See the "Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" cast sidebyside with the real people they play Randall ColburnAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM Oli Scarff/Getty; Disney/Adrienn Szabo Grace Van Patten plays Amanda Knox in Hulu's new seriesKey Points The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a new series about the reallife ...

- - See the "Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" cast side-by-side with the real people they play

Randall ColburnAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM

Oli Scarff/Getty; Disney/Adrienn Szabo

Grace Van Patten plays Amanda Knox in Hulu's new seriesKey Points -

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a new series about the real-life saga of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student wrongly convicted of murder in Italy.

Knox serves as an executive producer on the series, which stars Grace Van Patten, Sharon Horgan, and Francesco Acquaroli.

The first two episodes are now streaming on Hulu.

What happened to Amanda Knox was certainly twisted.

A subject of fervent tabloid fodder, the Seattle-born exchange student was wrongly convicted of murder in 2009 and imprisoned abroad for years before being exonerated in 2015.

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, a limited series now streaming on Hulu, is the latest dramatization of her journey, but it's the first where Knox serves as an executive producer. K.J. Steinberg is the showrunner on the series, which stars Tell Me Lies breakout Grace Van Patten as Knox.

The project is one point in Knox's long quest to reshape her public image after she was arrested for the 2007 murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, with whom she lived while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy.

Throughout her trial, international media outlets sensationalized the proceedings while dubbing her "Foxy Knoxy." After her exoneration, an Italian court determined that the media attention "did not (facilitate) seeking the truth," and criticized the poor police work with which the case was handled.

Several real-life players in Knox's saga are portrayed in the series, from prosecutor Giuliano Mignini to her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, who was also convicted and later exonerated for Kercher's murder. Below, we break down who's playing who (and provide side-by-side photos of

Read on to see the actors side-by-side with the real people they play.

01 of 06

Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox

Pietro Crocchioni/EPA/Shutterstock; Disney/Andrea Miconi

Amanda Knox accompanied by security in on Sept. 26, 2008, in Perugia, Italy; Grace Van Patten as Knox on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

Grace Van Patten leads The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as the titular American exchange student in Perugia, Italy, who's wrongly accused of murdering her British roommate.

Steinberg spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her approach to portraying Knox onscreen. Interestingly, she used Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie, the movie Knox says she and Sollecito watched the night of Kercher's murder, as a point of inspiration.

"I found that her connection to Amélie really was reflective of a worldview of the person she was before all of this happened," Steinberg said. "The innocence, the romantic idealism, the naiveté, the appetite for adventure — all of those things were very representative of who Amanda was and what was stolen from both Amanda and Meredith and their families, and the people surrounding them who were re-victimized by the injustice that ensued."

She continued, "It seemed only appropriate to help the audience get to know her as a person before the false imprisonment, before the false accusations, before the crime, because that's not who she is. That is what her story became, but that's not who she is as a human being."

Speaking with Elle, Van Patten, too, reflected on the importance of shining a new light on Knox. "It feels weird to even call it a role," she said. "It felt so much bigger and more important than that, because we were all helping somebody reclaim their story."

Though she's just 28 years old, Van Patten has been acting for two decades. Early parts on series like The Sopranos (2006) and Boardwalk Empire (2014) gave way to larger roles in films like Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) and David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake (2018).

A pair of starring roles on Hulu — Nine Perfect Strangers (2021) and Tell Me Lies (2022–present) — cemented Van Patten as a rising star.

02 of 06

Sharon Horgan as Edda Mellas

Giuseppe Bellini/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi

Edda Mellas at Amanda Knox's trial on November 30, 2009, in Perugia, Italy; Sharon Horgan as Mellas on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

Irish actress, director, and producer Sharon Horgan costars on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Edda Mellas, Knox's mother.

"If you've ever questioned the portrayal of women in the media, especially young women who dare to have a sexuality then this will be eye opening," Horgan wrote in an Instagram post promoting the series. "At a time when the world is constantly dealing with the impact of misinformation, the show explores how bias shapes narratives."

