Editorial: After trade, now campuses under attack
Trump administration’s decision to freeze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University, as a punishment for refusing to toe the line and comply with a list of ‘unlawful’ demands from the federal government, reflects an authoritarian mindset
After triggering a global trade war with his whimsical tariff regime, United States President Donald Trump has now declared a war on ideas; the ideas that form the very foundation of the country’s core values of freedom and liberty. The universities — the very birthplace of independent ideas — are under attack by a regime that wants complete control over elite institutions which have assiduously built global reputations over decades. The Trump administration’s latest decision to freeze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University, as a punishment for refusing to toe the line and comply with a list of ‘unlawful’ demands from the federal government, reflects an authoritarian mindset that is anathema to the principles of academic freedom and independence. The ugly showdown with one of the highly reputed universities underscores a disturbing trend of targeting high-profile institutions on flimsy grounds dressed up as serious national issues. Trump and his top aides are exerting control of huge sums of federal research money to shift the ideological tilt of the higher education system, which they see as hostile to conservatives and intent on perpetuating liberalism. The government demanded that the university should report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is “viewpoint diverse”; reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; provide all admissions data to the federal government, including information on both rejected and admitted applicants, sorted by race and national origin; shut down immediately any programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Never in recent history has America witnessed such a blatant incursion into the education system. The extraordinary set of changes demanded by the government would have reshaped the university and ceded an unprecedented degree of control over Harvard’s operations to the federal government. The changes would have violated principles that are held dear on college campuses, including academic freedom. The Harvard University administration deserves praise for defying the government’s order and asserting its independence. The demands suggest that the Trump administration wants to intrude on processes that universities prefer to have control over, like how they admit their incoming classes. It also touched on issues that conservative activists have used as cudgels against academics. Harvard said it was unfortunate that the administration had ignored the university’s efforts at reforming its internal processes and moved instead to infringe on the school’s freedom in unlawful ways. The university’s response, which called the Trump administration’s demands illegal, marked a major shift in tone for the nation’s most influential school, which has been criticised in recent weeks for capitulating to Trump administration pressure. 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.
