From federal investigations to campus takeovers and closures, the Trump administration and its conservative allies are reshaping higher education—targeting feminist scholarship, trans inclusion and the core values of liberal arts institutions.
As a professor at Smith College and chair of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, I have closely followed the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education—and on my field in particular.
This week, those attacks landed squarely on my own campus: The Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into Smith’s policy of admitting transgender women, arguing the college may be violating Title IX by recognizing gender identity rather than “biological sex.” The probe—prompted by a complaint from a conservative advocacy group—questions whether a women’s college can remain legally “single sex” while including trans women, and raises the possibility of federal penalties or loss of status.
This move is not an isolated action. It is part of a broader campaign to redefine civil rights protections in ways that exclude transgender people, and to pressure colleges and universities into compliance with that vision.
It is also one of many recent attacks on higher education—especially liberal arts institutions—by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration, aimed at universities they view as out of step with a conservative, anti-feminist agenda. In a 2021 speech titled “Universities Are the Enemy,” JD Vance declared, “We must aggressively attack the universities in this country. … Maybe it’s time to seize the endowments, penalize them for being on the wrong side of some of these culture war issues.”
Recent years have seen mounting pressure on small liberal arts colleges, including closures that reflect both financial strain and a broader devaluation of this model of education. Hampshire College—long known for its experimental curriculum and emphasis on critical inquiry—is among the institutions whose struggles have unfolded against a backdrop of intensifying public skepticism about the value of liberal arts education.
In Defense of Women’s Studies
In 1990, I joined the inaugural class of the first women’s studies Ph.D. program in the United States at Emory University. Since then, the field has grown to have 24 Ph.D. programs, close to 100 master’s programs and nearly 800 departments or programs offering undergraduate classes.
Women’s, gender and sexuality studies teaches students to think critically, to question the status quo and to understand how power shapes our lives across gender, race, class, sexuality and more. These are precisely the kinds of questions that have made the field a target. Rather than engage with this work, critics have increasingly sought to discredit or dismantle it altogether.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 provides a roadmap for doing just that—but many of these strategies have already been tested at the state level.
A Case Study in Florida
In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis launched a sweeping overhaul of New College of Florida, the state’s honors college, appointing six conservative activists to its 13-member board of trustees. None were scholars; most had no prior connection to the institution. Among them was Christopher Rufo, a central figure in the national campaign against so-called “critical race theory”—the term Republicans used to discredit and silence discussion of systemic racial inequalities.
The new board quickly moved to reshape the college—firing its president, eliminating the gender studies program and discarding hundreds of books associated with the field. When a government starts trashing books and banning fields of study, it has gone beyond censorship: Democracy itself is under threat.
Supporters of the overhaul were explicit in their aims. Rufo wrote on social media, “We abolished the gender studies program. Now we are throwing out the trash.”
State officials echoed that sentiment publicly. DeSantis’ press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, cheered, “Putting gender studies books in the garbage? Great job, @NewCollegeofFL.”
Gov. DeSantis’ communications director Bryan Griffin echoed him on social media: “Gender studies books ARE getting dumped because that propaganda is no longer offered at@NewCollegeofFL.” Ironically, he told a right-wing news outlet, “We’re reclaiming higher education in Florida from the zealots.”
Critics, however, described the actions as a form of political censorship. Florida state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani called the destruction of gender studies books “the equivalent to burning books,” warning that it signaled a broader effort to control academic inquiry.
Civil liberties advocates likewise warned that such interventions threaten academic freedom and the independence of higher education.
“This is not merely an administrative oversight; it is an intentional act of censorship that strikes at the heart of our democratic values and the very purpose of education,” said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. “The dumping of these books… is a clear and dangerous signal… political interference is poisoning our educational institutions. This isn’t just an attack on academic freedom—it is an all-out assault on the right to free expression, the free exchange of ideas, and the intellectual autonomy that our colleges and universities must protect at all costs.”
We abolished the gender studies program. Now we are throwing out the trash.
Christopher Rufo, referring to the hundreds of gender studies books destroyed
The new leadership also eased admission requirements and invested heavily in athletics to reshape the student body—explicitly aiming to recruit more male students. Even the college’s identity was rebranded, with its logo changed from the Null Sets to the Mighty Banyans, illustrated by a Banyan tree with bulging muscles and an aggressive expression.
A National Campaign Against Higher Education
What happened at New College of Florida is not an isolated case. It reflects a broader, top-down effort to remake higher education—one that targets curiosity, independent thought and the questioning of authority.
It’s also a trial run for what is unfolding nationally: The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy agenda outlines a sweeping plan to strip resources from liberal arts colleges, politicize curricula, reshape accreditation systems, privatize student lending and weaken longstanding protections against race- and sex-based discrimination. Many of these priorities are already being advanced at the federal level.
“They don’t want people to be educated for critical thinking, but only educated to be compliant,” said Smith College professor Loretta J. Ross.
As Donald Trump himself put it during his 2016 campaign: “I love the poorly educated.”
History offers sobering parallels. Authoritarian governments have repeatedly targeted universities and fields of study that encourage critical inquiry.
In 2018, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán banned gender studies graduate programs by revoking their accreditation and state funding, dismissing the discipline as “ideology, not a science.” (On April 13, the Hungarian people voted out Orbán.)
In Russia, Vladimir Putin has similarly restricted the teaching and promotion of gender studies.
In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro sought to defund and discredit education on gender and sexuality.
In the United States, these dynamics are taking shape through a combination of federal policy, state-level interventions and coordinated political pressure. On his first day back in office, Trump issued an executive order condemning “gender ideology,” a directive that has since been used to justify attacks on women’s and gender studies programs and, increasingly, on the institutions that house them.
The stakes extend far beyond any single campus or academic field. At issue is whether colleges and universities will remain spaces for independent thought, open inquiry and rigorous debate—or whether they will be reshaped by political agendas that seek to narrow what can be taught, studied and questioned.
This column was adapted from an article originally published by the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cue: a new series from Ms., ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis.
