What Higher Education Needs to Know about the Trump Executive Orders
Client Alert | March 3, 2025
Gibson Dunn lawyers are available to assist in addressing any questions you may have about executive orders and their implications for institutions of higher education. Please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you usually work or the authors of this client alert for more information.
Introduction
New Trump administration policies require colleges and universities to take careful stock of a large swath of their operations ranging from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and activities, to programs for which they receive federal funding, to immigration policies, to government contracts, to how they are combatting antisemitism, to their involvement with China. Here we briefly summarize the executive actions likely to most significantly affect higher education. These issues will continue to develop as the President and executive agencies implement the articulated policy agendas, and we will provide updates as warranted.
You can find more information on recent administrative actions on our Presidential Transition Hub, here.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
In his inauguration address, President Trump vowed to “forge a society that is colorblind and merit based” and “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” His administration has taken numerous actions since then to curb government contractors’ and grantees’ DEI programs. Colleges and universities that receive federal grant funding or that serve as government contractors should review their programs to determine any risk exposure related to DEI programs in light of the executive orders described below. They also should consider coordinating closely with their contracting and grant officers to prevent any misunderstandings. Relevant executive actions include:
- Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” rescinded several executive orders, including Executive Order 11246, which imposed affirmative action obligations on federal contractors in addition to non-discrimination requirements. In place of the prior affirmative action requirements, federal contracts and grants now will be required to include (1) a clause requiring the recipient to agree that compliance “with applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws” is a “material” term of the contract or grant, and (2) a certification that the contractor or grant recipient “does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.” Failure to comply with these new obligations may trigger False Claims Act liability, which can come with substantial penalties. The order also requires the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to “immediately cease” “[a]llowing or encouraging Federal contractors” to engage in “workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.” Finally, the order directs the Attorney General to develop a report identifying up to nine civil compliance investigations of higher education endowments over $1 billion, among other entities, and to issue guidance to “all institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal student loan assistance program … regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.”
- Executive Order 14151, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” directs agencies to review federal grantees who received funding since January 20, 2021 to advance DEI or environmental justice programs. Colleges and universities should review any programs funded by government grants to determine if any of them may be perceived as advancing DEI or environmental justice goals, including research grants.
Note that a group of higher education officials, including university diversity officers, recently sued the Trump administration to challenge these executive orders, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has preliminarily enjoined the implementation of specific provisions within these executive orders.[1]
Federal agencies have begun taking steps to implement these directives.
- The Attorney General issued a memorandum stating that “the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will investigate, eliminate, and penalize illegal DEI and DEIA preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities in the private sector and in educational institutions that receive federal funds.” It clarifies in a footnote that the memorandum addresses programs that “discriminate, exclude, or divide individuals based on race or sex.” On the other hand, it does not prohibit observances that “celebrate diversity, recognize historical contributions, and promote awareness without engaging in exclusion or discrimination,” citing Black History Month and International Holocaust Remembrance Day as examples.
- The Department of Education published a letter clarifying the nondiscrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal funding from the Department. It criticized admissions and financial aid policies based on race, as well as programming, such as race-based graduation ceremonies and facilities. The letter states that the SFFA v. Harvard, which related to admissions decisions, applies more broadly to “prohibit[] covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” In particular, it cautions against using students’ personal essays and extracurriculars as a “means of determining or predicting a student’s race and favoring or disfavoring such students.” It encourages reporting of any use of race by educational institutions to the Department’s Office of Civil Rights. Colleges and universities have 14 days—until February 28, 2025—to comply with the Department’s understanding of the law as described in the letter.
For more information on these and other executive actions related to DEI issues, you can find analysis by Gibson Dunn’s DEI Task Force here.
Anti-Semitism on Campus
President Trump campaigned on a promise to address antisemitism on college campuses. His administration acted upon that promise beginning with an executive order signed on Day One and followed by a host of actions taken by the White House and various agencies. Relevant executive branch actions include:
- Executive Order 14188, “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” directs executive branch agencies to identify all civil and criminal authorities under their jurisdiction to combat anti-Semitism and encourages the Attorney General to pursue cases through the Department’s civil-rights enforcement authorities. It also directs the secretaries of State, Education, and Homeland Security to recommend ways to familiarize higher education institutions with the grounds for inadmissibility so institutions can “monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds” so that those reports lead “to investigations, and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”
- To advance the executive order’s purposes, on February 5, the Department of Justice released a memorandum establishing a joint task force to combat “antisemitic acts of terrorism and civil rights violations in the homeland.” The memorandum notes that the task force’s priorities include “investigating and prosecuting acts of terrorism, antisemitic civil rights violations, and other federal crimes committed by Hamas supporters in the United States, including on college campuses.”
