Universities and students struggle with uncertain higher ed landscape

IT’S A TOUGH TIME TO BE A COLLEGE.

Spring can be an uncertain time for a Pennsylvania institution of higher learning in the best of times. With state lawmakers still haggling over the budget, universities are making their plans for the coming year, but they do so in the dark. Imagine applying for a mortgage without knowing what your income will be or whether you will be able to afford the payments.

In 2025, there are other concerns. The University of Pennsylvania just had $175 million in funding for various federal projects pulled because the Ivy League school in Philadelphia had a transgender athlete on the women’s swimming team in 2022.

Columbia University in New York has been threatened with the withholding of $400 million in promised funding to force compliance with demands like banning people from wearing masks on campus, changing admissions policies and reviewing curriculum in some areas of minority studies programs.

That comes on top of directives from the Trump administration about eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and an intended dissolution of the Department of Education. Then there are random cuts being made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Those can leave things like grants, scholarships and research in limbo, which in turn can leave universities at sea when it comes to applications and acceptances.

In Pennsylvania, there is the added twist of Penn State University’s review of some branch campuses, with an eye toward closings and shuffling students to other areas.

It puts schools on uncertain footing. But most big or private schools have endowments as a cushion to absorb some shortfalls. Carnegie Mellon University’s endowment is $3.2 billion. The University of Pittsburgh’s endowment stands at $5.5 billion. Penn State has a $4.6 billion endowment.

Smaller schools have much smaller pools to draw upon. At Seton Hill University, the endowment is around $50 million, about the same as Point Park University’s.

That doesn’t mean universities can just ignore wouldbe shortfalls or the disappearance of grant funding.

For one thing, Pitt’s endowment is big, but it’s operating costs this year are about $3.2 billion. Penn State’s are $9.9 billion — and with about $1 billion annually in federal research, that would be a big hole to fill.

Then there is the fact that an endowment is not a credit card. It’s not even a savings account to be used as needed to cover every possible bill.

Endowments are more like a retirement investment account. They are a collection of funds donated for a variety of purposes. It may include money but might also be other assets like real estate or art that can be used by the university, sold to provide capital or used as collateral, depending on the terms of the gift.

And frequently the terms are specific. A gift may be given for specific support of one program or purpose. Many gifts could be in direct conflict with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI goals, as donors could give scholarships to help minority, low income, female or disabled students get an education.

That gets to the real victims in the university struggle. It isn’t the universities. It’s the people.

It’s the people applying for school. It’s the people who have already invested thousands of dollars and committed to tens of thousands of dollars in loans. It’s people whose graduation depends on research projects that could be canceled.

Don’t pity the schools. It’s not just a tough time to be a college. It’s a worse time to be a student, a grad student, a professor or any of the other people connected to a college.