President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House may prove a point of tension for Duke as it looks to navigate the higher education landscape under a second Trump presidency.
Trump’s first term, which saw attempts to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and a controversial travel ban, elicited official statements from President Vincent Price early in his tenure. Now, the incoming Trump administration — which remains critical of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and proposed higher taxes on university endowments — poses additional challenges for the University community.
On his campaign trail, the president-elect has called out higher education institutions for being “dominated” by leftist ideology, pledged to dismantle the Department of Education and vowed to raise taxes on university endowments.
In private meetings with donors, Trump has proposed cracking down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses, reportedly threatening to deport students who protested. He has advocated for eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the federal level, with Republican lawmakers pursuing bans on DEI programs at public universities. With the Republican party securing majority control in both the House and the Senate, the second Trump administration may make headway on these efforts.
The Chronicle looked into the potential implications of Trump’s second presidential term and a Republican majority in Congress on Duke.
University administration did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment on how Duke is planning to address the potential impact of a Trump presidency on the University in time for publication.
Institutional neutrality
During Trump’s first presidency, Price weighed in on White House policies on DACA and immigration. But following his decision not to issue a statement in response to the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, Price has faced calls from faculty to adopt a stance of institutional neutrality. The calls came in the form of a petition, signed by 125 faculty members, requesting the University not issue position statements on issues that do not directly affect the institution's “academic mission.”
But, a second Trump presidency could blur the lines of when to use institutional voice, especially if similar immigration policies are called into question, which could directly affect Duke students from immigrant backgrounds and international students.
In August 2017, during Trump’s first term, Price issued a letter urging the President not to end DACA. The Obama-era program currently allows over 500,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the country as children, known as "DREAMers," to remain in the country.
“Duke strives to be a community defined by who you are and what perspective you bring to campus rather than where you call home or how you got here,” Price wrote in the letter.
Although the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle DACA was overturned in 2020 by the U.S. Supreme Court — over procedural issues — the federal program’s future is uncertain as the President-elect seeks to fulfill his campaign pledges.
In July 2020 — in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — the Trump administration announced that international students enrolled in full online courses or programs at U.S. universities would not be eligible to enter the country or obtain visa status. The immigration directive came after a presidential proclamation that restricted foreign-born professionals and long-time H-1B visa holders from working in the country.
Price expressed concerns about the directive in a July 7, 2020 statement, calling it a “misguided effort” that would impede both “talented young people” and higher education institutions.
“We are committed to providing our international students the opportunity to begin and complete their education at Duke — because we believe that it aligns with our mission to train leaders for the global community,” Price wrote.
Duke was also among the signatories of an amicus curiae brief in 2017 challenging Trump’s “Muslim ban” that blocked the entry of all nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen into the country.
Amid increasing faculty pressure for institutional neutrality — and faculty perspectives to the contrary — it is uncertain whether Price will choose to remain silent on current events. Trump’s second term could prompt Duke to reevaluate which issues “directly [concern]” the University’s mission.
Pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses
A second Trump administration is expected to target on protests on college campuses.
Since the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by militant group Hamas, Trump has called for the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, which he labeled as a “radical revolution” that “has to be stopped now.”
He has praised the New York Police Department for clearing the campus at Columbia University to end the occupation of a building by a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
The Republican Party had already begun challenging administrative responses to student protests on college campuses. In April, university administrators from schools including Columbia, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania testified in front of Congress for their management of pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses, leading to the resignation of the three universities’ presidents.
A resolution adopted by the The Republican National Committee Platform Committee in July outlined the plan to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”
In September, Duke updated its student code of conduct Pickets, Protests and Demonstrations policy, which requires all related events to be registered with the University. The policy further includes that Duke is able to limit the duration, location and sound level of the protests.
The University pointed towards this updated policy in its decision to investigate pro-Palestinian counterprotesters at a Tuesday event hosting former Israeli Attorney Avichai Mandelblit. The Thursday email noted that the protesters “repeatedly interrupted” speakers at the event and that all individuals involved “may face disciplinary action.”
