Newsflash! University find spine, puts it to use! Extra! Extra!
OK, I got carried away for a moment. It’s easy to do that these days when some good news finally shows up. Anyway . . . Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Harvard rejects Trump administration’s demands with federal funding at risk
With billions of dollars in federal funding at risk, Harvard University officials on Monday rejected Trump administration demands to make sweeping changes to its governance, admissions and hiring practices.
As the WaPo story points out, Harvard is the first of the higher education institutions that Trump has been attacking to fight back. In particular, it notes that Columbia gave in —
Columbia University, the center of pro-Palestinian protests last year, was the first target, with a $400 million cut in federal funding last month that included the termination of hundreds of research grants.
Nonetheless —
Columbia’s funding has not been restored.
Perhaps it was that which warned Harvard not to count on Trump keeping his word (as if his entire life history wasn’t warning enough). Perhaps it was this: Harvard University professors sue Trump administration to block review of nearly $9 billion in federal funds. Maybe it was the Harvard Crimson, the school paper’s call to resist: Trump’s Demands Prove What We Already Knew. Perhaps it was my dKos diary earlier this morning: Universities Forget The First Rule of Autocracies: "Divide and Conquer" (All right, it wasn’t that. But I couldn’t resist.)
Or maybe Harvard University, the oldest (and richest) university in the United States, grew a spine and remembered its mission — to teach people to think critically and for themselves — as well as history, which teaches that bullies quit and run when challenged — as Trump just proved with his folding and waffling on tariffs (how does one fold a waffle, anyway?).
We must all hang together or we shall most assuredly hang separately, said Benjamin Franklin. Harvard has a slew of American revolution history professors to explain that aphorism and its importance, and maybe that also helped.
I’ll let the Crimson editors have the last word:
Instead of complying, Harvard should work with other universities to push back, leading the fight against the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on higher education.
The time for action isn’t now — it was last week. It is time for Harvard to redeem itself.
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The president of Harvard has issued a statement: The Promise of American Higher Education
The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.
The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.
Our motto—Veritas, or truth—guides us as we navigate the challenging path ahead. Seeking truth is a journey without end. It requires us to be open to new information and different perspectives, to subject our beliefs to ongoing scrutiny, and to be ready to change our minds. It compels us to take up the difficult work of acknowledging our flaws so that we might realize the full promise of the University, especially when that promise is threatened.
Read the whole thing. It’s a heavy gauntlet thrown right into Trump’s face.
-----------------------— Update 4:00 PDT ----------------------—
Voidstuff pointed out that, contrary to what the WaPo (and now the New York Times) articles said, Harvard is not the first university to refuse to comply with Trump’s demands. Princeton rejected him last month: Universities are scared of Trump. Princeton spoke out — and others should join us. (The Daily Princetonian):
[The adminstration’s] actions reflect the weaponization of federal force against university students, an attack on the principles of knowledge-seeking and First Amendment-protected free expression on every university campus. . . .
Princeton has rightly stood behind its values by refusing to comply in advance. And, Wednesday morning [March 19], President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 stepped up to embody these values by speaking out in defense of higher education publicly in The Atlantic. . . .
Universities need to stand together. In response to anti-democratic action, working collectively is the only way to protect democratic principles. If the Trump administration uses its Columbia playbook with other universities, one at a time, each school will have to fight the federal government alone.
But as Princeton stands up first, it can invite others to stand with it. Through coordinated action and litigation, universities can show that they will never again fight the Trump administration’s attacks alone.
It could be argued that at that moment, Trump had not yet attacked Princeton, but on April 1, he did: Princeton's US grants frozen, follows Trump actions against other schools. As of yesterday, Princeton president vows not to cave to Trump, yet acknowledges antisemitism on campus.
------------------------— Update 4:15 PDT -------------------—
Cornell has just joined the resistance: Cornell Sues DOE for ‘Unlawful’ Cuts to Indirect Costs for Research Grants
------------------------— Update 6:30 PDT ---------------------—
H/T from Kalmoth: Nine universities and three university associations just filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts against the Department of Energy (DOE) for slashing government-funded research (PDF):
[I]f DOE’s policy is allowed to stand, it will devastate scientific research at America’s universities and badly undermine our Nation’s enviable status as a global leader in scientific research and innovation.
and:
The pace of scientific discoveries in the national interest will be slowed. Progress on a safe and effective nuclear deterrent, novel energy sources, and cures for debilitating and life-threatening illness will be obstructed. America’s rivals will celebrate, even as science and industry in the United States suffer.
The lawsuit notes that Trump tried a similar tactic back in 2017 and was stopped by the courts.
