Kansas public university leaders are facing sobering news of federal government changes under President Donald Trump's administration.

Federal funding cuts for research, anti-diversity efforts, staff layoffs and nervous donors were topics of discussion when the Kansas Board of Regents met in Topeka last week. There, the regents heard from Tom Harnisch, vice president of government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

Will Congress cut funding?

Harnisch raised concerns about the fiscal year 2025 budget resolution in Congress, which he said "is the way that President Trump can enact his agenda."

"Why does this matter for higher education? Well, in order to pass and extend the 2017 tax cuts for another 10 years — that will lower revenues by $4.5 trillion — and to partially offset that, they're going to send instructions to various committees in order to find savings."

He said funding cuts could ultimately impact the amount of money available for higher education.

"It looks, just mathematically, that they will have to make cuts to Medicaid," Harnisch said. "And that, for states, will leave them with a difficult choice as far as cutting people off of Medicaid or reducing benefits or diverting funding from other state programs. So we're watching that, particularly how it could potentially affect available funding in state budgets for higher education."

Harnisch said there are other ideas that could more directly impact higher education, such as cutting Grad PLUS loans, making institutions be on the hook for unpaid student loans or ending debt repayment programs.

Meanwhile, on Pell Grants, Harnisch said the program faces a budget shortfall that is projected to grow. He said that means Congress will either have to increase funding or change the program to cut costs.

Agencies cutting federal funding

Harnisch said they are following the National Institutes of Health action to cap indirect cost rates , even for existing research grants.

"The administration has put a cap on indirect costs at 15%, which has certainly been met with pushback from higher education associations and others," Harnisch said. "That's currently in federal court, and there's a preliminary injunction, so the Trump administration has not been able to implement that."

Data for fiscal year 2024 show several public universities in Kansas had NIH awards, many of which have indirect cost amounts above the proposed 15% cap.

Separate from NIH research funding, following Wednesday's KBOR meeting, Kansas State University announced Friday that it lost federal funding for agricultural research .

U.S. Agency for International Development had previously awarded K-State with Feed the Future innovation labs, with those research grants having a potential for up to $137 million in funding. Now, USAID has issued stop-work orders to K-State and terminated the programs, ending the agricultural research and eliminating jobs. USAID is the foreign aid agency that was gutted by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

The federal funding cuts also affect K-State grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service.

Department of Education layoffs

Harnisch also spoke about actions by the U.S. Department of Education and secretary Linda McMahon.

"They announced pretty sweeping layoffs of staff at the U.S. Department of Education," Harnisch said. "About 1,300 of their roughly 4,000 staff will be laid off. A large share of the layoffs will come from Federal Student Aid, the Office for Civil Rights, as well as the Institute of Education Sciences.

"So what this means for higher education, this has led to concerns about whether students and prospective students will get their questions answered on the FAFSA form. There's already concerned from about the Office for Civil Rights, as far as claims of discrimination and whether the the restructured Department of Education will have the capacity to really look into those complaints of discrimination."

The Institute of Education Sciences is "critical because that oversees the data that we use in in higher education," he said.

Harnisch said that while there are not currently concerns about the availability of student loans to prospective students, "there are certainly concerns about processing the FAFSAs and the capacity."

Department of Education targeting DEI

Harnisch also addressed the Feb. 14 "dear colleague" letter targeting diversity efforts.

"A lot of focus in the recent weeks has been on the Feb. 14 letter concerning diversity, equity and inclusion," he said. "There's been different responses from the higher education community, but we're just watching to see how the administration enforces that letter."

He said two major lawsuits are challenging the anti-DEI letter.

His comments came on Wednesday, before the Office for Civil Rights on Friday announced investigations into 45 universities, including the University of Kansas, for alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

"Essentially what the letter says is the 2023 court decision on affirmative action and race-conscious admissions, they extend that to all activities in higher education, be it scholarships, prizes, graduation ceremonies, etc.," he said. "It really cracks down on — it bans — all race-conscious activities in both K-12 and in higher education."

University foundations could see 'dip in philanthropy'

The KBOR committee on fiscal affairs heard from Jason Williby, president and CEO of the Fort Hays State University Foundation, and Greg Willems, president and CEO of the Kansas State University Foundation.

Willems said that foundations are "a great barometer for how the communities are feeling."

"In the most recent few weeks, donors are nervous," Williby said. "They're nervous about the economy. They're nervous their 401(k)s or their investments are going to suffer due to policy.

"But people are still making gifts. People are still working on their estate plans. They're still proud of their institutions. But I think we could see a dip in philanthropy as a kind of a bellwether to what I think everyone could agree is uncertainty in the country right now."

The stock market has dropped significantly since the start of Trump's second term, entering correction territory .

The current situation is different from past market disruptions, Willems said.

"We've seen a number of occasions throughout history where the markets being volatile or disrupted, we weather that pretty well," Willems said. "I think uncertainty in leadership and some of the things at the federal level are more concerning because it's really unique.

"It's distinctly different than what we had in '08 or back in 2002 or others, where it was just economic disruption. So they're going to be cautious, but they're still going to find a way to care about the things at Kansas State or at other institutions."

Willems said philanthropy has to be earned, because donors don't give strictly out of loyalty.

"Every single gift that we secure is earned through a relationship, a belief in an initiative that they can care about and confidence in us and the institution to execute on that," he said. "... They expect to understand how their gift's going to make a difference. They expect to see impact."

Regent John Dicus said of federal grants: "Every day, things are on, then the next day they're off, they're back on, they're off." He asked whether university foundations might be able to supplement lost federal funding to keep projects on campus.

"We haven't had that discussion," Williby said. "We have some large things that are being supported by federal dollars. The big ones are congressionally-directed spending, so with that in mind I hope that those dollars are secure, and they were several budgets ago. But I think every university is going to face a loss of funds and a loss of programs, based on some of the cuts that are happening. I don't know that any of us are in a position to backfill that money."

Willems said foundations might be able to do small things, but the lost funding could be "substantial."

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd .