Harvard, University of Chicago caution faculty as schools try to figure out Trump's directive

US universities are trying to interpret a directive from the Trump administration that seeks to pause federal grants and loans, threatening to disrupt higher education funding, especially for scientific research. While a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze, some schools had already started to prepare.

The University of Chicago cautioned faculty about purchasing equipment, starting new experiments or embarking on travel related to their grants. And Harvard University, which received almost $700 million in federal research dollars last academic year and has been under federal scrutiny, said the memo requires a “pause on a subset of federally funded research activities implicated in an evolving set of executive orders,” according to a letter from President Alan Garber.