- Pursuant to the executive order, the Department of Education already has launched investigations into five universities for tolerating “widespread anti-Semitic harassment” in violation of Title XI.
In addition to these executive branch actions, Gibson Dunn expects the House Committee on Education and Workforce’s new chairman, Tim Walberg (R-MI-5), to continue to focus on college and university responses to the antisemitism on campus. On February 13, Chairman Walberg sent a letter to Columbia University requesting disciplinary records for antisemitic incidents on campus, writing, “Columbia’s continued failure to address the pervasive antisemitism that persists on campus is untenable, particularly given that the university receives billions in federal funding.”
Gender-Related Issues & Title IX
President Trump has issued several executive orders regarding gender, some of which will affect how colleges and universities are evaluated for compliance with civil rights law, including Title IX. Relevant executive actions include:
- Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” defines “sex” as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.” The order has two main effects: (1) it directs federal agencies to enforce “the freedom to express the binary nature of sex and the right to single-sex spaces in workplaces and federally funded entities” which may lead to enforcement actions against entities that do not provide “single-sex spaces” such as bathrooms or if they take disciplinary action against employees for “express[ing] the binary nature of sex”; and (2) it directs federal agencies to ensure that funds awarded via federal grants do not promote “gender ideology.”
- Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which directs the Secretary of Education to “prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against educational institutions [] that deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them, in the women’s category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.” The Department of Education is expected to provide guidance on how schools must alter their sports programs.
Federal Grants and Contracts
Institutions of higher education that receive federal funding should monitor Trump administration actions that may delay the release of those funds. Government delays in fulfilling funding obligations may impede institutions’ ability to operate programs that rely on federal funding.
- In late January, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum (before rescinding it) that some interpreted as freezing funding for all “financial assistance programs and supporting activities,” but OMB then clarified that the freeze applied only to discretionary payments for specific programs involving immigration, foreign aid, DEI programs, and gender issues that were already ordered paused via executive orders. Days after the memorandum was rescinded, a federal district judge in Washington, DC granted a temporary restraining order on behalf of the plaintiffs and ordered that the White House is “enjoined from implementing, giving effect to, or reinstating under a different name the directives in [the memorandum] with respect to the disbursement of Federal funds under all open awards” and that the White House “must provide written notice of the court’s temporary restraining order to all agencies to which [the memorandum] was addressed.”[2]
- Institutions also may find that competition process for new contracts also is on hold, which may affect institutions that provide services to the federal government. The General Services Administration, the Department of Energy, and likely other executive branch agencies have halted all new contracting awards with certain exceptions.
Immigration
Recent executive orders regarding immigration policy may affect institutions of higher learning. There has been concern that such orders may lead to immigration enforcement on campuses and legal action against institutions with undocumented students or staff. The orders may also affect the ability of students and staff to enter or remain in the United States. Relevant executive actions include:
- Executive Order 14159, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to set immigration enforcement priorities based on public safety. The order also authorizes state and local law enforcement to perform immigration functions and to take lawful actions to ensure “sanctuary” jurisdictions do not receive federal funds.
- Acting Secretary of DHS Bejamine Huffman issued a directive advancing this EO, rescinding the Biden Administration’s guidelines for immigration enforcement actions near “sensitive” areas, including schools. It is possible that immigration enforcement actions will take place on college campuses.
- Executive Order 14161, “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” directs the Secretary of State to ensure that all aliens seeking admission to, or already present in, the United States are “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible” to ensure they “do not bear hostile attitudes towards [the U.S.’s] citizens, culture, government, institution, or founding principles” or “advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.”
For more information on these and other Executive Orders related to immigration, you can find analysis by Gibson Dunn’s Immigration Task Force here.
Vaccines
Conclusion
The issues discussed in this client alert are rapidly evolving. Gibson Dunn’s Executive Order Tracker analyzes executive orders in real time as they are announced. Gibson Dunn lawyers are available to assist in addressing any questions you may have about executive orders and their implications for institutions of higher education. Please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you usually work or the authors of this client alert for more information.
[1] National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump, Case 1:25-cv-00333-ABA (D. Md. Feb. 3, 2025).
[2] See National Council of Nonprofits v. Office of Management and Budget, No. 1:25-cv-00239 (D. D.C. Feb. 5, 2022).
Gibson Dunn’s lawyers are available to assist in addressing any questions you may have regarding these developments. Please contact the Gibson Dunn lawyer with whom you usually work, any leader or member of the firm’s Congressional Investigations, Public Policy, Administrative Law & Regulatory, Energy Regulation & Litigation, Labor & Employment, or Government Contracts practice groups, or any of the following:
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