The Emmy-nominated, BAFTA-winning Horgan has appeared in films such as Game Night (2018) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). She's also found success as the creator and star of comic series such as Pulling (2006–2009), Catastrophe (2015–2019), and Bad Sisters (2022–present), the latter an EW favorite.

03 of 06

John Hoogenakker as Curt Knox

Ray Tamarra/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi

Curt Knox on 'Good Morning America' on May 2, 2013; John Hoogenakker as Curt on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

John Hoogenakker appears in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Curt Knox, Amanda's father.

Knox spoke about the support of her parents over the years in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "From the second I remember existing, my family conveyed that I matter, that I'm loved," she said. "Even when the world deconstructed me — past, present, future — and told me I don't matter, deep down I knew they were wrong. That love prepared me to endure and not be broken."

A veteran of the stage and screen, Hoogenakker is best known for his supporting turns on Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan (2018–2019) and Hulu's Emmy-winning series Dopesick (2021). He also played key roles on Castle Rock (2019) and Waco: The Aftermath (2023).

The actor has several projects in the works, including Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated film One Battle After Another and a guest spot on season 4 of the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.

04 of 06

Giuseppe De Domenico as Raffaele Sollecito

Franco Origlia/Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi

Raffaele Sollecito on September 14, 2009, in Perugia, Italy; Giuseppe De Domenico as Sollecito on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

The Sicily-born Giuseppe De Domenico costars as Raffaele Sollecito, the Italian student who briefly dated Knox before getting swept up with her in the case of Kercher's murder.

"One thing I wanted to convey was the love-lost story between me and Raffaele," Knox told The Hollywood Reporter. "We'd met and were just eight days into young love before we were arrested."

An actor on the rise, De Domenico has primarily featured in Italian productions, including the Amazon Prime series Bang Bang Baby (2022) and Maura Delporo's Vermiglio (2024). The latter film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

05 of 06

Francesco Acquaroli as Giuliano Mignini

MARIO LAPORTA/AFP via Getty; Disney/Andrea Miconi

Giuliano Mignini at Amanda Knox's appeal trial on Sept. 23, 2011, in Perugia, Italy; Francesco Acquaroli as Mignini on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

Italian actor Francesco Acquaroli stars on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox as Giuliano Mignini, the dogged prosecutor who painted Knox as a sex-crazed killer and compared her to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

Knox maintains a complex relationship with the real-life Mignini, with whom she eventually struck up an email correspondence. "I'm not a person whose faith, for example, compels them to forgive. That was not my goal," Knox told PEOPLE while promoting her latest book, Free: My Search For Meaning. "My goal was to understand him... there was this deep curiosity in me to try to understand this person who decided that I was a dangerous person, who deserved to spend the most years of my life in prison."

She even journeyed to Italy in 2022 to speak with him in person, a meeting that's reportedly dramatized on the series.

"I think the real trick and the real cool flip is how I went from being a pawn and powerless in his story and him having all of this agency over my well-being, as soon as we met, that flipped," Knox explained. "And suddenly I went from feeling utterly powerless to a superhero, and no one could stop me. And that has felt so good. That is being free."

Acquaroli, who many reviews have cited as a highlight of the series, has been acting in Italy and elsewhere for nearly 40 years. During his long career, he's worked with several acclaimed filmmakers, including Abel Ferrara (Pasolini) and Costa-Gavras (Adults in the Room). He also appeared on series like Netflix's Suburra: Blood on Rome (2017–2020) and FX's Fargo (2020).

06 of 06

Roberta Mattei as Monica Napoleoni

Disney/Adrienn Szabó

Roberta Mattei as Monica Napoleoni on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

Roberta Mattei plays Detective Superintendent Monica Napoleoni, one of the first investigators to arrive at the scene of Kercher's murder.

Mattei has been a regular presence in Italian film and television for nearly two decades, with credits that include the sports drama Italian Race (2016), Netflix superhero series Zero (2021), and the eco-thriller Never Too Late (2024).

Where can I watch The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox?

Disney/Andrea Miconi

Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox on 'The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox'

The first two episodes of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes drop weekly through October 1.

