COLORADO SPRINGS (AP) — Administrators at the state university campus in Colorado Springs saw a solid opportunity to avoid the Trump administration’s attack on higher education.
That optimism turned out to be misguided.
Associated Press Thousands of Pages of Email Review Interviews with students and professors from staff at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs reveal that school leaders, teachers and students are quickly encouraging them to clad in the Trump administration’s crosshairs and navigate what they described as some degree of unprecedented turbulence.
Here’s what the AP found:
Students and faculty explain a culture of fear and uncertainty
Most students in the United States are educated at local public universities and community colleges. This is not a school that has attracted general attention from cultural warriors. Conservatives have been trying to improve higher education, especially at elite universities. They say they are concerned about liberal indoctrination and raucous protests.
Students and faculty say that UCC, which is located in the conservative part of the blue nation, faces many of the same challenges, if not apolitical, as politically restrained, as its more honorable counterparts across the country.
UCCS has lost three major federal grants and is under investigation by the education sector. The school was renamed to the website and job title in hopes of avoiding the attention of the Trump administration, but all navigated internal pressures from students, teachers and staff, hoping the school would take a more fighting stance with the Trump administration.
According to the minutes of the session, school’s Prime Minister Jennifer Sovanette told teachers at a meeting in February. “And I was a bit shocked at what orders came.”
UCCS refused to allow university administrators to interview them. The spokesman asked the Associated Press to make it clear that the professors and students interviewed in this story are speaking for themselves and not for the institution.
A White House spokesman did not reply to an email seeking comment.
Ava Knox, a rising junior who covers school administrators for the student newspaper, said that the university’s leadership “is feeling pressured because we want to keep the funds here. It’s tense.”
The faculty said, “We’d be very careful about how they’re doing their research and how they deal with the student population. They’re also seen in this new set of federal government’s gradual guidelines and regulations.”
Research grants have disappeared
School officials were disappointed when the Trump administration ended research grants from the Humanities, the Department of Defense and the National Fund for the National Science Foundation, the emails show. The grant funded women’s boost programs in the civic, cultural conservation and technology sectors.
Administrators contacted federal officials to hurry to find out if other grants were on the chopping block, but they had a hard time finding the answer, records show.
School officials repeatedly sought support from federal officials, but only to know that those officials didn’t know what was going on when the administration stopped paying grants and fired thousands of employees and closed agencies.
“The sky is falling,” a university official reported in a memo about a phone call provided by school lobbyists. What was happening in Washington?
Dei and Transgender issues hit campus
To force change on campus, the Trump administration has launched a survey targeting diversity programs and efforts to combat anti-Semitism.
For example, the education department I opened the probe I’m targeting my PhD in March. A scholarship programme that partners with 45 universities, including UCCS, expands opportunities to women and non-whites in graduate education. The administration argued that the program was open to certain non-white students and was equivalent to racism. UCCS is one of the schools under investigation. This is the fact that the university was caught off guard.
Annie Larson, assistant vice president of federal relations and outreach for the University of Colorado systemwide, wrote: “I’m sorry I’m a stalker of bad news” at the schools being investigated.
“Wow, this is amazing,” writes Hilary Fout, UCCS graduate dean.
UCCS is also working on ways to handle executive orders, particularly those targeting the transgender community.
In response to an order that sought to revoke funding for schools that allowed trans women to play sports, UCCS has begun reviewing the athletic program. Records indicate that there are no trans athletes. University officials also found that only one school in the athletic conference was affected by the order, and UCCS rarely had a match or game with that school.
School officials have tried to avoid controversy and the spotlight.
UCCS administrators have tried to avoid being dragged into the controversy that frequently arises during the first Trump administration.
For example, shortly after Trump was sworn in, staff at UCCS’ Sustainability Program began to tackle climate change by pushing forward the entire University of Colorado system and denounce Trump’s withdrawal from international agreements. It was the type of statement the university issued in its past administrations without thinking twice.
In an email, the UCCS top public relations executive warned his boss:
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