President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order aiming to change the college accreditation process so colleges are accredited based on “results,” with the president wondering aloud about looking into the math capabilities of students admitted to Harvard University and Yale University.
The president also signed an order to enforce laws on the books requiring universities to disclose when they accept large foreign gifts, with one of Mr. Trump’s top aides specifically calling out Harvard as a school they believe has violated the law. Federal law requires higher education institutions that receive federal funds to disclose any gifts or contracts from a foreign source valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year, and some in Congress are trying to lower that threshold to $50,000.
The new executive orders come as the president has singled out Harvard University. His administration has frozen billions in federal funding to Harvard, demanded sweeping changes to school policies and suggested it should lose its tax-exempt status.
Colleges and universities are accredited to ensure they meet basic standards by third-party entities, not the federal government, though the Department of Education decides which accrediting agencies to recognize. The accreditation process has broad implications since the government uses it to determine which schools are allowed to participate in federal student aid programs, which distribute billions in student loans and grants.
The executive order directs the Department of Education to “hold accountable” any college accreditors that “fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law” — including by terminating or suspending the accreditors’ federal recognition. It specifically singles out accrediting agencies that require schools to “engage in unlawful discrimination … under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives.” The order also says the Department of Education should start recognizing new college accreditors.
The Trump administration believes accreditation entities have become too focused on “woke ideology” instead of results, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said. The executive order Mr. Trump signed affects law schools and graduate programs as well.
“The basic idea is to force accreditation to be focused on the merit and the actual results that these universities are providing, as opposed to how woke these universities have gotten,” Scharf said ahead of Mr. Trump signing the executive order. “So we’re setting up new accreditation pathways, we’re charging the Department of Education to really look holistically at this accreditation mess and hopefully make it much better.”
Mr. Trump wanted to know if the executive order he was signing will “look into” people who he says go to prestigious schools like Harvard or Princeton but can’t do basic math.
“Will we look into the past people that they’ve taken?” Mr. Trump asked Scharf. “For instance, I hear all about certain great schools. And then we read where they’re going to teach people basic math, math that we can all do very easily, but they can’t do there.”
“When universities are not performing appropriately, whether that’s in admission or whether that’s in their actual instructional activities, that’s certainly something that accreditors should be considering that right now we believe they’re not doing a good enough job of,” Scharf responded.
The president also signed an executive order charging federal departments and agencies to make sure universities are following the law in disclosing the acceptance of large foreign gifts.
“We believe that certain universities, including, for example, Harvard, have routinely violated this law and this law has not been effectively enforced,” Scharf said. “So this executive order charges your departments and agencies with enforcing the laws on the books with respect to foreign gifts to American universities.”
Scharf didn’t offer evidence or details on how Harvard has allegedly violated the foreign gift disclosure law. CBS News has reached out to Harvard for comment.
Harvard University on Monday announced it filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging the administration unlawfully froze billions in federal funding. Tensions have escalated between the administration and Harvard, which had rejected the administration’s demands to change many of the school’s policies and leadership. Several other schools, including Columbia University, have faced similar funding freezes, with the Trump administration alleging the schools have responded inadequately to antisemitism.
The president on Wednesday also signed executive actions to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), make sure schoolchildren are adequately trained in artificial intelligence, boost apprenticeships and allow educators to enforce school discipline policies.