Trump’s administration said on Wednesday that it would suspend about $ 175 million in federal funding at the University of Pennsylvania to approach it transsexual athletes, according to a White House Social Media account. The move will intensify the government’s campaign against the participation of transsexuals in public life and escalate a clash with elite colleges.
The White House’s rapid response account on X said the decision was based on “Penn policies that are forcing women to compete with men in sports”. A person who is familiar with the decision, who spoke about the condition of anonymity because the administration had not officially announced the pause, confirmed the suspension and mentioned the previous embrace of Lia Thomas Penn, a transsexual woman as a member of the women’s swimming group.
In a statement, Penn said that he “is aware of media reports indicating a suspension of $ 175 million in federal funding in PENN”, but that he “received no official notice or details” from the government. The university added that it had and remained: “In full compliance with the regulations that apply not only to Penn, but to all NCAA and Ivy League peerings.”
Penn, Alma Mater of President Trump, is the second Ivy League University in two weeks to aim so expressly by the administration. The administration announced on March 7 that it was terminated about $ 400 million in contracts and grants for Columbia University. Last week, US officials sent Columbia a list of claims they said they had to meet before negotiations on canceled funding.
Dozens of more schools face federal research and are pressured by the administration’s widespread efforts to reduce federal spending.
The movement of administration against Penn, which was first mentioned by Fox Business, came about three years after Mr Thomas won the title of National Collegiate Athletic Association in the 500 Frestyle. Prior to her victory, more than twelve members of the Penn swimming team complained, in an anonymous letter to the University and the Ivy League, that Ms Thomas enjoyed “an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category”.
Ms Thomas was a talented athlete, they recognized, who was a top swimmer in Ivy League. But they insisted that her achievements in women’s competition were “the achievements she could never do as a male athlete”.
Ms Thomas soon graduated and a decision by the Swimming International Administrative Body kept her competing for a point in the United States Olympic team. Could not be approached for comments on Wednesday.
But the dirt for her Penn career has remained, in part, fell from Mr Trump’s decision to make transsexuals involved in sports a signature that scoured a cry during last year’s campaign and just returned to power.
In February, one day after three former Penn swimmers sued the University and others for Ms Thomas’ participation, he issued an executive order that said it was “the United States policy to cancel all chapters from educational programs that deprived women of women.”
The next day, the Ministry of Education said he would investigate whether Penn had violated the title IX. The announcement of the department reported a Penn swimmer, Paula Scanlan, saying that “he had to compete and share a closet with a male athlete”.
Daily Pennsylvanian, the campus newspaper, said the Penn sports department removed a website on diversity, equality and integration, which included the university’s policy on transsexual involvement soon.
Mr Trump’s executive mandate has also led NCAA, which is awarding competition for more than 500,000 college athletes, to decide that transsexual women will be forbidden to compete in female events.
Penn, like many other universities, had already supported an economic storm. A threatening change including national health funding institutes, the university warned, could cost about $ 240 million a year. If other federal organizations adopt similar types, taxes could amount to about $ 315 million a year, according to Penn.
The university has said this month that it is imposing freezing on wage and average adjustments, as well as on the initial revisions of capital spending and recruitment of teachers.
“The scope and pace of the potential disorders we face can make them more serious than those of previous challenges, such as the 2008 financial crisis or Covid’s pandemic,” Provost John L. Jackson Jr. And Craig R. Carnaroli, Penn’s senior vice president, wrote in an open letter that announced steps such as Freeze Hiring.
