President Donald Trump has signaled he will pause $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its trans athlete policies.
A senior Trump administration official told FOX Business about the planned cuts Wednesday morning, the outlet said, and the report was later retweeted by Rapid Response 47, an account run by the Trump administration. Penn, however, said it has yet to receive official notification.
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On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order that threatened to pull federal dollars from schools and universities that permitted trans athletes. Penn is being investigated by the Department of Education for Title IX violations after allowing Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, to compete on the women's NCAA swimming and diving team during the 2021-2022 school year. Thomas graduated in 2022.
"This is just a taste of what could be coming down the pike for Penn," the White House official told FOX Business, adding the university could lose all its federal funding over the investigation.
Last month, three former Penn swimmers also filed a lawsuit against Penn, Harvard University, the Ivy League and the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete in the 2022 Women's Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.
A Penn spokesperson said the university has always been "in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions."
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents the district that houses Penn's campus, encouraged the school to take legal action against the White House over the cuts.
"We have already seen that lawsuits successfully counter Trump's hateful, cruel, and legally questionable actions," Gauthier said in a statement. "I urge Penn to do the right thing by standing tall and fighting back. If not, they should at the very least tap into their endowment to prevent layoffs or service reductions. Situations like this one are why endowments exist."
Penn students and professors are planning to hold a rally at 34th and Walnut streets at noon Thursday to protest Trump's policies. Leaders will submit a petition with over 1,000 signatures urging the university to continue research efforts despite funding cuts, maintain sanctuary campus status, uphold diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and protect LGBTQ+ students and patients at its hospital.
"The Penn administration has chosen the path of anticipatory obedience. But we are encouraged by the resolve among our colleagues who recognize that it's up to us to push back together, acting in solidarity with each other, our students, our patients and our communities," Sam Layding, a Ph.D. candidate, and Amy Offner, associate history professor, said in a statement.
On March 7, Penn launched a webpage to monitor federal policy changes and how they might impact the university. On Tuesday, a statement was issued on the site urging international students from countries listed in a reported upcoming ban to avoid non-essential travel.