Doug Belkin
Appearances
Apple News Today
Their mission was eight days. They ended up in space for nine months.
And SpaceX Freedom, splashdown. Good main release.
Apple News Today
Their mission was eight days. They ended up in space for nine months.
What the Florida law has done is say, we don't want too heavy an emphasis on these issues that put a harsh spotlight on Western civilization, on the American experiment. It's more important to try to create a sense of unity and an understanding so that we can create citizens here who are both appreciative of the country and informed on how things work.
Apple News Today
Their mission was eight days. They ended up in space for nine months.
How classes are taught, how the student newspapers and news gathering organizations are thinking, and where people are meeting, and how tours are given, and how dormitories are operating. So it's had a really kind of wide-ranging effect.
Apple News Today
Their mission was eight days. They ended up in space for nine months.
A lot of conservative students have long felt that their perspective was not wanted. And if they were to articulate it, they would get a crappier grade by their professor. They could be ostracized by their friends or their social circle.
Apple News Today
Their mission was eight days. They ended up in space for nine months.
They are unnerved by the notion that the government is reaching in and saying, you cannot say these things. You can't advocate for this position. They are really steering clear of a lot of these conversations because they don't want to get on the wrong side of a very unified state government, which has said, you know, this is not allowed.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Joining me now to discuss the not insignificant impact of federal grants on university budgets is Doug Belkin, who covers higher education for The Journal. So, Doug, let's jump right in. How much does grant money matter to universities' bottom line?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
What kinds of challenges might the president face in pulling grant money?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
What is the result of less money coming in for this purpose?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
So what can these universities do if they see that grants are no longer as reliable a funding stream potentially as it has been in the past? Where else can they look?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Hey, What's News listeners. It's Sunday, April 20th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is What's News Sunday, the show where we tackle the big questions about the biggest stories in the news by reaching out to our colleagues across the newsroom to help explain what's happening in our world.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
How could students feel any of these changes?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
These aren't the only pressures on universities' budgets, right? I'm thinking of the fact that right after the Great Recession, people had fewer babies. Those babies are now ready to go to college, which means fewer students actually entering college now. What does all this mean for universities?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
We've been talking hard numbers here about some of the impacts of what the Trump administration is doing. But I want to talk about the sort of softer, the cultural impact. Because what the Trump administration is talking about doing is installing federal oversight at Columbia, reforming campus culture at Harvard. These are characteristic changes, right, to these institutions.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
On today's show, the Trump administration is threatening to pull grant funding from institutions like Columbia and has already done so for Harvard. And it's also taking aim at individual students, pulling hundreds of student visas and even moving to deport some. What's the impact on universities' bottom lines, their reputation and their culture? At the end of the day, universities are businesses.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
That was WSJ reporter Doug Belkin. Thank you so much, Doug.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Coming up, the Trump administration's moves against foreign students threaten another of universities' revenue streams. More after the break.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Immigration officers have detained two students, Mohsen Madawi and Mahmoud Khalil, both of whom were organizers of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. The government is also attempting to deport Khalil, though that effort is tied up in a legal battle at the moment.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
In the past few weeks, the government has also revoked a number of student visas without notice, causing confusion and panic among students. And as of this past week, the Trump administration has threatened to stop international students from attending Harvard.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
In a letter to the university, the Homeland Security Department said that hosting international students was a privilege, not a guarantee, and asked for information about visa holders by the end of the month. That could cause a long-term problem for universities because they rely on the tuition these international students pay.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Their budgets are made up of student tuition, endowments, philanthropic donations, and government grants. Just how big their budgets are depends on a number of different factors, including, say, how much research the university does. For example, Harvard spent $6.4 billion in fiscal year 2024.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
I'm joined now by Fanta Av, the executive director and CEO of NAFSA, the Association of International Educators. Fanta, what do international students mean for universities' bottom lines?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
I want to kind of take us into the current moment that we're in. So what are you hearing from agents and prospective students about the Trump administration's actions on universities? What do they make of this?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
have been receiving full tuition from some of these international students or a decent number of them, and fewer international students are coming in the near future to the U.S., what would that mean for these universities' funding? What kind of impact could that have?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
Later on in the show, we'll speak to Fanta Av, the executive director and CEO of NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, about where international students fit into balancing these budgets. But first, let's zero in on the Trump administration's threats to freeze billions of dollars in grants. from institutions and how it's unsettling universities across the country.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
The Trump administration's moves could potentially change how international students see American universities, right, like their reputation. Do you think having these universities' names in the headlines a lot could be a boon or hit for these universities internationally?
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
That was Fanta Av, Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA. Thank you so much.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Moves Could Force Universities to Recalculate Their Bottom Lines
And that's it for What's New Sunday for April 20th. Today's show was produced by Charlotte Gartenberg with supervising producer Michael Kosmides and deputy editor Chris Zinsley. I'm Alex Osola, and we'll be back tomorrow morning with a brand new show. Until then, thanks for listening.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
There's about 10 universities that are part of the collective right now. They're mostly private, wealthy, blue state universities that have been approached by the Trump administration or are fearful that they are next. They see themselves as the locus of resistance, and they do believe that the number will grow.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
The Trump administration is asking a lot of several universities right now, and they're threatening to, and in some cases they have moved, to freeze or cancel research funding and grants. So universities are in a really tight spot. Things that the Trump administration is asking for start with asking the schools to prevent anti-Semitism, to make sure that harassment of Jewish students ends.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
But it goes a little bit beyond that. The administration is asking for oversight of things like admissions and faculty hiring and to some extent curriculum and teaching and research. And that would end the independence of the universities. And that's where they are not willing to go right now.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
Right. The law firms were picked off one by one, and the universities are trying to avoid that negotiating error by banding together and trying to draw a line that they can all hold to make it more difficult for the administration to essentially impact any one of them individually.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
That's the $64,000 question right now. When Harvard was given a list of demands by the task force, they went public with that list. And in that list, they said that they would not meet a number of the demands. Harvard has said that they've sued on the grounds that their First Amendment rights and their due process rights have been abused.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
And so they're hoping that the judge will stop the Trump administration. The issue that's at play here, though, is that the administration has a lot of different levers. They could potentially stop international students from enrolling. They're going after their tax-exempt status. It's not clear legally where they'll win and where the Trump administration will win.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
And beyond that, there's future research funding that the Trump administration could make harder for for Harvard to get or the universities to get. And so it's not clear how this will play out.
WSJ What’s News
Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs
Thanks very much.