“I don’t know if I was shocked, but maybe disappointed,” said Reagan Ricker ’24, a Lakeside alum currently attending Columbia.
In March, the Trump administration began halting billions in federal funding for universities, including Harvard, Brown, and Columbia. The administration cited concerns over antisemitism in student protests over the war in Gaza, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and “woke” gender ideology in school curricula.
Columbia was the first university to face funding freezes from the administration. Similarly, the school was one of the first to cede ground to the government, settling for $221 million in July to restore federal funding, according to CNN.
Reagan noted that part of her disappointment stemmed from that eventual settlement, which felt like a “symbolic bow to the administration.”
“Columbia doesn’t really need that much money. Its endowment is [nearly] 15 billion,” she said. “The reason I wanted to go to Columbia is to be part of a protest. [Columbia was] the first [American] university to divest from South African apartheid, the first US university to divest from the prison system. I wanted to be part of that relationship.”
Although Reagan said that she personally felt safe on campus, she recognized that other students may not feel the same way. “A great amount of my privilege comes from the fact that I have American citizenship and was born here. I know a lot of international students or students who don’t have birthright citizenship at any given school right now feel differently about their security given Trump’s attacks on international students and immigrants, and [my] security affords me to talk about protesting with the confidence that I do…For example, I had an undocumented friend who was going to Columbia, but not anymore [due to concerns about safety on campus].”
Meanwhile, Lia Shepler ’25, a Lakeside alum majoring in mathematics at Harvard, shared concerns about the impact of funding cuts in her field. “In the math world, there have been stories of the National Science Foundation pulling money from researchers, which does have a large effect on the field as a whole. Mathematics is very dependent on research grants to keep it going. It’s not a corporately lucrative field, unlike computer science and medicine, where there’s a lot of pharmaceutical money pouring in.”
Moreover, she notes that government interference with university research sets a dangerous and potentially harmful precedent. “Research studies at universities that have to last 10-20 years could never be funded by a single administration, so having places that [run] independently of any one political group is tremendously important.”
Lia also expressed concerns about a broader trend of declining investment in mathematics, leading to “a brain drain to a variety of places, most notably to China, [which has] very generous research scholarships. A lot of what the Trump administration [is doing] has diminished US soft power.’
As for Lakeside’s current senior class, how will funding cuts impact the college application process? Ari Worthman, Lakeside’s head of college counseling, said that “we’ve had students who expressed concerns, especially about Columbia. Columbia’s always had a philosophy about pioneering different things. Some people felt it was against their values that they would cave so easily to what one student described as authoritarianism or dictatorship.” However, Mr. Worthman noted that recent changes may not significantly affect seniors’ college decisions: “It’s equally plausible that because they’re so well known and prestigious that there’s no impact.”
Mr. Worthman also shared his own perspective on funding freezes. “The night before the Trump administration announced it was cutting college funding, I happened to be at Loyola Marymount University … at the home of the president. I remember him vividly saying, ‘We are all watching what is happening at Columbia,’” Mr. Worthman recalls. “I feel for Columbia, in that everyone else had the benefit of [seeing] what is happening … and had ample time to work with their legal counsels, fellow administrators, and boards to see how to respond. Columbia had no time to prep. If you’re someone who feels Columbia didn’t respond well, I would suggest having a little bit of empathy because they didn’t have the chance to plan for this.”
Indeed, the administration’s funding freezes are causing trickle-down effects all over the country, even in places not directly affected by cuts. Mr. Worthman notes that some K-12 public schools are preemptively overcorrecting, taking steps to align with the government. “We’re seeing a lot of states that are more conservative … [complying with Trump] with their own state funding … it depends on what state you’re in, what type of institution you’re in, and what type of leadership you have.”
Amid the national ideological crackdowns, however, Lakeside has stood firmly in its position. Dr. Bynum has reiterated that Lakeside is committed to upholding DEI initiatives. Because Lakeside is an independent school that doesn’t receive government funding, the school exercises more liberty in what type of education and values to uphold.
Overall, Mr. Worthman remains hopeful for future resistance. “The executive director of the National Administration for College Counseling sent a really poignant message to its membership about the dangers of overcorrecting. So, you’ll have leaders like Angel Pérez who are saying, ‘We need to slow down and continue to fight back,’ and you’ll hear other institutions that have completely done away.”