BRIDGEWATER, Va. – In just a couple weeks, President Donald Trump has swiftly signed a multitude of executive orders (73 as of Feb. 27) that will directly affect students at Bridgewater College and across the country. These orders have led to mass uncertainty throughout the future of programs at many colleges and universities.
The Trump Administration is working to reverse policies made by former President Biden and decades worth of presidencies, and he is carrying forward with his own priorities. These orders affect colleges regarding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), international students and immigration, federal funding and the Department of Education.
“The message that I would share with anybody reading this story is, as a college, we’ve got our hands around this,” Bridgewater College President Dr. David Bushman said. “We’re thinking about this the right way, based on my interactions with lots of other college presidents.”
Moving forward, Bushman is unsure about the precise future implications of these executive orders. He said that, ultimately, the college has to eventually make decisions that are best for the institution.
“What we’re doing right now is the consensus recommendation,” Bushman said. “There are a lot of places that haven’t gotten this far, so I think we’re ahead of the game. I think we’re positioned really well right now because we’ve got smart people who pay attention to this stuff… We’re thinking about this correctly. I think we’re appropriately evaluating possible risk.”
Bushman believes that we should start to gain clarity over the next three to six months, but he said, “literally it could be a year and priorities will change [for the government].” Despite the current uncertainty, Bushman feels confident we should be receiving a much clearer idea on the implications of Trump’s administration by autumn.
Federal Fund Freezing – Title IV
Per the Virginia Department of Education, “Title IV grant programs are designed to support the comprehensive needs of students in a variety of settings, strengthen family engagement, and bring America’s schools into the 21st century.”
A White House memo ordered a freeze on federal grants and loans by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27 that left Americans and students who depend on financial aid worried.
“If financial aid goes away, most people can’t go here,” Professor of Political Science Jim Josefson said. “Not only is there no Bridgewater College, most of higher education would go away, unless people could find their own private loans in the banking industry.”
Trump’s pause in federal funding set immediate panic onto government funded institutions like Bridgewater College. This pause included the distribution of financial aid and grant packages sent from the government to colleges to give to both current and incoming students.
“That kind of freaked us all out… if they’re pausing disbursements, does that mean our students who get federal financial aid, which is like, everybody, are not going to be able to pay their bills?” Bushman said.
This executive order has been followed by a swarm of changes, revisions and halts. With all these day-to-day developments, Bushman compared these circumstances to the days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You would make decisions one day and then the next day change your mind,” Bushman said.
To Bushman, it is a skill to be comfortable with this kind of uncertainty, but he expects to make better decisions as time goes on.
He had previously attended a meeting for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) around late January. NAICU meetings are where college presidents lobby senators and congresspeople and receive their perspectives on which certain governmental orders would be supportive towards universities.
These college presidents additionally receive information on certain policy directions, Pell Grants and FAFSA roll out. These policies relate to Title IV.
To even be considered to receive these programs, colleges must be compliant with all federal regulations. This can be difficult in the current times of uncertainty on what exactly the regulations are.
“There are already lawsuits trying to stop certain actions from happening,” Bushman said. “So we won’t know how those will play out over time, but we have to be attentive to it because to be eligible for federal financial aid, we have to be in compliance with all of the federal regulations that are legally in place.”
These executive orders are having an immediate effect on many students as they start to feel unsure about their future college years. One regulation that confuses Bushman is Trump’s order on DEI.
“If you read the executive orders carefully, nobody has spelled out what that means,” Bushman said. “Nobody defines what DEI is.”
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Trump signed an executive order the day after he was inaugurated to stop DEI programs across the U.S. government.
DEI programs have been a part of workplace diversity efforts to ensure more fair representation for groups such as African Amercians, members of the LGBTQIA+ women, people with disabilities and other ethnic minorities.
“Personally, I haven’t had any experiences or talked to too many people about any of the Trump administration’s policies or anything going on here at Bridgewater,” Richard Edmunds, a senior at Bridgewater College, said.
Trump and his allies have blamed diversity efforts for the California wildfires and the air crash in the Washington, D.C., area. The president has also issued orders to end funding for schools supporting critical race theory and to eliminate DEI related programs and jobs.
“I feel like the Trump administration has a big widespread overview right now, especially with the administration just starting at the end of January,” Edmunds said.
The idea is to ensure that students, regardless of background, race, gender or identity all have equal opportunities to succeed.
“I know DEI has created different social and economical rips and gaps in between people and everything,” Edmunds said. “It is more so a talking point nowadays while we just kind of wait on what he’s going to really do on these policies that he’s taking away and reinforcing, and I guess editing them and putting them back out there.”
“A lot of people get their information off things like social media, which kind of hurts the greater good of actually learning of these policies, even though some of these policies can be interpreted as harmful to their college education or impactful to it,” Edmunds said.
DEI has a profound impact on students by intending them with fairness and encouraging them to a deeper understanding of diverse cultures, regardless of their background.
“The Trump Administration, because they did it last time, will change the rules, to make it more difficult for the college, for instance, to discipline a student accused of sexual misconduct,” said Josefson.
“It could be that federal aid to higher education will be radically reduced, which might have direct implications for the affordability of college,” Josefson said.
Although, students should not worry about their financial aid for the spring semester, according to Dashia Milden.
“What the Trump administration is trying to do is to stop people talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Josefson said. “It’s not clear whether the courts will allow him to do this.”