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See the “Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” cast side-by-side with the real people they play

See the "Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox" cast sidebyside with the real people they play Randall ColburnAugust 24, 2025 ...
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Helen Mirren Still Gets 'Terrified' When She Starts a New Job: 'You Never Know If You're Going to Step Up' (Exclusive) Eric AnderssonAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM Helen Mirren tells PEOPLE she gets "absolutely terrified" when she begins working on a new project The star of the new Netflix movie The Th...

- - Helen Mirren Still Gets 'Terrified' When She Starts a New Job: 'You Never Know If You're Going to Step Up' (Exclusive)

Eric AnderssonAugust 24, 2025 at 12:00 AM

Helen Mirren tells PEOPLE she gets "absolutely terrified" when she begins working on a new project

The star of the new Netflix movie The Thursday Murder Club says the fear stems from the "unknown"

Even still, that fear keeps her engaged and hungry to keep working: "That is the thing that sort of galvanizes you"

Helen Mirren has been performing for decades, but she admits she still gets "absolutely terrified" when she begins work on a new film or series.

"I think it's because every project that you go into is an unknown," Mirren, 80, tells PEOPLE.

"And each time you enter into a new project, you never know how it's going to be or how the people are going to be and whether the chemistry will be good or a disaster. So stepping into a project is nerve-racking," she continues.

"Every single one is completely different and has a different energy and a different requirement, you never know if you're going to sort of step up or not," adds Mirren, who won in Oscar in 2007 for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen.

Maarten de Boer

Helen Mirren

Though she may feel scared, Mirren doesn't let it show. She's a fan of the phrase "fake it til you make it."

"A lot of it is pretense, of course, sort of acting," she says. "You feel insecure, but you pretend you don't. And we all do it, don't we?"

"Walking into a party or walking into a job interview or whatever it is you're having to deal with. We all have sort of gird our loins for want of a better word," says Mirren.

Giles Keyte/Netflix

Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan and Celia Imrie in "The Thursday Murder Club"

But the fear is what keeps her engaged at this point in her career. "I think it's that very thing that I'm talking about is the unknown. And that is the thing that sort of galvanizes you and drives you forward is the fear and the excitement of that," she says.

She points to playing Queen Elizabeth II — a figure who had not been portrayed much on screen at that point.

"Now of course it's been done over and over and over again, but it hadn't really been done before. Not like that," notes Mirren. "And that was very unknown territory at the time. And as you are probably aware, the British have a very extraordinary — and not exactly ambivalent — but a very profound emotional relationship with their monarchy and especially with the Queen because she was there for such a long time."

"Generations of people, including my generation, had been born and lived through her. She was such an incredible icon," continues Mirren. "So taking her, doing that, what was, we had no idea how that was going to be received."

Mirren is now starring in the Netflix mystery The Thursday Murder Club with Pierce Brosnan, Celia Imrie and Ben Kingsley.

For Mirren, the film was a reunion of sorts, since she shared the stage or screen with all three before: She and Brosnan (also her costar in Mobland) both appeared in 1980's The Long Good Friday, though they didn't have any scenes together; Kingsley was her peer at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s; and Imrie costarred in 2003's Calendar Girls.

Maarten de Boer

"There was a sense of, gosh, guys, isn't this amazing? Here we all are again," says Mirren. "There's nothing particularly surprising about the fact that we're all still working, but there was a great recognition of the fact that all of us have had long varied careers."

The Thursday Murder Club streams on Netflix on Friday, Aug. 29.

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

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Idaho police release investigation photos of Kohberger's car and crime scene where four students died Michael RuizAugust 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM Idaho State Police have released hundreds of photos from their investigation into the University of Idaho student murders and their perpetrator, Bryan Kohberge...

- - Idaho police release investigation photos of Kohberger's car and crime scene where four students died

Michael RuizAugust 23, 2025 at 8:00 PM

Idaho State Police have released hundreds of photos from their investigation into the University of Idaho student murders and their perpetrator, Bryan Kohberger – including images that show the former criminology Ph.D. student's infamous white Hyundai Elantra after it was seized from his parents' driveway in Pennsylvania.

