WINONA, Minn. – A $1.1 million federal grant for a Winona State University project to promote civic dialogue has been withdrawn. The U.S. Defense Department, which awarded the grant in October, notified the university Friday that the money would not be delivered. The terse explanation from the Defense Department raised more questions than it answered: “The award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.” The university had made a major announcement when the grant was awarded in October. but went silent several days about losing it. To media queries Wednesday, the university’s official information channels were unresponsive. Calls to Andrea Northam, the university’s chief spokesperson, were answered with a recorded message that she was out of the office until March 12. In the information vacuum, the campus suddenly was alive with chatter and speculation:
> The university was a casualty of President Trump’s drastic budget cuts to divert federal funds to offset the cost of major tax breaks he has promised his wealthy supporters.
> The university found itself on Trump’s enemies list for its strong diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, of the sort that Trump has tried to outlaw with executive orders flowing from a white supremacist orientation.
> Trump targeted Winona State in retribution for Minnesota voting 51% to 47% for the Democratic Harris-Walz ticket in the November presidential election.
> Trump is averse to the kind of civic engagement tools that the Winona State project was promoting.
> Trump has a generally anti-education perspective, particularly for public education, as well as a distrust of academics and the academic enterprise.