Nearly 250 leaders of local colleges and universities have co-signed a letter that condemns the Trump administration’s attempts to coerce higher education institutions into changing what they do on their campuses.
In recent weeks, for instance, members of a White House task force on antisemitism demanded that Harvard change its practices or face the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding. Those demands included changing its admissions practices, banning face masks, dismantling specific student groups, getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and reforming programs with a history of antisemitic bias.
Harvard rejected the “unprecedented” demands, and the White House is seeking to strip more $2 billion in federal funding from the university. In response, Harvard filed a lawsuit Monday against the federal cuts, arguing that the First Amendment protects its speech from the government’s pressure.
“[W]e must reject the coercive use of public research funding,” the college presidents signed onto in Tuesday’s letter. “American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.”
The letter was drafted by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, a global membership organization engaged in promoting democratic principles of higher education. It said members of their universities must be able to speak “without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation,” and called for the Trump administration to constructively engage with their institutions.
Many Massachusetts higher-ed leaders signed on, including presidents at Harvard, MIT, UMass Amherst, Emerson College, Tufts, Wellesley, Amherst, Boston University and Bunker Hill Community College.
Lynn Pasquerella, president of the AAC&U, said the letter presents a unified voice against the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach” into American higher education.
“No one in higher education could have anticipated the nature and scope of the attacks on higher education,” Pasquerella said. “The weaponization of funding, donations. The ways in which every aspect of college and university operations are under siege.”
Pasquerella applauded Harvard’s president for filing the lawsuit and pushing back against the Trump administration’s threats.
“The moral courage that President [Alan] Garber exercised is significant in creating a ripple effect — and in leading the way to say that we each need to exercise that same type of moral courage,” Pasquerella said.
Wesleyan University President Michael Roth was an early leader in higher education to speak out against the Trump administration, hoping others would follow. But he says public pushback has been limited — until now.
“It just shows that as the Trump administration got more aggressive, the idea that simply keeping your head down might protect you — that idea has evaporated. And people were more ready to speak out when they had more company,” Roth said during an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio Tuesday.
A White House spokesperson told NBC News the administration won’t be persuaded by “worthless letters by overpaid blowhards.”
Pasquerella said while they don’t oppose legitimate government oversight, the AAC&U will stand up to attempts to restrict freedoms that are fundamental to higher education.
She added that people rely on the research done at colleges and universities around diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. “And to say that this is somehow an attempt to redress antisemitism is disingenuous at best,” she said.
Roth also dismissed the idea that the Trump administration is trying to root out antisemitism at universities.
“I think this is a charade, this anti-antisemitism,” Roth said. “It’s the rule of law that protects minority groups. It’s not obedience to the king.
“Jews should depend on the law on civil rights, on coalition building. They should not depend on loyalty to an authoritarian figure,” Roth added. “That’s happened in our history. The rabbis have warned us against this: Beware of protectors who one day turn on you when protecting Jews is no longer in their interests. And this group has had such a good time associating with antisemites and Nazis. It seems to be so easy to recognize that this anti-antisemitism is in bad faith.”
The first hearing in Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration has not yet been scheduled.