While the exterior appears to be filthy, images from inside appear to show a white substance covering the steering wheel, dashboard, center console and other parts of the interior.

Experts say it could be soap or bleach if Kohberger attempted to clean up evidence from inside the vehicle or residue left over from fingerprinting or other crime lab testing.

Idaho Police Chief Reveals New Details About Bryan Kohberger Student Murder Investigation

This evidence photo provided by Moscow PD shows the Hyundai Elantra driven by Bryan Kohberger after murdering four University of Idaho students in November 2022.

"The Locard's Exchange Principle, the theory of transfer between objects, is something that every criminal justice student knows about," Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD cold case investigator and a criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley, told Fox News Digital. "I find it difficult to believe that Kohberger wouldn't have prepared his vehicle ahead of time to minimize the chance of it. I don't care if he was wearing a suit of armor, he would have had evidence on his outermost garments."

Since the photos were taken after the driver's seat and door panel were removed, the substance could also have been left by investigators. If police didn't put it there, the crime lab would have tested the substance to be sure, he said.

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This evidence photo provided by Moscow PD shows the Hyundai Elantra driven by Bryan Kohberger after murdering four University of Idaho students.

State police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Idaho Murder Documents Reveal Victim's Stalking Fears And Kohberger's 'Inappropriate Behavior' At School

"The only thing is, why would you be dusting fingerprints in his car?" asked Carlos Pantoja, a former NYPD crime scene investigator. "I could see for blood, yes, we would swab a car for DNA."

Investigators ultimately did not find DNA from any of the victims inside the vehicle, according to previously released court documents.

This evidence photo from Nov. 13, 2022, provided by Moscow PD, taken in the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death shows a banner with "Saturdays are for the girls" hanging on the wall in a common area in the home.

Another blue substance photographed inside the house appears to be Amino Black, he said, which police use to find fingerprints and blood without damaging underlying DNA.

Inside The Horror: Idaho Four Crime Scene Photos Reveal Bloody Aftermath Of Attack

Other images include scenes from inside and outside the crime scene at 1122 King Road, which was a six-bedroom, off-campus rental house. It was torn down.

Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves' final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death.

Kohberger killed four people inside: 21-year-old best friends Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were dating.

The state police photos show a typical off-campus residence – albeit a little on the unkempt side, with cases of alcohol littering the common areas, a folding table set up for beer pong, and empty cans on the floor.

On the floor next to the table is a med kit, left by someone from the Moscow Police Department.

This evidence photo from Nov. 13, 2022, provided by Moscow PD, taken in the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death, shows a Moscow PD investigator's bag on the floor of a common area in the home.

Bryan Kohberger Pleaded Guilty To Idaho Student Murders, But These Key Questions Remain Unanswered

The murders happened around 4 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022 – shortly before the Thanksgiving break and hours after the roommates came home from nights spent drinking heavily with friends.

This evidence photo from Nov. 13, 2022, provided by Moscow PD, taken in the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death, shows a kitchen counter with blue liquid poured on it.

Hand prints on the windows were not connected to the case, authorities said previously.

On top of the microwave is a half-eaten box of fries from Jack in the Box. Nearby is a bag from a delivery order addressed to "Xana."

This evidence photo from Nov. 13, 2022, provided by Moscow PD, taken in the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death, shows a Jack in the Box bag from a Doordash order made by Xana Kernodle on the night she died.

In the living room, next to a wall covered in string lights, there's a flag on the wall that says "Saturdays are for the girls."

The photos do not show rooms where the murders took place. Mogen's mom and both of Chapin's parents have asked a judge to block the release of images from inside the bedrooms, and the court issued a temporary restraining order.

This evidence photo from Nov. 13, 2022, provided by Moscow PD, taken in the home where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death, shows boxes of beer and other alcoholic beverages on the floor of a common area in the home.

A hearing on the matter scheduled for Thursday has been pushed back to next week.

Kohberger is serving four consecutive life prison sentences plus another 10 years at the Idaho Maximum Security Institute, where he has been complaining about the food and alleged harassment from other inmates.

