The federal government cancelled National Endowment for the Humanities grants and reduced the organization’s staff following an April 2 notice. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that allocates funding towards museums, colleges, universities and libraries. According to the agency, UT has over $850,000 in active grants currently funded by the agency. The cuts to the agency come after the government rearranged funding to align with Trump administration policies.

Humanities Texas, a humanities council conducting and supporting educational projects such as The Library Foundation, received an email on April 2 announcing the cancellation. The operating grant the organization received from the National Endowment for the Humanities made up 65% of the organization’s annual budget, said Texas Humanities director Eric Lupfer. He also said the organization held 66 teacher workshops at local cultural and educational establishments like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the LBJ Presidential Library. 

“Having access to public humanities programs is critical in a democracy,” Lupfer said. “People need opportunities for ongoing education to come together, talk about meaningful issues (and) talk about the history and culture that we all share.”

Danielle Pilar Clealand, associate professor in Latino Studies, received a $250 million grant in October from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project she began in 2019 on Black Cuban immigrants from 1959 to 1980. However, with the recent cancellations, the project may no longer be able to continue. 

“I didn’t even receive an email,” Clealand said. “The director of grants at UT received the email,  it was in his junk mail, and he didn’t know he had it, so I was one of the last to learn of the grant termination. It made it doubly hard, because I never really received a letter from NEH myself.” 

Lupfer said Humanities Texas is still “eligible” to apply for grants and funding through the National Endowment for the Humanities for the 2026 applications.

“These funds (from the year 2025) had already been appropriated by Congress, so we had planned a full year of programming accordingly,” Lupfer said.“It’s quite a blow to have our operating grant terminated halfway through the fiscal year, so we’re moving ahead with some of our programs. We are a private nonprofit, so (we) have multiple streams of funding.”