The start of Spring Semester 2025 in Nevada will be remembered by faculty primarily for the confusion and anxiety caused by the disruptive executive orders targeting higher education from the newly installed presidential administration in Washington, DC.

Although the barrage of orders has now slowed, and our national affiliates, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have succeeded in temporarily derailing some of the attacks in the court, irreversible damage has already been done to academic programs and the students enrolled in them.

AFT recently released statistics on how proposed cuts to the Department of Education - if not the Department's outright elimination - may cost Nevadans. For NSHE and its students, those cuts could impact programs and services that add up to a staggering $13.2 billion in Nevada alone. Yes, that's billion, with a b.

• $13 billion in federal student loans, supporting over 363,000 Nevadans pursuing education beyond a high school diploma, including first-generation college students.
• $264 million in Pell grants, ensuring over 57,000 students can pursue a college degree regardless of income status.
• $1.7 million to support students enrolled in Nevada’s five minority-serving institutions, such as a historically Black college or university, a Hispanic-serving institution, a tribal college or university, or an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution.
• $20 million to help underrepresented students succeed—including those who are the first in their families to attend college, are from lower-income households or have disabilities.

These are just the higher education benefits received from the Department of Education. AFT calculates that K-12 is exposed for $320 million and workforce development programs offered at both K-12 and post-secondary levels add another $47 million and another $2 million for community programs that bolster education.

Those are just the numbers of what's at risk from the Department of Education. UNR estimates that proposed cuts in programs funded through the National Institutes of Health would eliminate more than $4 million per year in research infrastructure, while UNLV pegs its number at $2.5 million. DRI's impact may be as much as $1 million. 

The list goes on and the damage will be real, especially for so many of our students who have invested time and money in pursuit of their chosen fields of study only to watch their aspirations shattered by malicious ideologues.

The NFA encourage all faculty members to actively resist these unprecedented ideological intrusions. We urge you join us in advocating to Congress and NSHE administrators for protections. Here are some suggestions:

• Push Congress to overturn the executive orders by passing laws that will preserve vital programs and protect a student's right to learn without ideological disruptions.
• Insist that campus and NSHE leaders avoid anticipatory obedience and refrain from implementing stricter policies than what is mandated.
• Demand unambiguous guidance from campus administrations regarding the rights and responsibilities of faculty and students on immigration actions.
• Share stories of how these actions have directly impacted your program and students in the NFA members' forum (log-in required).