Since President Donald Trump took office, he’s sought out to downsize the federal government, targeting agencies big and small for closure or deep cuts. From international development and medical research projects to the preservation of historical documents and community service initiatives, it all had to go.

Helped by then-ally Elon Musk and his novel Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Trump laid off thousands of employees and cut off millions of dollars in grant funding. Some of those on the chopping block included the National Endowment for the Humanities, AmeriCorps and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, all of which provide critical funding and support to higher education institutions.

Multiple higher education associations and nonprofit groups have since pushed back against Trump’s pink slips. But while the advocacy groups have won some relief via the courts, some higher ed experts still worry that in many cases the damage is done, even if the agencies remain standing.

“These aren’t fringe programs; they’re core infrastructure,” said Leo Lo, president of the Association of Research and College Libraries. When the Trump administration pulls funding, “even small disruptions cascade, limiting access, service and equity on campuses big and small.”

And even as the lower courts have temporarily stopped some of the bleeding, their decisions could be overruled by higher justices. This power was demonstrated this week when the Supreme Court overturned an order that prevented the Department of Education from firing half of its staff.

Now, nearly six months into Trump’s second term, higher education associations and nonprofit groups that work closely with the agencies say repercussions of the president’s cuts are clear. Here’s a quick recap of where the three agencies stand now.

National Endowment for the Humanities

The National Endowment for Humanities is down to about 60 staff members and has terminated nearly 1,500 grants since DOGE officials stepped in and swiftly axed the agency’s operations in April, court records show.

Founded in 1965, the NEH was designed to support a broad swath of academic fields from history and literature to philosophy, religion and linguistics. But with the few resources that remain, humanities experts say the agency will likely struggle to do so.

For higher education institutions that rely on grant funding from NEH, the consequences are “pretty devastating,” said Cecily Hill, deputy director of the National Humanities Alliance.

“It diminishes the capacity to do groundbreaking research,” Hill said. “[These grant programs] help drive curricular advancements at colleges and universities and provide opportunities for better teaching and learning … and it seems like we’re at a time when we need a lot of curricular innovation.”

Multiple academic associations—including the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association—sued the Trump administration to restore the cuts. They argued that the cuts violate the separation of powers and detrimentally narrow the scope of academic research.

“It will signal the federal government’s turn away from the civic values it has long espoused,” ACLS president Joy Connolly said in a May statement about the lawsuit.

The associations have filed for a preliminary injunction, which would prevent remaining agency officials from enforcing any further cuts and require them to resume, but the federal district court in New York has yet to make a ruling. Similar lawsuits have also been filed by local humanities groups in California and Oregon that depend on the NEH.

But even if those plaintiffs find success in blocking the Trump administration’s cuts, Congress could make further reductions. House Republicans proposed sending $135 million to NEH in fiscal year 2026—a 35 percent cut for the agency.

It could take decades to recover from the proposed cut if it were to pass, Hill said. “It’s just less to go around in a field that’s already feeling the lack of support.”

AmeriCorps

Despite the fact that a federal judge temporarily stopped Trump’s efforts to fire hundreds of employees and thousands of service members at AmeriCorps, a federal agency that recruits and deploys young adults to work with nonprofits, the service group also faces looming budget cuts that could shutter it.

The slash to agency funding, which was first announced in late April, ended about $400 million in grants for more than 1,000 AmeriCorps partner organizations, leading to the layoffs of at least 32,000 low-paid young adults. At least 100 of the nonprofits and 500 corps members were focused on promoting college access for students from a low-income or underrepresented group, said Elizabeth Morgan, chief external relations officer for the National College Attainment Network.

Several states and organizations have challenged the gutting of AmeriCorps in lawsuits, and judges have since ordered the administration to restore funding to programs in the states that sued and to bring back many of the employees. But the administration could still follow through on the layoffs if the Supreme Court overturns the lower court order.

Additionally, Trump has asked Congress to shut down AmeriCorps altogether. The agency employed more than 500 people to oversee the young adult volunteers before the president took office, the Associated Press reported, and had a budget of about $1.2 billion.

And though the Trump administration’s first attempt to dismantle the agency has been placed under multiple injunctions, the program could still be terminated if a higher court overrules the order or Congress zeroes out funding as the White House suggested.

“It’s all happening so quickly … it’s really hard for us to know exactly what’s happening,” said Morgan.

Over all, data on the effect of these cuts is limited, Morgan said, but NCAN estimates that at least 500 or more volunteers were no longer able to support the more than 66,000 students they served. And while the cuts came late in the college application cycle this time around, she worries that more students would likely slip through the cracks if the cuts remain in effect next year.

So while the injunctions are “good news in the short term,” Morgan said, but “going forward, the idea that AmeriCorps could be zeroed out in future budgets is still really problematic.”

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Similarly, plaintiffs advocating for the Institute of Museum and Library Services have had success in court, but information scientists say the agency is still just “limping forward.”

Lo from ARCL said that though Trump’s executive order to eliminate the agency didn’t abolish it outright, it effectively froze operations. And while a court injunction issued to 21 states by the federal district court in Rhode Island forced a partial revival, most members of the 75-person staff were still let go, leaving the agency “mostly inert.”

It’s “just a skeleton crew,” Lo said, “mostly legal, HR, finance and Acting Director Keith Sonderling—stayed behind. That was enough to keep the agency alive on paper.” But beyond that, “almost nothing else is moving,” he added. “No new grants, surveys or outreach.”

It’s preventing the agency from completing statutorily required duties, Lo explained. According to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, the funding freeze has halted operations of a formula based program that allocates federal funding to state libraries, and the annual Public Libraries Survey, both of which are required under the Museum and Library Services Act.

The agency, which has a nearly $300 million budget, helps to fund programs at museums and libraries across the country—support that advocates say is critical to colleges, universities and the communities they serve.

Although the court forced certain programs to restart in some states that sued, “the freeze remains for other states and for national data collection efforts, meaning that statutory obligations are still not being fully met,” Lo said.

The effect that data and funding gap has on colleges, he added, is “brutal.”

“Losing grants for digitization, interlibrary loan networks, rural broadband, Wi‑Fi hotspots and library-led literacy programs dismantles services students and faculty rely on every day,” he said. “Rural and underserved campuses feel it [the] hardest.”