The Trump administration has frozen $108m in federal research funding to Duke University after the federal government announced this week that it was investigating allegations that the school engaged in racial discrimination in the form of affirmative action, according to a person familiar with the matter and media reports.
The National Institutes of Health reportedly halted the funding to the private university in North Carolina, said the person who spoke to the Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. CNN and ABC News also reported the funding freeze.
The development came as, earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education issued a joint letter to Duke, stating that it had been made aware of allegations of what it called racial preferences in Duke’s “hiring, student admissions, governance, patient care, and other operations”.
Duke is the latest institution to have its federal funding held up as the government investigates allegations of antisemitism and policies that support greater diversity, equity and inclusion that the Trump administration alleges are unlawful. It follows other investigations by the administration into top-flight private universities, including the Ivy League’s Harvard, Columbia and Cornell.
Duke did not immediately comment on the reported funding freeze.
In Monday’s letter to Dukethe Trump administration states that it has been made aware of allegations that Duke University and Duke Health are engaged in practices that, “if true, would violate Titles VI of the Civil Rights Act and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, and render Duke Health unfit for any further financial relationship with the federal government”.
“These practices allegedly include illegal and wrongful racial preferences and discriminatory activity in recruitment, student admissions, scholarships and financial aid, mentoring and enrichment programs, hiring, promotion, and more,” the letter from the government states.
The letter does not provide any specific examples.
“Racism is a scourge when practiced by individuals, but it is especially corrosive when enshrined in the nation’s most eminent and respected institutions,” the letter, signed by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and the education secretary, Linda McMahon, adds.
The letter ordered Duke to end any practices at its health system that give “benefits or advantages” based on race.
Saying Duke is unlikely to be capable of an “honest and trustworthy review”, the letter takes the unusual step of requesting a new merit and civil rights committee that would be approved by the government and authorized by the school’s board of trustees.
The panel would be tasked with identifying and ending any racial preferences. If problems remained after six months, the administration would pursue legal enforcement, the letter said.
The education department separately opened an investigation into the Duke Law Journal on Monday over allegations that it gave advantages to prospective editors from underrepresented groups.
The Trump administration has used federal research funding as leverage in its unprecedented effort to reshape universities that Trump has described as hotbeds of liberalism.
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It has presented a crisis for universities that rely on federal grants as a major source of revenue, spurring some to take on debt and find other ways to self-fund research.
Duke University spent $1.5bn on research last year, with nearly 60% coming from federal sources, according to the university’s website.
Even before the latest funding freeze, Duke faced financial turmoil. Last week, university leaders said almost 600 employees had accepted voluntary buyouts but that layoffs would still be needed. Officials said they needed to reduce costs amid uncertainty around federal research funding and a hike to the university’s federal endowment tax.
The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on universities in hopes of striking deals such as one that Columbia University signed last week.
The Ivy League school agreed to pay a $200m settlement over three years to the federal government and make changes to admissions, hiring, student discipline and more in exchange for regaining access to federal funding, among other things.
In exchange for Columbia’s concessions, the White House will reinstate $400m in federal funding it had stripped from the university earlier this year over allegations that it allowed antisemitism to fester on campus.
The Columbia deal was met with mixed reactions from students, faculty and alumni.
The administration has described it as a template for other universities including Harvard, which has been in talks with the administration even as it battles the White House in court.
