Amanda Albright, Janet Lorin, and Chris Cioffi of Bloomberg report that under the Trump administration, efforts to hold elite U.S. universities accountable have ramped up, with actions like cutting Columbia University’s funding over its failure to address antisemitism. These moves are part of a broader push to ensure that wealthy universities are held responsible, including proposals to tax their massive endowments. In response, universities like Harvard and MIT are lobbying aggressively to protect their financial interests as lawmakers work to ensure these institutions pay their fair share. They write:
Even before Donald Trump said he would pull $400 million in funding from Columbia University on Friday, officials at the wealthiest US colleges were making efforts to fight monetary salvos from his administration.
Last week’s cancellation of federal grants and contracts to Manhattan’s Ivy League school — over its alleged failure to combat antisemitism on campus — represents just one tool in Trump’s playbook to ratchet up pressure on elite universities. The institutions also face multiple efforts to increase taxes on their endowments, and they’re mobilizing to defeat them.
Lawmakers are calling 2025 the “Super Bowl of tax” as they look to extend a 2017 overhaul under the first Trump administration, which implemented the endowment levy. The 1.4% tax on net investment income is similar to one that private foundations pay.
The levy generated more than $380 million from 56 colleges or universities in 2023 — affecting just a small fraction of the 1,700 private, nonprofit US schools. Most of them are well known, places like Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Chicago. […]
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