ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The University of Rochester is pushing back against some of the presidential administration’s recent actions.

The university is joining a multi-college lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy to block the department from placing a flat funding cap on “facilities and administrative costs” related to research. It’s the second lawsuit the U of R has joined over funding cuts impacting colleges nationwide, the first being against the National Institutes of Health’s medical research funding cap.

The DOE funding cap would impact the physical sciences, especially the university’s research on nuclear fusion and laser technology. We’re told the cuts to the U of R would total about $25 million.

The U of R is also one of many colleges defying the executive orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The U of R president said that the Feb. 14 order was not legally binding and pointed to the lawsuits against it.

So far, there’s no word of any retaliatory funding freezes specific to the U of R. However, the Trump administration has frozen funding directly to multiple universities, including Harvard, Cornell, and Northwestern, over what the administration calls unchecked antisemitism. The administration also pulled $400 million in funding to Columbia University over pro-Palestinian protests but restored those funds after the university agreed to enact nine sweeping reforms.

The administration has also revoked international student visas in relation to pro-Palestinian activity. However, as the AP reports, activism isn’t the only reason why some international students have lost their visa statuses. In some cases, past infractions such as traffic tickets have been cited, and other times, the reason is unclear to university officials.

Last week, the UR president announced in a letter that five current students and six recent graduates had their visas revoked. The university said some students and staff from Afghanistan, Cameroon, and South Sudan have lost their visa statuses because they were here on specific programs that the Trump administration is walking back on. We’re working to learn if any UR international students have lost their visa statuses specifically due to pro-Palestinian protests or social media content.

The university is now working to provide resources to those campus members. According to the U of R, the visas were revoked without communicating with the university.

“We are deeply troubled by the escalation of immigration enforcement activity toward our international students,” the university’s president said in a letter.

Last year, the U of R also had weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. In addition, four UR students were suspended after putting up fake pro-Palestinian “Wanted” posters across the campus, depicting several Jewish faculty members. The posters said the faculty were wanted for alleged war crimes related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester has called the posters antisemitic.

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