“He is basically saying nobody in the federal bureaucracy or who gets federal money can talk about diversity anymore,” Josefson said.
DEI initiatives are designed to make college campus environments more inclusive and empowering for students from diverse backgrounds. It has become a highly debated political issue and the Trump administration plans to eliminate it all together.
Department of Education
The Trump administration is considering significant changes to the U.S. Department of Education, using executive actions to eliminate programs not protected by law. The administration is urging Congress to dissolve the department entirely.
Congress passed an act to establish a Department of Education in 1979, so it can only be dissolved by an act of Congress. To pass an act, a representative must propose a bill, then go through committee review, and is finally debated on and voted on by the House of Representatives and the Senate, needing a majority vote in each.
The Department of Education administers many programs that benefit low-income students, including Title IX funding and Pell Grants. Potential cutbacks on these programs could make higher education less accessible.
Faculty also worry about the potential policy implications for higher education and career stability. Many professors and educators are watching the situation closely, uncertain of the outcome.
“There is so little certainty about what exactly is happening,” Dr. Sam Hamilton, Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, said. “I would say that there is a pretty strong frustration with a lot of the proposed plans, because it would have such an incredible impact on students’ ability to attend college or to pay for college.”
“If every major across campus has fewer and fewer students in it because they can’t pay to come here, then we’re not able to do the thing that we spent years training ourselves to do,” Hamilton said. “It reminds me of Major League Baseball games during the pandemic, when they played in empty stadiums with cardboard cutouts of fans. I would be standing in a classroom with 18 cardboard cutouts and two or three students actually there.”
“I think right out of the gate, it’s creating a lot of confusion,” Associate Professor of Education Dr. Beth Lehman said. “If there’s a plan to actually do it and a rationale for that, and it goes through due process, then OK–change is the name of the game. But at the moment, it’s just being thrown out there as a threat.”
Lehman noted that Trump’s statements, including claims that the Department of Education promotes “woke ideology” and employs educators that “hate our children” contribute to political polarization rather than constructive policy discussion.
“This sort of name calling game is not helpful to what we really want and desire in education, which is constant quality school reform,” Lehman added.
Another major concern is the potential effects on federal funding for K-12 education. Dr. Gwen Jones, Director of Teacher Education at Bridgewater College, highlighted the importance and role of the department in supporting students with disabilities, particularly through programs like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
“The Department of Education services students with 504 plans,” Jones said. “That includes a large group of students with epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease, attention deficit disorder–students who rely on these protections to receive the services they need.”
Jones noted that eliminating the 504 plan could put thousands of students at risk, especially those in low-income school districts that depend on federal funding. Ten percent of funding for K-12 schools is through federal grants, allotting about $19.1 billion to high-poverty schools and $15.5 billion to help students with disabilities.
“If eliminating the Department of Education means literally cutting that funding, that’s a reversal on several decades of school reform aimed at providing equitable resources across different needs and different demographics,” Lehman said. “That resource gap is a long-term budget dilemma that quite likely sends schools back toward a more unequal, uneven collection of resources.”
The impact of the potential policies extends beyond K-12 and into higher education. The Department of Education oversees the federal student loan program, supervising approximately $1.6 trillion in student loans.
“If there is some kind of a freeze here and elsewhere, it would mean far fewer students, and probably significantly more stress for those that are attending here because they will be scraping dollars and cents together to pay tuition,” Hamilton said.
As uncertainty plagues both students and educators, Jones stresses the importance of public engagement and voicing concerns.
“For any student worried about these changes, my best advice is to reach out to your legislators—your House representatives and senators—and express your concerns,” Jones said. “This is our government, and it should function for us.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
With Trump set for his second term in office, there has been a noticeable shift towards stronger immigration policies. This impacted the well-known federal law enforcement agency: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Trump’s administration has directed its focus to border enforcement, interior security and deportation.
The budget and workforce for ICE have seen a significant increase, as the efforts from the president’s first term plan to continue. Included in this are the efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA.
Ultimately, there have been minimal changes to the immigration policies since the president’s first term. However, as stated throughout this writing, there have been a number of new policies resulting from Trump’s second inauguration.
“The Trump Administration has enacted a wide range of new policies that affect the college and its students,” Dr. Jamie Frueh, Associate Provost at Bridgewater College, said. “Many of those policies have been put on hold by courts as they look to figure out their legality. My initial thoughts are that process of weighing the long-term implications of policies is important in a system of checks and balances. It is a fundamental part of democracy.”
Having a connection to the campus as well as students, Frueh gave some insight on community reactions to such policies. “So far, I haven’t seen much of a reaction from the community,” Frueh said. “I think it is critical for citizens to study such policy changes and weigh in on their morality and effectiveness through legal channels.”
Final Thoughts
Bridgewater College students will learn more about the direct implications of Trump’s orders as time goes by. Even though it might be difficult to deal with the uncertainty, the college and Bushman plan to make the most reasonable decisions for all Eagles.
For the students and faculty that don’t feel they’re receiving enough information, give it time and everyone will be informed of the impacts that are made on the college once federal decisions are made.
“Broad pronouncements are hard to make because: A. it really is uncertain, B. we don’t know how it’s going to come out and C. it might apply a little bit differently to every student,” Bushman said. “But if students have real concerns and wonder what we’re doing, we’re happy to talk about it.”
Visit the White House website for more information on executive actions and other political news.
