“Pause” seems to be an innocuous word. But on January 28, “pause” became chaotic, when President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered a temporary pause on “all federal financial assistance,” affecting trillions of dollars and disrupting hundreds of programs. Before the end of the day, a federal judge blocked the order until review on Monday, February 3, giving all manner of organizations and agencies that receive federal funds — from Meals on Wheels to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — all of two full business days to figure out a new paradigm.

By early Wednesday afternoon, the White House had rescinded the directive “after the order sparked mass confusion and legal challenges that accused the Trump administration of violating the law.” And yet, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X on Wednesday afternoon, “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” and that the executive orders on federal funding “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

Now what does that mean? More confusion, more chaos.

The 48 hours leading to the “rescission”

Amid the chaos of Tuesday afternoon (which was different from the chaos on Wednesday afternoon), I took part in an ACE (American Council on Education) conference call with 6,000 participants, members, most of whom are college presidents, all concerned about their students and the long-range impact of what ACE President Ted Mitchell called ”horrible, horrible public policy.” He went on to say, “Procedurally, it’s also horrible, horrible public policy. It’s institutional destruction.”

Horrible how, you ask?

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Some financial aid sources that are based on need, like the Federal Work-Study and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, as well as Department of Agriculture grants and loan programs for rural colleges, remain in question.” On the ACE call, Mitchell compared the funding pause to the Covid pandemic, “when we were talking about a short interruption,” he said, adding that he hopes this one, unlike Covid, is “really just temporary.” He also said he knows a long-term pause could “cripple smaller colleges.”

Colleges and universities, public and private, are deeply dependent on federal funds. According to Interim President Larry Jameson, the University of Pennsylvania received over $936 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2023. On Thursday, he sent an email to the campus community addressing anxieties about the government’s recent actions. Penn will convene a high level committee to review the OMB orders. Jameson affirmed that as Trump cracks down on DEI initiatives, Penn will continue to prioritize “non-discrimination and prizing excellence.”

“Procedurally, it’s horrible, horrible public policy. It’s institutional destruction.” — Ted Mitchell, ACE

In addition to the grants and loans mentioned above, the Department of Education provides substantial funding for what are called TRIO programs designed to help low-income students enter and graduate from college. Temple University’s Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math and Science, for example, provide low-income and/or students at academic risk with tutoring and other support services. Will these programs be designated as “woke”?

Federal funds are also crucial to the research mission of universities. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, shortly after the rescinded OMB memo went out, “the National Science Foundation, which provides funding for more than 350,000 researchers at more than 1800 colleges, began sending emails to researchers with active grants stating that their funding was paused.

Adding to the confusion, emails with the same wording continued to go out Wednesday morning, despite the court injunction blocking the freeze.” Before this week’s chaos, researchers had already been negatively affected by the temporary suspension of NSF (National Science Foundation) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) review panels, which award funds for new projects.

The past few days of news have been a whirlwind: The worry that filled my ACE call permeated all sectors of society, from TikToking parents worried about losing SNAP benefits to at least some of the Republican lawmakers gathered at a retreat at Mar-a-Lago. In response, the White House issued scattershot rounds of clarifications and exemptions. By the time this post publishes, who knows what will be happening. In many regards, the reversal was too late. Irreparable damage was already done.

We’ll likely never know the impact of a day without access to Medicaid or Head Start systems, what lives could have been better or saved by people who were able to keep their medical appointments, grants that were able to go forward.

Personal experience with effects of uncertainty on higher education

I know firsthand the damage this confusion will inflict on colleges and universities. I was president of an Illinois regional public university during the 2015 to 2017 budget freeze imposed by then-Governor Rauner. Funding is always tight at regional publics, and this budget freeze caused hardship. But the worst part was the uncertainty. When finances are scarce, planning is essential. From day to day we had no clue about the scope or duration of the freeze. How could we make reasonable plans? The other consequence was public lack of confidence in higher education. We got through 2015 to 2017, but what is happening now nationally is exponentially worse.

There is some good news. Pell grants and student loans were not included in the pause. And in fact some university presidents have reported that their institutions have already received those funds. But it’s the constant doubt that can destroy institutions. Although the infamous OMB memo has been rescinded and some spending will flow while the administration determines which programs have violated President Trump’s directive, the underlying presidential intentions remain. Many essential programs that support veterans and rural students are still in jeopardy. Foreign language study is on the block, and the list goes on.

What can we do?

We should be temporarily encouraged that the immediate backlash resulted in, what the NY Times calls “the first major capitulation by a president who since returning to the White House has not hesitated to use his executive power to reshape the federal government in his image and rid the work force of any dissent.” The last 48 hours is a stark warning that we must be ready to counteract a president who will do things because he can. We must be ever wary.

• • Immediately contact Congressional representatives, especially Republicans, to point out difficulties and unintended consequences caused by the freeze and appeal to them to prevent something like this from happening again.
  • Emphasize the importance of the separation of powers. Congress passes laws for public expenditures that cannot be overturned, de facto, by the Executive branch.
  • Defend the Impoundment Control Act.
  • Appeal especially to Senator McCormick, who now holds a crucial swing seat, to listen to Pennsylvanians and protect Pennsylvania colleges and universities.
  • Understand that it’s not partisan to favor guardrails limiting power. In fact, guardrails are built into our Constitution.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is an Advisor at the American Council on Education. She is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.

Corrections: A previous version of this article underestimated the number of college presidents and members on the ACE call. It was closer to 6,000. A previous version also misstated the name of ACE. It stands for the American Council on Education.

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