N.Y. public colleges brace for financial impact of Trump's medical research, DEI policies

Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News on Feb 25, 2025

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New York’s public universities are trying to safeguard their campuses against federal spending cuts under President Donald Trump.

At a yearly hearing on the state’s higher education budget, State University of New York Chancellor John King revealed Tuesday he had been to Washington to lobby against threats to medical research. Meanwhile, the head of the City University of New York called on the state Legislature for their support.

“Please know that your support is not taken for granted at a time when some seem interested in undermining our progress,” CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez told lawmakers in Albany.

Their testimony comes as multiple presidential actions jeopardize federal funding for higher education. Neither of the chancellors nor their spokesmen publicly shared contingency plans if those dollars disappear.

Although the cuts are currently on hold by a federal judge, Trump is planning to curtail funding for research universities granted through the National Institutes of Health. His administration has also threatened to withhold federal dollars from colleges that continue diversity, equity and inclusion programs or are accused of permitting antisemitism on campus.

During the hearing, King told lawmakers that he worked “very closely” with state Attorney General Letitia James to prepare materials for litigation that won a temporary restraining order, so that the National Institutes of Health continues to fund the indirect costs of research at current levels. SUNY receives upward of $700 million each year in federal research funding.

The SUNY chancellor also met with a bipartisan delegation of New York lawmakers a couple of weeks ago to stress that the research dollars “not only drive important advances in health care, but also ensure jobs in their district,” he said.

“In the long run, it will be very challenging to replace these federal dollars,” King explained. “The federal government is one of the crucial investors in health care research across the country, and if we don’t have those funds, we will ultimately be unable to continue many of these research projects.”

Nonetheless, King doubled down on SUNY’s diversity efforts, saying they were core to the public university system’s mission to provide broad access to higher education. The dismantling of DEI has been central to Trump’s education agenda, including recent federal guidance to expand the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action in college admissions to all race-based education programs.

“We have no intention of backing away from that mission and its inherent commitment to a diverse and inclusive university and society,” the chancellor said.

Assemblyman Chris Eachus, a Democrat representing Orange and Rockland counties, asked King how much SUNY could lose “with this totally absurd outlook by the federal government on DEI.”

“We think that our work on diversity and inclusion is 100% consistent with our tradition, and the missives from the federal government to date have not been consistent with the law,” added King, pointing to a federal court order late last week that temporarily blocked some DEI orders. (Some legal experts believe separate guidance for higher education still stands.)

“So you’re as lost as the rest of us on what’s going to happen?” Eachus quipped.

“For the whole higher-ed sector, that’s right,” King replied.

Assemblyman Robert Smullen, a Republican representing the Mohawk Valley and the Adirondacks, urged both chancellors to comply with Trump’s policies, warning that CUNY, in particular, could lose funding through a federal crackdown on reports of antisemitism on college campuses.

“The federal funding to state educational establishments is set by the federal government,” Smullen said, “and if they say it has to be a certain way, then you have to comply, unless you’re directed otherwise by a court.”

Chancellor Matos Rodriguez replied that CUNY, which receives $200 million in federal direct grants and contracts, is in compliance with the law.

“If there’s a clear sense of someone that says that we don’t [comply], then we’ll make the change when that moment happens,” he said. “But until that happens, we’ve been working around all applicable federal and state and city law.”