This story was originally published by Source New Mexico.

Danielle Prokop
Source New Mexico

Tribal colleges, New Mexico’s flagship university and members of the state’s congressional delegation denounced the Trump administration’s recently proposed budget, which aims to cut millions from higher-education programs serving minority students and eliminate funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.

The proposed budget, submitted to Congress on April 3, would eliminate $354 million in discretionary funds for minority-serving institutions — a federal designation for colleges that serve students who are Asian, Black, Indigenous and Hispanic. The budget proposal calls the programs “unconstitutional,” and says they “discriminate by conferring Government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”

The federal budget proposal also would eliminate the $13 million budget for the Institute of American Indian Arts, which serves 985 students in Santa Fe. Currently, the school is funded through Oct. 1, 2027.

The Trump administration proposed eliminating IAIA’s funding in last year’s budget as well, but Congress rejected the proposal.

IAIA President Dr. Shelly C. Lowe, Navajo, in a statement urged Congress to once again reject the proposal to eliminate the school’s funding.

“IAIA exists because Native artists, Native communities, and Congress recognized that Indigenous creativity and cultural knowledge are vital to this country,” Lowe said. “Eliminating IAIA’s federal appropriation will weaken educational opportunity, threaten the development of future Indigenous artists and leaders, and severely undermine a mission that Congress has supported for decades.”

Last year, the Trump administration moved to withhold $350 million from nearly 800 minority-serving schools, consistent with the administration’s efforts to eliminate programs that center diversity, equity and inclusion.

University of New Mexico Director of Strategic Communications Ben Cloutier said in a statement that the administration will work with the state’s congressional delegation to restore funds originally lost in September 2025.

“UNM is one of the nation’s largest Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and we continue to fulfill our commitment to serve our students,” Cloutier said. “These federal programs supported meaningful investments in laboratory equipment, research infrastructure, and student success programming that benefit every student on our campus regardless of background.” Cloutier did not respond to questions about the amount of lost funding.

New Mexico State University Communications Director Amanda Wyatt told Source NM that federal cuts to minority-serving institutions last year constituted a loss of $8 million for the university.

She said in a statement it was “too soon to know the full extent” additional proposed federal cuts would have. “However, NMSU remains committed to its land-grant service mission, and to ensuring all our students have the resources they need.”

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), at a news event Tuesday at the University of New Mexico Hospital, told Source NM he would push back against the “devastating cuts,” as the delegation did the year prior.

“We were able to push back against the president zeroing-out our minority-serving institutions and being able to secure funding for these important schools,” Luján said. “We will do it again.”

Source NM Senior Reporter Joshua Bowling contributed to the reporting of this article.

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