Over the past year, community members gathered in vigils, die-ins, rallies and walkouts to demand for a ceasefire to the war and that Duke divest its holdings in Israel. During the Class of 2024 commencement ceremony, a hundred pro-Palestinian graduates staged a walk-out in protest the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza and of the University’s decision to have actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld deliver the commencement speech.
Endowment tax
The incoming Trump administration may also impact Duke’s $11.9 billion endowment.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance introduced the College Endowment Accountability Act in 2023, proposing to increase the endowment tax from 1.4% to 35%. The bill, which applied to private colleges and universities with at least $10 billion in assets and included Duke, was blocked by Senate Democrats.
Before Trump’s first presidency, university endowments were exempt from taxes. However, in 2017, Trump signed a tax plan that instituted a 1.4% tax on endowments of private universities with at least 500 students and $100,000 in assets or more for every full-time student.
In response to the 2017 tax proposal, Price wrote an email to the Duke community stating that its measures “directly threaten” Duke community members. He added that the University is working towards refocusing conversations about tax reform on “simplification and incentives for education and research.”
In an Agenda47 video, Trump stated that his administration would collect billions of dollars by “taxing, fining and suing” university endowments to fund the “American Academy” — a new online and free institution aimed at making “world-class education” available to all Americans. According to the video, the institute will be non-political and its credentials will be recognized by all federal contractors.
Student loan repayment
In his first-term, Trump proposed an income-driven loan repayment plan that would allow borrowers to pay 12.5% of their income in federal loans and receive loan forgiveness after 15 years. However, this plan bore greater costs on borrowers compared to Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education plan, which limited payments for borrowers to 5% of their income.
Biden’s student loan repayment plan, which reduces monthly payments and creates a faster process for loan forgiveness, was frozen by courts after two groups of Republican-led states challenged its legality. The 8 million students who signed up for SAVE are now waiting on the courts to rule on the plan’s legality and are being asked to not make payments.
If the courts fail to make a decision on SAVE before the start of Trump's second term, his administration could refuse to continue supporting the program. Even if SAVE is deemed legal before the end of Biden’s tenure, Trump could still strike down the legislation. And if SAVE is discontinued, enrollees would be put into other income-driven repayment programs that would most likely increase their monthly repayment costs and have more stringent terms.
Under his first presidency, Trump also attempted to eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which cancels student loans for various public and non-profit sector employees after 120 qualifying payments. However, the attempt failed and it is unlikely that Trump will be able to generate enough political traction for the program to be eliminated in his coming term.
Project 2025, a set of ultra-conservative policy proposals put forth by The Heritage Foundation, calls for the elimination of the Biden administration’s student loan programs, ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and the privatization of all lending programs.
Although Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, he has announced potential picks for federal offices and his cabinet who are credited with drafting the project.
Affirmative action and DEI
In 2018, the Trump administration declared its support for race-blind admissions. The move abandoned policies from Obama’s tenure which allowed universities to consider race as a factor in the admissions process. Eventually, in 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard College that race-based affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional — a ruling that was praised by Trump.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, Duke discontinued its Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship, a race-based scholarship for “top applicants of African descent.” The University moved to establish the Reginaldo Howard Leadership Program, a non-competitive program open to all graduate students regardless of race.
Duke now faces challenge from SFFA after the Class of 2028’s demographic breakdown revealed a six-percentage-point decrease of Asian students from the Class of 2027 — the opposite trend anticipated from the anti-race-based affirmative action lawsuit. SFFA threatened to sue Duke unless it is provided with satisfactory evidence that it adhered to the ruling.
Trump has claimed that every American institution is “under attack from this Marxist concept of ‘equity,’” and pledges to revoke all such policies. According to an Agenda47 video, the Trump administration plans to “remov[e] all DEI bureaucrats” from higher education institutions.
In the same video, Trump stated that his administration would tax the endowments of schools that engage in “[racial] discrimination “under the guise of equity,” adding that those who continue to continue to do so could be fined “up to the entire amount of their endowment.” A portion of the funds generated would be used as “restitution for victims” of such race-based policies.
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Ishita Vaid is a Trinity junior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.
Lucas Lin is a Trinity sophomore and a university news editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.