Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, his administration has turned America’s most selective universities into political battlegrounds. Billions of dollars in federal research funding have been frozen, accreditation threats have loomed large, and campus policies have been rewritten under pressure from Washington. Yet through this sweeping crackdown, Yale University has remained an exception. According to Yale Daily News, Yale and Dartmouth are the only two Ivy League institutions that have not seen punitive freezes to their federal funds. The other six, including Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, have faced billion-dollar cuts, fines, and settlements that have reshaped everything from admissions to athletics. For Yale students, the relief of stability is tempered by a sense of unease. “I feel sort of lucky that we haven’t been directly publicly attacked yet, but I guess I feel a little uncertain about what’s to come next because I’m not sure if the administration would change course and decide that we’re the next target,” William Mahoney ’27 told Yale Daily News.
A storm around Yale’s peers
The scope of the federal campaign has been staggering. In early spring, the Trump administration froze more than $400 million in funding to Columbia University and $175 million to the University of Pennsylvania. In April, Harvard University was hit with a $2.2 billion cut. The official reasoning ranged from allegations of antisemitism to “failures to maintain campus order” and insufficient “viewpoint diversity.” Restoring the funds has come with steep costs. Yale Daily News reports that Penn agreed to strip former swimmer Lia Thomas’ individual records and adopt “biology-based definitions” for the words male and female. Columbia accepted a $200 million fine and sweeping policy changes. Trump has demanded at least $500 million from Harvard, which has instead sued the federal government. As one Yale student, Zach Pan ’27, put it: “Yale’s disciplined and drama-free approach has shielded us for now. These attacks are 100 percent political — the schools that got hit were the ones whose presidents put their foot in their mouth,” he told Yale Daily News.
Yale’s quiet strategy
Why has Yale stayed untouched? University President Maurie McInnis has largely kept out of the spotlight. In fall 2024, she accepted a faculty committee’s recommendation that leaders avoid making public political statements. Instead, Yale has leaned on behind-the-scenes influence. Yale Daily News reports that in the second quarter of 2025, the university outspent nearly all its Ivy League peers on lobbying, signaling that quiet negotiation has been its shield. At the same time, McInnis has spoken up when policy directly threatened Yale’s finances. She publicly opposed a Republican proposal to raise taxes on endowment gains. Though Congress eventually settled on an 8% rate, down from the proposed 21% — Yale has still announced hiring freezes and delayed construction to adjust.
Students feel both relief and risk
The difference in impact has been tangible on campus. “I’m very fortunate that our school has not been as deeply affected as some of these other schools,” Jack Ludwick ’28 said in an interview with Yale Daily News. “My financial aid was never at risk, my housing situation was never at risk. I’m really grateful that none of those things have been dramatically affected so far.” But others worry Yale’s insulation could vanish overnight. “When you think of the big three names of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, these are the bastions of liberal education that the current administration doesn’t have good feelings towards, and so part of me is fearful that we’ll be next,” Mahoney ’27 said.
What lies ahead
In the 2024 fiscal year, Yale received about $900 million in federal grants. That figure underscores just how exposed the university remains if it were to fall into Trump’s crosshairs. For now, Yale’s discipline, discretion and lobbying muscle have helped it avoid the billion-dollar blows hitting its peers. But as students return to campus, many admit that relief sits alongside a quiet dread: How long before Yale’s turn comes?TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here.
