How the Trump administration is changing college in California

Since January, the Trump administration has taken a series of actions that touch virtually every aspect of higher education in Southern California, including campus protests and financial aid.

The changes could have huge consequences for students, educators and researchers.

For instance, allowing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access students’ personal data might discourage U.S. citizens in mixed-status families from applying for financial aid. The stripping of $400 million in federal grants and contracts from Columbia University for alleged acts of antisemitism could be a precursor to what's coming for Southern California campuses, several of which are under federal investigation.

This list doesn't cover every federal action on higher ed, but LAist tried to include the items that reverberate most clearly for the state and locally.

Federal staffing under Trump Administration

March 3: The Republican-led Senate voted to confirm Linda McMahon as the U.S. Department of Education’s new secretary. McMahon, a wrestling industry billionaire, has limited education experience. After her confirmation, she shared a speech titled “Our Department’s Final Mission,” echoing the president's goal of dismantling the agency. In her speech, McMahon pledged to eliminate “bureaucratic bloat” at the department. At the time, it was among the smallest federal agencies.

March 11: The U.S. Department of Education laid off nearly half of its workforce. The agency — which sends money to public K-12 schools, manages college financial aid for millions of borrowers, tracks student achievement, and enforces federal civil rights laws — started the year with 4,133 employees. Roughly 2,183 remain.

• The federal student aid office experienced the largest number of cuts, a move that could affect operations.
• The department also made particularly steep cuts to its civil rights office, which already faced a backlog of complaints. Seven of 12 regional Office for Civil Rights branches were shuttered, including one in San Francisco, which handled complaints filed in California. These cases involve families trying to get services for students with disabilities, allegations of bias related to race and religion, and sexual violence complaints.
  

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

Feb. 14: The U.S. Department of Education directed colleges and universities to stop using race as a factor in student admissions or for any other consideration, including scholarships, housing and "all other aspects of student, academic and campus life." The department said it would enforce compliance at the end of February and punish institutions by withholding federal funding.

March 7: Trump signed an executive order to end public service loan forgiveness for people who work at places that “advance illegal immigration, terrorism, discrimination and violent protests.” Currently, borrowers are eligible for the program if they’re employed by a nonprofit engaged in: military service, public health, public education, public interest legal service, public service for individuals with disabilities and the elderly and other areas. This executive order has not gone into effect, because updating eligibility rules typically requires the Department of Education to undergo a lengthy federal rulemaking process.

March 14: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights said that 45 schools violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business. The program focuses on supporting Black, Latino and Native American students.

The department alleges that universities involved with the organization are engaging in "race-exclusionary practices.”

The schools under investigation include Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal State San Bernardino and UC Berkeley.

Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, told NPR the department is conflating efforts to provide an inclusive learning environment with violating civil rights obligations.

March 27, 2028: Amid pressure from the Trump administration, USC cut “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) from its list of stated values. In a message to students, faculty, staff and alumni, the university said it’s rebranding its DEI efforts as “Community,” in part because DEI “has evolved to encompass so many interpretations” and become “embroiled in broader cultural and political disagreements.” The university also said this decision was fueled by recent federal guidance.

Investigations related to campus protests

March 5: The U.S. Justice Department announced an investigation into University of California campuses to “assess whether UC has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination ... by allowing an antisemitic hostile work environment to exist on its campuses.” The next week, UCLA committed to carrying out the recommendations of a previously established Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. Those proposals include increased employee training and streamlining of the complaint process for antisemitic incidents.

March 7: The Justice, Health and Human Services, and Education departments, and the General Services Administration pulled $400 million in grants and contracts from Columbia University, saying the school failed to “fulfill their civil rights responsibilities to protect Jewish students from harassment.”

March 8: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, at his university-owned apartment building. Khalil is a Palestinian refugee born in Syria who recently completed his studies at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. He was also a lead negotiator for Columbia University Apartheid Divest last spring, when encampments protesting Israel's war in Gaza sprang up at campuses across the country — including at Cal State LA, UC Irvine, UCLA and USC.

The Department of Homeland Security said Khalil had been arrested “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting [antisemitism].” The administration’s specific charges against Khalil remain unclear. Students across the country, including at UCLA, have protested his arrest.

March 10: The U.S. Department of Education published a list of other higher education institutions that, like Columbia University, it says have fallen short in combating antisemitism, including several Southern California campuses that held protests related to Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The local colleges under investigation include:

• Chapman University
• Pomona College
• Santa Monica College
• UC Santa Barbara
• USC

March 13: The Trump administration issued a letter to Columbia University with a list of “precondition[s] for formal negotiations” to regain federal funding. These include:

• Expulsions and multiyear suspensions for students who participated in encampments or the occupation of a university building last spring.
• Moving all disciplinary processes under the university president’s office.
• Adopting a formal definition of antisemitism.
• Placing the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department under an outside chair for at least five years.

The administration also demanded “document[ed] compliance” by March 20. Columbia has announced disciplinary actions against students who occupied the building last spring, including “multiyear suspensions, temporary degree revocations and expulsions."

“Students who are Jewish need to be made to feel safe and secure on a campus — that's a given,” said William Tierney, professor emeritus and founding director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education at USC. “That's true of any student on a campus, whether the student is Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, transgender, gay, straight, whatever. You cannot learn if you don't feel safe and secure.”

Still, Tierney described the Trump administration’s letter to Columbia as “extremely troubling,” in part because it leaves no room for discussion.

In his view, the letter basically says: “The king has determined that you need to do these things immediately. And we don't really want a response. We want you to tell us that you have done those things, period. And if you don't, we will cripple the university.”

“And the exact same thing’s going to happen at UCLA, at Stanford, at [U]SC, at Berkeley — at any research university in California,” he said.

Data sharing

February and March: The Department of Government Efficiency gained access to student loan data — including Social Security numbers, income and migratory status. This heightened fears among U.S. citizens with undocumented parents or spouses, who worry this sensitive information could create a risk of deportation.

• In early February, the University of California’s undergraduate student association sued the U.S. Department of Education to halt DOGE’s access to student financial aid files. In response, the department said it would temporarily block Musk’s group from accessing those records.
• A federal judge in Maryland granted a temporary restraining order in response to a similar lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers, barring DOGE from accessing the information until March 10. The federation has filed for a preliminary injunction, and the government has opposed. A court is considering the case.

Other enforcement actions

March 28, 2025: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he’s signed more than 300 letters revoking the visas of students and other visitors. “Some are unrelated to any protests and are just having to do with potential criminal activity,” he said. When a reporter asked about the process of identifying people for removal, Rubio refused to provide details. “We’re not going to talk about the process by which we’re identifying [them], because obviously we’re looking for more people,” he said.