Trump's crackdown on Harvard, 'woke' colleges will take more than 100 days to leave lasting reform: professor

The first 100 days of the Trump administration have made higher education institutions a central front in its broader battle against "woke" policies and discriminatory practices linked to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

As both federal funding and immigration enforcement tools are being wielded, universities are feeling unprecedented pressure to reform or face serious consequences.

"The Trump administration is going after the sources of funding that enable the DEI industrial complex," Cornell University Professor William Jacobson told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump shut down all DEI offices across the federal government during his first week in office and signed a number of executive orders to quickly undo former President Joe Biden’s efforts.

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One of the administration's key strategies involves using federal funding as leverage. Institutions like Harvard University have already seen billions of dollars in grants put on notice. 

Jacobson said that many universities are in "a state of denial," hoping they can "rope-a-dope" their way through the Trump presidency without making substantive changes. 

Emily Sturge, a University of Florida student and Campus Reform reporter, echoed Jacobson's concerns about cosmetic changes by universities. 

"We do see universities trying to rebrand, trying to sweep it under the rug," she said. 

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Fox News Digital previously reported that universities like Northeastern University and North Carolina State University have rebranded DEI offices as "Belonging" or "Inclusive Excellence" centers while keeping many of the same initiatives intact.

Defending Education, formerly known as Parents Defending Education, found that there are still 383 "currently active" DEI offices and programs, with 243 universities maintaining institution-wide DEI offices or programming.

Along with executive orders targeting DEI offices, Trump also rescinded Biden’s order on diversity initiatives, "Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government," which he signed on his first day in office in 2021. 

In February, the Department of Education also warned state education departments that they must remove DEI policies or risk losing federal funding.

Harvard, which Jacobson notes has systematically purged conservative, pro-capitalist, and pro-Israel voices from its faculty, faces intense scrutiny over alleged discriminatory practices in hiring and admissions.

"Higher education, particularly at the so-called elite level, has really dug themselves a hole," he said. 

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Jacobson said that it is "extremely difficult" to get hired in the humanities and social sciences if you have "anything conservative, pro-Israel, or pro-capitalist" on your resume.

"Their independence has resulted in a system which has perverted the notion of education. It has turned it into ideological indoctrination," he said.

The Trump administration is also cracking down on sanctuary campuses and universities that protect anti-Israel protests.

Former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was the administration's first international student arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for leading anti-Israel protests.

The legal permanent U.S. resident, originally from Syria, was accused of lying on his visa application and failing to disclose his membership in an anti-Israel organization.

A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that Khalil can be deported from the U.S. due to his involvement in leading last year’s pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.

Mohsen Mahdawi, another pro-Palestinian Columbia student protester, was detained by federal immigration authorities in Vermont. 

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University, was detained by ICE agents in March. 

Her visa had been revoked due to alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian protests. She is currently awaiting deportation proceedings.

Harvard has become a target of Trump’s broader crackdown on universities, much of which is in response to last year’s anti-Israel unrest that erupted on campuses across the country.

On April 11, the Trump administration sent a letter to Harvard University President Alan Garber and Harvard Corporation Lead Member Penny Pritzker outlining the institution’s failures and a list of demands from the White House. In the letter, the administration accused Harvard of failing to uphold civil rights laws and to foster an "environment that produces intellectual creativity."

The Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding if Harvard did not reform governance and leadership, as well as its hiring and admissions practices by August 2025. The letter emphasized the need for Harvard to change its international admissions process to avoid admitting students who are "hostile" to American values or support terrorism or antisemitism.

Harvard refused to comply with the demands, with Garber saying that "no government… should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and areas of study and inquiry they can pursue." The university later filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its "unlawful" freezing of funds.

Trump fired back, calling the Ivy League institution "a liberal mess."

"Harvard is an [antisemitic], far-left institution, as are numerous others, with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our country apart. The place is a liberal mess, allowing a certain group of crazed lunatics to enter and exit the classroom and spew fake ANGER AND HATE," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Harvard is a threat to democracy…"

Despite early victories by the administration in its crackdown on campus DEI, Jacobson warned that reforming higher education is a marathon, not a sprint. 

"This is going to take more than 100 days," he said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and Harvard for comment.

Fox News Digital's Rachel Wolf and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.