Bryan Kohberger appears at the Ada County Courthouse for his sentencing hearing, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Boise, Idaho, for brutally stabbing four University of Idaho students to death nearly three years ago.

Fox News' Jamie Vera contributed to this report.

Original article source: Idaho police release investigation photos of Kohberger's car and crime scene where four students died

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Multicollege study claims over 80% of students lie about their views to appease liberal professors Alexander HallAugust 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM Nearly 90 percent of respondents to a study on two college campuses said they'd pretended to be more progressive than they really were to increase their odds of...

- - Multi-college study claims over 80% of students lie about their views to appease liberal professors

Alexander HallAugust 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM

Nearly 90 percent of respondents to a study on two college campuses said they'd pretended to be more progressive than they really were to increase their odds of social or academic success.

Researchers Forest Romm and Kevin Waldman published an opinion piece for The Hill headlined, "Performative virtue-signaling has become a threat to higher ed" about how students have had to adapt to the left-wing climate of campuses to the point where they effectively camouflage against the liberal herd. Their study, done between 2023 and 2025, conducted 1,452 confidential interviews with undergraduates at both Northwestern University and the University of Michigan.

A resounding 88 percent of respondents replied "yes" to the question, "Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically?"

"These students were not cynical, but adaptive," the researchers said. "In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe."

University Of Michigan, Law Journal Sued For Allegedly Discriminating Against Straight White Males

The researchers argued that many young adults are having to compartmentalize their personalities, with one public-facing persona that adheres to public orthodoxy, and the truer hidden self that questions these dogmas in private to reduce social risk. This aversion to social risk tends to orbit around a key set of issues.

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"Seventy-eight percent of students told us they self-censor on their beliefs surrounding gender identity; 72 percent on politics; 68 percent on family values. More than 80 percent said they had submitted classwork that misrepresented their views in order to align with professors," the researchers said. "For many, this has become second nature — an instinct for academic and professional self-preservation."

They also found only seven percent of respondents embraced the idea of "gender as a broad spectrum," with the vast majority (87 percent) supporting a binary model.

Conservative, Liberal Scholars Unite Against 'Wokeness' In New Manifesto

Northwestern University campus in Evanston.

They also purportedly found that "77 percent said they disagreed with the idea that gender identity should override biological sex in such domains as sports, healthcare, or public data — but would never voice that disagreement aloud."

Such dissonance between public persona and private belief extends well beyond academia, however, as these same young people grow wary of expressing themselves even in their personal lives.

"Seventy-three percent of students reported mistrust in conversations about these values with close friends. Nearly half said they routinely conceal beliefs in intimate relationships for fear of ideological fallout," the researchers said. "This is not simply peer pressure — it is identity regulation at scale, and it is being institutionalized."

The researchers faulted "the faculty, administrators, and institutional leaders who built a system that rewards moral theater while punishing inquiry."

Fox News Digital reached out to Northwestern University and the University of Michigan for comment.

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A commuter college thought it could avoid Trump's education crackdown. Here's what happened BYRON TAU August 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM Professor Jeffrey Scholes, who is codirector for the Center for the Study of Evangelicalism as well as director for the Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life at ...

- - A commuter college thought it could avoid Trump's education crackdown. Here's what happened

BYRON TAU August 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM

Professor Jeffrey Scholes, who is co-director for the Center for the Study of Evangelicalism as well as director for the Center for Religious Diversity and Public Life at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, poses for a portrait on the school's campus Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Administrators at the state university's campus in Colorado Springs thought they stood a solid chance of dodging the Trump administration's offensive on higher education.

Located on a picturesque bluff with a stunning view of Pikes Peak, the school is far removed from the Ivy League colleges that have drawn President Donald Trump's ire. Most of its students are commuters, getting degrees while holding down full-time jobs. Students and faculty alike describe the university, which is in a conservative part of a blue state, as politically subdued, if not apolitical.

That optimism was misplaced.

An review of thousands of pages of emails from school officials, as well as interviews with students and professors, reveals that school leaders, teachers and students soon found themselves in the Republican administration's crosshairs, forcing them to navigate what they described as an unprecedented and haphazard degree of change.

