In Donald Trump’s America, higher education has a target on its back.
As film schools adapt to teach students about the ever-evolving business and technology of the entertainment industry, they too must reckon with a rapidly changing political landscape. Mere months into Donald Trump’s second term, students, faculty members and institutions are increasingly under pressure from an administration that fined Columbia $200 million for claims of antisemitism, tried to block Harvard from accepting international students and cut diversity-oriented research grants. Its new Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education threatens to defund any college or university that doesn’t comply with such anti-DEI requirements as prohibiting race, nationality, sex and more as considerations for admissions and hiring; defining gender by biological function; and abolishing “institutional units” that are perceived as hostile to conservative ideas.
“There is no question: This is having a huge impact on education, like the country,” said Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “Trump has made the world of education one of his priorities and is clearly going after the status quo. And regardless of whether that’s right or wrong, we are both specifically aware of change we have to execute but also anticipating others to come.”
Scott Higgins, the director of Wesleyan University’s College of Film and the Moving Image, agreed and expanded on Galloway’s concerns. “Yes, they’re going after students, they’re going after immigrants, they’re going after non-citizens, but they are also going after the intellectual enterprise,” he said. “So just being on campus, being a professor, being a student puts you in kind of a precarious place, no matter how supportive the campus is.”
It’s a sentiment shared by many in academia. Elizabeth Daley, dean of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, noted that she and her colleagues “don’t quite know what to expect” in an atmosphere that lacks the kind of security the institution had felt in previous years. A frequent point of worry is the administration’s treatment of the term “DEI” and of any discussion of diversity, equity and inclusion, which are often part of a curriculum that in some cases has taken years to implement and amend.
Galloway pointed out that the administration is also targeting specific words and phrases, even when they are used in a completely different context. “Biodiversity is not diversity, (but) that word will get you in trouble and grants will be removed,” he said.
“This doesn’t affect a film school so much, but I know of professors whose grants have been killed because a word appeared that had nothing to do with the sense in which it’s used politically.”
At USC, Daley added, “It’s less perhaps about the language and simply about the reality, which is that we’re 20% international and very diverse. We’ve complied with the legal restrictions that everybody else has had to comply with, but our goal is simply to always stay on mission, make sure that we’re creating a safe environment for students and faculty to explore issues that they want to talk about. In doing that, we’re helping students develop their voices.”
When asked about specific anxieties in the current political climate, deans frequently mentioned the safety of international students, as well as those with Hispanic and Mexican backgrounds. Fears that ICE raids will secret away DACA students and their families abound, as do concerns that international students—amid tighter travel restrictions—will be kept from returning to the U.S.
“I think (international students) are safe on campus and they feel like they’re in a supportive community environment,” Higgins said. “(But) there’s a feeling that as soon as they’re at the airport, they’d better watch themselves, because they may not be allowed back. That’s a very true fear. That goes for faculty as well.”
While study-abroad programs and international student bodies are an integral aspect of many college campuses, schools such as USC have had to warn international students about the dangers traveling can pose. “We have a very good office for international students, visa assistance to help them insofar as we can,” Daley said. “What you can’t do is dishonestly say, ‘Oh, everything will be OK.’ It may or may not be. We don’t know. But we do know that we can help make sure that they’re aware of not taking chances on travel.”
Higgins said that many professors have been encouraged to use burner phones and leave their laptops at home when traveling abroad for fear that their devices will be searched at airport checkpoints.
Yes, they’re going after students, they’re going after immigrants, they’re going after non-citizens, but they are also going after the intellectual enterprise.
-Scott Higgins, Director of Wesleyan University’s College of Film and the Moving Image
This crackdown, combined with Trump’s vocal distaste for left-leaning institutions, has led to concerns about declining enrollment, both in and out of the international-student pool. Given the administration’s “America first” priorities, Higgins wondered, “If you’re a parent, why would you send your kid to the U.S.? That’s a question I asked myself.” He admitted that enrollment numbers he’s seen have reflected this attitude, with a colleague from a U.K.-based university noting that they look forward to greater enrollment.
As film becomes an increasingly global medium, this closing off of American film schools — and, as a result, international networking — is enough to give colleges pause, and to financially threaten American students relying on scholarships.
“One of the things that I think the Trump administration has got wrong is in saying, ‘Let’s keep them out to have more places for American students,’” Galloway said. “What this doesn’t factor in is that the international students pay full freight. So if you go to school and you get some kind of discount, it’s because those students are paying so much. Our economics are dependent on that.
“When you’re taking away grant money, this is where it’s really going to impact the poorer communities, and a lot of them won’t go to university,” he added. “Or there will be an A class that goes to the top universities and a B class that goes everywhere else. That’s not good for a society that’s based on opportunity, which was the idea behind America.”
So academics in the film-school arena are fighting to preserve their universities as places of higher education but also spaces for students to learn, grow and connect with one another. Wesleyan president Michael Roth has taken the Trump administration to task for putting pressure on colleges and particularly for targeting student activists. Higgins said that at a time when many look at their government with dismay, “what they needed to hear was that the faculty was thinking of this too, that this was affecting us, that we were all concerned and that we could talk about it. Opening up a channel of communication was important.
“We’re hoping — and I’m not sure this is materializing as much as it could — that we become a cause for donation for people who want to support an enterprise like this,” he said. “What we really need right now is money for financial aid.”
This story first ran in the College Issue of TheWrap magazine. Read more from the issue here.
