Politics

College campuses on edge after Trump election

Harvard student Nada Attia, a 17-year-old from North Dakota, said it’s important for students to begin a dialogue now before Donald Trump begins his presidency. David L. Ryan / Globe Staff

Undocumented college students fear a president who has threatened to deport millions of illegal immigrants. University administrators worry about possible reductions in federal research money, particularly for climate change studies.

Advocates dread that painstaking efforts to curb sexual assault on campus could be reversed and predatory for-profit colleges will flourish.

Donald Trump’s election has rattled colleges around the country. Interviews with Boston-area college students, professors, and administrators reflect unease about a president-elect who has so far offered vague or conflicting statements on his plans for higher education.

“The big challenge is that the Trump campaign didn’t lay out an extensive agenda on higher education, so we’re piecing together things that were said in debates and excerpts in speeches,” said Michael Armini, Northeastern’s senior vice president for external affairs.

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Yet Trump has been more explicit about immigrants and minorities, whom he and his supporters have repeatedly disparaged. That has created palpable fear among foreign students, Muslims, blacks, and people who identify as LGBTQ.

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