schools that play a role in online censorship as part of his plan to “shatter the left-wing censorship regime.”

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Trump’s crusade to reshape education could signify a shakeup in the billions of federal dollars given to colleges across the country annually. In fiscal year 2023 alone, more than $5 billion worth of taxpayer dollars were given to Ivy League schools through sponsorship, grants and contracts, a Fox News Digital review of financial records determined.

Below is a list of the amounts in taxpayer-backed federal funds collected by some of the top U.S. universities in fiscal year 2023. This list documents the amounts allocated by the government for each school but does not include the additional amount of federal funding designated for student financial aid or account for federal tax breaks on their endowments.

1. Harvard

Harvard collected $676 million in federal dollars last year, accounting for roughly 66% of the school’s total sponsored revenue for 2023, according to its annual financial report.

Cambridge, MA – May 23: Hundreds of graduates walked out of the 2024 Commencement in Harvard Yard to join an anti-Israel protest. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The Ivy-League university, which has received billions of dollars in federal funds in recent years, has been under the microscope for its lackluster response to antisemitism on campus prompted by the war in Gaza. GOP lawmakers have called for tightening the valve on federal funds for the university until it takes meaningful action to protect Jewish students.

Like many higher learning institutions, Harvard heavily relies on government funding. Between 2018 and 2022, the university amassed $3.13 billion in total federal payments, including federal grants and contracts, according to an analysis conducted by OpenTheBooks and provided to Fox News Digital. Harvard also acquired generous tax breaks from the government on its endowment during that same time.

When reached for comment, a Harvard spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to the financial report but declined to comment beyond that.

2. Columbia 

In 2023–2024, Columbia University received $1.3 billion in government grants and contracts, with at least $800 million of that being research grants, according to the Stand Columbia Society.

The group, comprised of alumni and former Columbia professors, conducted an analysis into how a Trump presidency might impact the university’s overall budget, concluding that $3.5 billion, or roughly 55% of Columbia’s $6.4 billion operating budget, depends on Federal government funding and “is exposed to institutional risk, with $250 million to $1.3 billion at risk in the short term” under a Trump administration.

The society pleaded with the school to enforce campus rules and hold students and staff accountable to prevent Trump from withholding federal funding by accusing the university of violating Title VI.

Anti-Israel demonstrators at an encampment at Columbia University in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York, US, on Monday, April 22, 2024.  (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Columbia dominated headlines earlier this year as the scene of some of the most high-profile anti-Israel unrest, hosting days-long encampments and protests that led to violence, canceled classes and arrests. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce concluded in a recent report that the university was “the site of some of the most disturbing and extreme antisemitic conduct violations in the country.” 

At the time, numerous politicians called for an end to federal cash for the New York City-based university, noting that billions of American taxpayer dollars have contributed to the Ivy League, accused of allowing anti-Israel radicals to run amok with little intervention or discipline by leadership.

House Republicans pushed for legislation to force Columbia and other colleges to be transparent about their policies regarding campus protests. The bill, titled, the No Tax Dollars For College Encampments Act, would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require universities that receive federal funds to disclose what kind of policies they have to deal with civil disturbances on campus, and how they enforce those rules.

Columbia did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

3. University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania was awarded over $936 million in federal dollars for research alone in fiscal year 2023, with large sum grants from NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and others, according to the school’s website. During that same time, UPenn also collected $703 million in NIH funding.

Several major University of Pennsylvania donors have cut ties with the school over its response to the Hamas attack on Israel and to pro-Palestinian student groups. (Left: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images Right: (Photo by Paul Hennesy/Anadolu via Getty Images))

The school emerged as an epicenter of anti-Israel protests and encampments, dominating headlines for failing to take sufficient action to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus. Donors withdrew their donations in droves and demanded the resignation of UPenn President Liz Magill, who left her post in December 2023. The school’s handling of the protests prompted some lawmakers to question whether universities that don’t do enough to restrain antisemitic actions on campuses should have their tax-exempt statuses revoked.

The University of Pennsylvania did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

4. Yale

Yale received approximately $776.8 million in 2023. U.S. lawmakers called on Trump to strip the school of federal funding in 2019 after it was accused of “target[ing] religious students for special disfavor.” DEI initiatives have been championed by the school, prompting a group of Yale faculty members to urge leadership to return to its core mission of education. The Ivy League was also criticized for its handling of the anti-Israel protests earlier this year.

Yale did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

5. Cornell

The Ithica-based university received approximately $736.3 million in 2023, the same year that then-President Martha E. Pollack shared her “gratitude” for anti-Israel agitators, thanking them for “remaining peaceful and nonviolent” as protesters ravaged the campus and threatened Jewish students.

Anti-Israel vandalism seen at Day Hall ahead of the first day of classes at Cornell University.  (Ming DeMers/Cornell Daily Sun)

Like other Ivy League’s, Cornell shed major donors over its handling of the protests and embrace of DEI initiatives, with one prominent benefactor urging the university to abandon its “misguided commitment” to DEI, because its embrace of such initiatives has yielded “disgrace” rather than “excellence.”

Cornell did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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While Ivy League universities are major recipients of federal funding, public universities have also received a stunning amount in dollars from federal programs and grants. According to Open the Books, The University of Michigan is on pace to collect $704 million this year. The school recently came under fire for its emphasis on DEI initiatives after Black students told The New York Times Magazine that the program was “a well-meaning failure” and “superficial” at its core.

The University of Wisconsin is also on track to collect $628 million this year. UC San Francisco received $562 million from the federal budget in 2023. The USCF School of Medicine received the most funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of any public university in that same year, totaling $789,196,651, according to the university website. 

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UCSF faced backlash in February after it hosted a speaker who suggested Whites were “psychopathic” as part of a Black History Month event. His other comments included claiming that “Anti-Blackness” is “the foundation of all American, all White American institutions.”  

Fox Business’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.