Whether Washington has downsized government departments, clawed back or launched investigations into diversity programs or campus antisemitism, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs has confronted many of the same challenges as elite universities across the nation.

The school lost three major federal grants and found itself under investigation by the Trump's Education Department. In the hopes of avoiding that scrutiny, the university renamed websites and job titles, all while dealing with pressure from students, faculty and staff who wanted the school to take a more combative stance.

"Uncertainty is compounding," the school's chancellor told faculty at a February meeting, according to minutes of the session. "And the speed of which orders are coming has been a bit of a shock."

The college declined to make any administrators available to be interviewed. A spokesman asked the AP to make clear that any professors or students interviewed in this story were speaking for themselves and not the institution. Several faculty members also asked for anonymity, either because they did not have tenure or they did not want to call unnecessary attention to themselves and their scholarship in the current political environment.

"Like our colleagues across higher education, we've spent considerable time working to understand the new directives from the federal government," the chancellor, Jennifer Sobanet, said in a statement provided to the AP.

Students said they have been able to sense the stress being felt by school administrators and professors.

"We have administrators that are feeling pressure, because we want to maintain our funding here. It's been tense," said Ava Knox, a rising junior who covers the university administration for the school newspaper.

Faculty, she added, "want to be very careful about how they're conducting their research and about how they're addressing the student population. They are also beholden to this new set of kind of ever-changing guidelines and stipulations by the federal government."

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Misplaced optimism

Shortly after Trump won a second term in November, UCCS leaders were trying to gather information on the Republican's plans. In December, Sobanet met the newly elected Republican congressman who represented the school's district, a conservative one that Trump won with 53% of the vote. In her meeting notes obtained by the AP, the chancellor sketched out a scenario in which the college might avoid the drastic cuts and havoc under the incoming administration.

"Research dollars –- hard to pull back grant dollars but Trump tried to pull back some last time. The money goes through Congress," Sobanet wrote in notes prepared for the meeting. "Grant money will likely stay but just change how they are worded and what it will fund."

Sobanet also observed that dismantling the federal Education Department would require congressional authorization. That was unlikely, she suggested, given the U.S. Senate's composition.

Like many others, she did not fully anticipate how aggressively Trump would seek to transform the federal government.

Conservatives' desire to revamp higher education began well before Trump took office.

They have long complained that universities have become bastions of liberal indoctrination and raucous protests. In 2023, Republicans in Congress had a contentious hearing with several Ivy League university leaders. Shortly after, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned. During the presidential campaign last fall, Trump criticized campus protests about Gaza, as well as what he said was a liberal bias in classrooms.

His new administration opened investigations into alleged antisemitism at several universities. It froze more than $400 million in research grants and contracts at Columbia, along with more than $2.6 billion at Harvard. Columbia reached an agreement last month to pay $220 million to resolve the investigation.

When Harvard filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's actions, his administration tried to block the school from enrolling international students. The Trump administration has also threatened to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status.

Northwestern University, Penn, Princeton and Cornell have seen big chunks of funding cut over how they dealt with protests about Israel's war in Gaza or over the schools' support for transgender athletes.

Trump's decision to target the wealthiest, most prestigious institutions provided some comfort to administrators at the approximately 4,000 other colleges and universities in the country.

Most higher education students in the United States are educated at regional public universities or community colleges. Such schools have not typically drawn attention from culture warriors.

Students and professors at UCCS hoped Trump's crackdown would bypass the school and others like it.

"You've got everyone — liberals, conservatives, middle of the road," said Jeffrey Scholes, a professor in the philosophy department. "You just don't see the kind of unrest and polarization that you see at other campuses."

The purse strings

The federal government has lots of leverage over higher education. It provides about $60 billion a year to universities for research. In addition, a majority of students in the U.S. need grants and loans from various federal programs to help pay tuition and living expenses.

