Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday paused all agency funding to the University of Maine System “until further notice,” the institution said Tuesday. USDA provided nearly $30 million in funding to the system’s flagship university in fiscal 2024.
- The freeze follows a USDA announcement in late February that it was launching a compliance review of the University of Maine over what it called “blatant disregard” of President Donald Trump’s executive order forcing education institutions to ban transgender women from sports teams aligning with their gender identity.
- UMS has written to USDA asking for clarity on the funding pause and status of the compliance review, a spokesperson said by email Wednesday. The system also told USDA that it is “unaware of any evidence” of a Title IX or Title IV violation and has not been notified by the agency of a violation or allegation.
Dive Insight:
The USDA announced its compliance review of the University of Maine on Feb. 22, a day after Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills had a heated public exchange over his executive order during a White House meeting of the governors.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills replied.
“Well, I — we are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it, you better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
Shortly later, Mills told Trump, “We’ll see you in court.”
Along with the USDA compliance review, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights launched a Title IX investigation into Maine’s policy allowing transgender girls to participate in high school athletics. The probe, which was announced on the day of Trump and Mills’ exchange, concluded just four days later, finding that the state had violated Title IX, the statute barring sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and schools.
According to UMS, USDA's questions during its review didn't pertain to any specific university in the system but rather centered on whether students assigned male at birth could compete on women's sports teams.
Following the USDA’s announcement, the system said it confirmed its athletic programs complied with state and federal laws, as well as the NCAA's recently changed rules.
The system provided verbal and written answers to agency staff by Feb. 26 and heard nothing from USDA until March 10. That’s when a forwarded email that “appears to have originated from the USDA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer” brought news of the temporary funding freeze.
The email, which the system cited in a news release, noted, “This pause is temporary in nature while USDA evaluates if it should take any follow-on actions related to prospective Title VI or Title IX violations.” (UMS noted that it is not under any compliance reviews related to Title VI — which bars discrimination based on race, color and national origin at federally funded colleges — by any federal agency that it knows of.)
As a land-grant institution, the University of Maine flagship and seven other institutions in the system are heavily dependent on USDA funding.
In fiscal 2024, the agency awarded it $29.8 million for research and agricultural extension activities. The system has used that funding to support everything from potato breeding to pollution mitigation to preventing livestock disease outbreaks.
On Tuesday, a plant disease diagnostic lab for farmers and others at the University of Maine warned users of longer lead times on sample testing because it had to let go five USDA grant-funded technicians due to the funding freeze.
USDA did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the funding pause.
The USDA freeze at UMS comes just days after the Trump administration slashed $400 million to Columbia University over allegations that it failed to adequately protect Jewish students from harassment on its campus. The administration has warned 60 colleges that they could face sanctions in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests
