As Yale faces federal probes, new report warns Trump's actions are reshaping higher education

The latest investigations into Yale University signal that the Trump administration's aggressive campaign forcing U.S. universities into compliance with its agenda for higher education shows no sign of easing, leaders of the American Association of University Professors warned on Wednesday.

The AAUP - the union representing thousands of faculty and academic professionals nationwide - released a report July 22 arguing that President Donald Trump is implementing a coordinated federal campaign to pressure institutions into policy concessions, using funding threats as leverage.

"They're going to use whatever they can to bring a cudgel over our institutions," AAUP President Todd Wolfson said during a virtual AAUP press conference Wednesday.

From funding freezes to investigations to compliance agreements, the report details the political playbook that seeks to remake the higher education landscape in the United States, how schools have responded and the implications for the future of higher education.

Although Yale seemed to largely escape the Trump administration's targeting of other Ivy League schools and elite institutions last year, it is currently facing accusations from the U.S. Department of Justice that it illegally discriminated against white and Asian applicants. 

The Trump administration has framed many of its efforts targeting universities as fighting alleged antisemitism on campuses, and eliminating what it says is unlawful and discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

AAUP leaders say they disagree.

"It is clear that the Trump administration is simply seeking to impose an ideological agenda using these investigations as a justification, or shall I say, an excuse to browbeat and intimidate universities," said Hank Reichman, a professor at California State University, East Bay, and co-author of the report, during the press conference.

As universities in Connecticut and across the country rely on federal dollars, the report warns that the federal government has forced colleges to bend to political demands at the expense of institutional autonomy, academic freedom and democracy - and said most universities aren't doing enough to fight back.

"We have entered a new and dangerous era, one in which the independence of America's colleges and universities is increasingly being made contingent on political obedience," Wolfson said.

The AAUP report says that Trump has made deal-making central to governance in his second term, and has applied that approach to higher education, especially large and prestigious institutions. Some of the agreements the federal government has reached with universities include changes to institutional policies, governance, hiring, enhanced reporting requirements and other measures affecting various aspects of campus life, according to the report.

"U.S. higher education has, in effect, become a target of a massive extortion racket," according to the report.

The report also focused on compliance agreements such as the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," which was initially sent to nine schools in October 2025 and later to all higher education institutions. 

The Trump administration's so-called compact asked colleges to make sweeping changes to policies and practices to align them with the president's agenda, in exchange for favorable access to research funding. After it was sent, professors from colleges and universities across Connecticut demanded that higher education leaders reject the compact.

While that compact was overwhelmingly rejected across the country, the report says the Trump administration found other ways to exert control over schools, such as through the agreements made with Columbia University, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.

"In these agreements, institutional autonomy is sacrificed to authoritarian state power by means of extortion," according to the report.

The report also notes that private universities, especially those with medical schools, are critically vulnerable to government pressure because of their dependence on government grants to support their research missions.

Public research universities, such as the University of Connecticut, have not been spared when it comes to issues with federal funding. UConn confirmed to CT Insider this week that it is still experiencing significant delays in funding from federal agencies.

The report calls for a unified response from the higher education community to push back against the attacks, which it says has largely been lacking.

"The lack of courage displayed by many of the college and university presidents in these times has been astounding," said Afshan Jafar,  a professor at Connecticut College and chair of AAUP Committee on College and University Governance, during the press conference. "If our leaders don't speak out, the censorship and political pressures do not so much trickle down into, as cascade into the institution unabated and unchecked."

At Yale, some faculty members and students have called on the university to take stronger stances against the Trump administration, but the university has rarely, explicitly and publicly, pushed back against the administration.

Like its Ivy League peers, Yale has been hit with a flurry of attacks from the federal government in Trump's second term, including investigations into alleged antisemitism and alleged racial discrimination, funding threats and more. In one instance, Yale University agreed to cut ties with an organization that helps racial minorities earn doctorate degrees after pressure from the Trump administration.

Jafar said during the press conference that it was critical to proactively put pressure on university leadership, "before they enter into any such coercive agreement as Yale seems to be currently doing." 

Yale President Maurie McInnis confirmed this month that the university is cooperating with the ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigations into the admissions practices of its medical, law and undergraduate schools, which faculty and students have denounced.

"They have to have good faith discussions, but they cannot capitulate," Wolfson said. "We want to all look Yale administrators in the eye and say, 'You must stand for higher ed.'" 

When contacted for comment, Yale referred to a July 13 statement from McInnis, saying it is cooperating with ongoing Department of Justice investigations into the admissions practices of its medical, law and undergraduate schools and is not admitting any wrongdoing.

The AAUP report says that too few university presidents have "publicly rejected specific policies or demands, either as individuals or on behalf of their institutions" and "the crisis posed by the second Trump administration has too often been met by silence when there is a need to speak out (and) by timidity when boldness is called for."

The report concludes that "most trustees and administrators have at best been caught flat-footed, and some appear even to have welcomed governmental intrusion."

However, the report does note instances of university leaders pushing back. It specifically points to Wesleyan University in Middletown, which it says accepts more federal funding for science research than any other small college or university.

Wesleyan President Michael Roth "has been an outspoken and widely quoted critic of the Trump administration's compliance campaign and its policies in general," the report says. 

At the same time, it noted that "resistance has been most effective - indeed, it may only have been effective - where faculty members have taken independent action."

AAUP leaders called on faculty, students, staff and academic leaders to stand together and defend higher education.

"When universities lose their independence, democracy loses one of its most important institutions, and that is what is at stake," Wolfson said.

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