This budget year, UCCS got about $19 million in research funding from a combination of federal, state and private sources. Though that is a relatively small portion of the school's overall $369 million budget, the college has made a push in recent years to bolster its campus research program by taking advantage of grant money from government agencies such as the U.S. Defense Department and National Institutes for Health. The widespread federal grant cut could derail those efforts.

School officials were dismayed when the Trump administration terminated research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Defense Department and the National Science Foundation, emails show. The grants funded programs in civics, cultural preservation and boosting women in technology fields.

School administrators scrambled to contact federal officials to learn if other grants were on the chopping block, but they struggled to find answers, the records show.

School officials repeatedly sought out the assistance of federal officials only to learn those officials were not sure what was happening as the Trump administration halted grant payments, fired thousands of employees and shuttered agencies.

"The sky is falling" at NIH, a university official reported in notes on a call in which the school's lobbyists were providing reports of what was happening in Washington.

There are also concerns about other changes in Washington that will affect how students pay for college, according to interviews with faculty and education policy experts.

While only Congress can fully abolish the U.S. Department of Education, the Trump administration has tried to dramatically cut back its staff and parcel out many of its functions to other agencies. The administration laid off nearly 1,400 employees, and problems have been reported in the systems that handle student loans. Management of student loans is expected to shift to another agency entirely.

In addition, an early version of a major funding bill in Congress included major cuts to tuition grants. Though that provision did not make it into the law, Congress did cap loans for students seeking graduate degrees. That policy could have ripple effects in the coming years on institutions such as UCCS that rely on tuition dollars for their operating expenses.

DEI and transgender issues hit Campus

To force change on campus, the Trump administration has begun investigations targeting diversity programs and efforts to combat antisemitism.

The Education Department, for example, opened an investigation in March targeting a Ph.D. scholarship program that partnered with 45 universities, including UCCS, to expand opportunities to women and nonwhites in graduate education. The administration alleged the program was only open to certain nonwhite students and amounted to racial discrimination.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news UCCS is included on the list" of schools being investigated, wrote Annie Larson, assistant vice president of federal relations and outreach for the entire University of Colorado system.

"Oh wow, this is surprising," wrote back Hillary Fouts, dean of the graduate school at UCCS.

UCCS also struggled with how to handle executive orders, particularly those on transgender issues.

In response to an order that aimed to revoke funds to schools that allowed transwomen to play women's sports, UCCS began a review of its athletic programs. It determined it had no transgender athletes, the records show. University officials were also relieved to discover that only one school in their athletic conference was affected by the order, and UCCS rarely if ever had matches or games against that school.

"We do not have any students impacted by this and don't compete against any teams that we are aware of that will be impacted by this," wrote the vice chancellor for student affairs to colleagues.

Avoiding the Spotlight

The attacks led UCCS to take preemptive actions and to self-censor in the hopes of saving programs and avoiding the Trump administration's spotlight.

Emails show that the school's legal counsel began looking at all the university's websites and evaluating whether any scholarships might need to be reworded. The university changed the web address of its diversity initiatives from www.diversity.uccs.edu to www.belonging.uccs.edu.

And the administrator responsible for the university's division of Inclusive Culture & Belonging got a new job title in January: director of strategic initiatives. University professors said the school debated whether to rename the Women's and Ethnic Studies department to avoid drawing attention from Trump but so far the department has not been renamed.

Along the same lines, UCCS administrators have sought to avoid getting dragged into controversies, a frequent occurrence in the first Trump administration. UCCS officials attended a presentation from the education consulting firm EAB, which encouraged schools not to react to every news cycle. That could be a challenge because some students and faculty are seeking vocal resistance on issues from climate change to immigration.

Soon after Trump was sworn in, for example, a staff member in UCCS's sustainability program began pushing the entire University of Colorado system to condemn Trump's withdrawal from an international agreement to tackle climate change. It was the type of statement universities had issued without thinking twice in past administrations.

In an email, UCCS's top public relations executive warned his boss: "There is a growing sentiment among the thought leadership in higher ed that campus leaders not take a public stance on major issues unless they impact their campus community."

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AP Education Writer Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report.

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Contact AP's global investigative team at [email protected] or https://ift.tt/EgtY19k

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