Trump Admin Freezes $108 Million in Research Grants to Duke

Duke University’s medical school is accused of illegal racial preferences in recruitment, student admissions, scholarships, financial aid, and other programs.

Students pass under the arches at Duke University in Durham, N.C., in a file photo. Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

The Health and Human Services agency confirmed that $108 million in National Institute of Health (NIH) research funding for Duke University has been frozen due to racial discrimination at its medical school, an agency official told The Epoch Times on July 30.

The federal agency, along with the Department of Education, is also requiring Duke to create a “Merit and Civil Rights Committee” to assure that federal grants are spent on research, medical education, and training—“not race,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a July 28 release, before the funding freeze was confirmed.

In a July 28 letter sent to Duke University Medical School Dean Mary Klotman and other university administrators, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Kennedy said the allegations include “racial preferences and discriminatory activity in recruitment, student admissions, scholarships and financial aid, mentoring and enrichment programs, hiring, promotion, and more.”

“This vile racism carries a host of excuses and hides behind a smug superiority that such ‘benefited' races cannot compete under merit-based consideration,” the letter said. “Like all racism, affirmative action undermines America’s commitment to merit-based justice and violates the nation’s civil rights laws.

“In the medical context, this illegal preferencing also breaks faith with patients, hinders medical discovery, and jeopardizes human life and health.”

Also on June 28, the Trump administration announced an investigation into similar practices at Duke’s law school, where applicants for the campus law journal were allegedly given preferred consideration based on their race or ethnicity, or if they held leadership positions in an affinity group.

Duke has 20 days to respond to the federal government’s notice.

McMahon said the federal Civil Rights investigation into Duke’s practices and policies found that the university illegally gave preferential treatment to law journal and medical school applicants “based on those students’ immutable characteristics.”

“Blatantly discriminatory practices that are illegal under the Constitution, antidiscrimination law, and Supreme Court precedent have become all too common in our educational institutions. The Trump Administration will not allow them to continue,” McMahon said in the news release.

Shortly after his oath of office, President Donald Trump issued executive orders prohibiting DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) practices in education, which include racial preferences in hiring and admission, mandatory diversity training, and affinity groups by race or gender identity. The order is in accordance with Civil Rights laws and a Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action.

Letters were sent to all K-12 schools and higher education institutions that receive federal funds, and Trump advised that the wealthiest universities would be audited first.

The Epoch Times reached out to Duke University for comment.