Wokeness will become burden for researchers; federal grants to reward free speech

President-elect Donald Trump plans to use federal funding as leverage to eliminate woke policies in education, including those in colleges and universities where academic freedom has been declining measurably.

Mr. Trump has long threatened to withhold billions of federal dollars from schools that incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion policies and “anti-American insanity” on campuses.

His appointees and advisers plan to expand academic freedom and force colleges and universities to end DEI policies, which critics say have corrupted higher education and squelched important research.

“What I’ve seen from the campaign and senior leaders is that higher education is having its moment, and there’s a lot of attention to the climate on college campuses and DEI being a big part of that problem,” said Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.

Stanford University physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya, Mr. Trump’s nominee to run the National Institutes of Health, said he plans to make colleges and universities pay for policies threatening free speech on campus.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a longtime critic of COVID-19 restrictions, is considering basing coveted NIH grants partly on free speech rankings compiled by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump is eyeing a proposal from conservative activist Christopher Rufo to root out DEI on college campuses by threatening to cut federal funding.

The NIH annually awards more than $25 billion in grants to universities. Top beneficiaries include Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University and Columbia University.

Robert Shibley, a campus advocacy lawyer and executive director of FIRE, said Dr. Bhattacharya’s proposal would facilitate broader research and increase the value of federal funding by focusing on institutions that don’t snuff out campus censorship.

“The NIH and other grant-making agencies have so much ability to influence how universities behave because so many of the purse strings are under their control,” Mr. Shibley said.

A report published by the foundation said academic freedom is stifled at major universities. Up to 56% of faculty members were “self-censoring” because of the “fear of causing controversy.” Among faculty surveyed, 20% said this fear influenced their chosen research topics.

A professor at the University of Texas at Austin cited anonymously in the report said faculty “feel pressure to conceal certain opinions. The atmosphere in certain academic units can be cult-like and fascistic.”

FIRE’s 2025 College Free Speech Rankings are based on surveys of college undergraduates.

The survey ranked Harvard University dead last in permitting free speech. The school received $676 million in federal funding last year.

Columbia University, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania and Barnard College also ranked among the last in the free speech survey.

The top-ranked schools for free speech were the University of Virginia, Michigan Technological University, Florida State University, Eastern Kentucky University and Georgia Tech.

Dr. Bhattacharya, whose nomination must be approved by the Senate, hasn’t explicitly outlined how he would use free speech rankings to determine NIH grant awardees. He did not respond to a request for an interview.

The effort to weed out DEI was launched after more than a year of turmoil from anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses over the war in the Gaza Strip. The unrest exposed a wave of antisemitism on campuses that further fueled anger at rising tuition prices and the left-wing ideology that has taken over many colleges and universities.

During the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump threatened to fine schools the entire amount of their endowments if they did not end DEI policies. He said DEI amounted to illegal discrimination “under the guise of equity.”

He recently solicited ideas from Mr. Rufo, a Manhattan Institute scholar who helped expose university leaders’ plagiarism.

Mr. Rufo helped push out Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned after the school cited “improper citations” in her work and who was criticized for her response to antisemitism and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Mr. Rufo as a trustee at the New College of Florida, where he helped eliminate the school’s DEI program.

Mr. Rufo met recently with Mr. Trump’s staff at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s residence in South Florida, to discuss his proposal to end DEI nationally.

He is urging Mr. Trump to issue an executive order to abolish DEI across the government, which could affect federal funds for colleges and universities.

“If he decides to pursue that executive order, it would apply to the Ivy League universities, which, through my reporting and the reporting of others, it’s very clear they’re discriminating on the basis of race,” Mr. Rufo told Fox News. “Their DEI programs are flatly illegal and unconstitutional, and the president has the opportunity to take action.”