“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.” Harvard President Alan Garber
"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," the university wrote on its X account on Monday.
The 'Old Donald' administration sent Harvard a letter on Friday that added to a list of requirements it said were designed to fight antisemitism on campus, including changes to its governance, hiring practices and admissions procedures.
In its response, Harvard said it did not "take lightly" its obligation to fight antisemitism but said the government was overreaching.
"The administration's prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government," Harvard's President Alan Garber said in the letter.
The government's request "violates Harvard's First Amendment rights", "exceeds" its authority and "threatens our values as a private institution", Garber said.
He added that the threatened cuts to funding could jeopardise vital research.
The freeze was announced hours after Harvard flatly rejected demands by the 'Old Donald' administration to eliminate its DEI programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, putting nearly $9 billion in federal funding for the university at risk.The 'Old Donald' administration proposed conditions Harvard must follow to receive funding, including eliminating so-called DEI initiatives and screening for international students “supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism.”
There is a way for universities to fight back. It requires more than refusing to bend to 'Old Donald'’s will, and it requires more than forming a united front. They must abandon all the concerns — rankings, donors, campus amenities — that preoccupy and distract them, and focus on their core mission: the production and dissemination of knowledge. Intellectuals have adopted this strategy to fight against autocrats in other countries. It works.
His first target, Columbia University, acceded to his demands within two weeks of losing $400 million in grants and contracts. When Columbia’s first sacrifice didn’t bring back the money, the university made another: its interim president, Katrina Armstrong. That didn’t satisfy 'Old Donald', who now reportedly wants Columbia to agree to direct government oversight. He is also brandishing financial threats, separately, at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Cornell, Brown, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern — and still there is no sign of organized resistance on the part of universities. There is not even a joint statement in defense of academic freedom or an assertion of universities’ value to society. (Even people who have no use for the humanities may see value in medical schools and hospitals.)
Columbia’s funding has not been restored.
Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania have also recently had grants frozen. Harvard was sent a list of demands in order to keep $9 billion in federal funding.
Now, across the United States, many universities are trying to avoid being 'Old Donald'’s next target. Administrators are dismantling DEI initiatives – closing and rebranding offices, eliminating positions, revising training programs and sanitizing diversity statements – while professors are preemptively self-censoring.
Not all institutions are complying. Some schools, such as Wesleyan, have refused to abandon their diversity principles. And organizations including the American Association of University Professors have filed lawsuits challenging 'Old Donald'’s executive orders, arguing they violate academic freedom and the First Amendment. Meanwhile, people inside and outside academia are combing websites, syllabi, presentations and public writing in search of what they consider ideological infractions. This type of peer surveillance can reward silence, incentivize erasure and turn institutions against their own.
German universities: A lesson
In the 1975 book “The Abuse of Learning: The Failure of German Universities,” historian Frederic Lilge chronicles how German universities, which entered the 20th century in a golden age of global intellectual influence, did not resist the Nazi regime but instead adapted to it.
After Hitler took office in 1933, his regime moved swiftly to purge academic institutions of Jews and political opponents. The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service mandated the firing of Jewish and other “non-Aryan” professors and members of the faculty deemed politically suspect.
USSR and fascist Italy suffer similar fate In fascist Italy, the shift began not with violence but with a signature. In 1931, the Mussolini regime required all university professors to swear an oath of loyalty to the state. Out of more than 1,200, only 12 refused.
By the early 1950s, universities across the region had become what Connelly calls “captive institutions,” stripped of independence and recast to serve the state.
A more recent example is Turkey, where, following the failed 2016 coup, more than 6,000 academics were dismissed, universities were shuttered and research deemed “subversive” was banned.
History’s warning
The administration says it is doing so to eradicate “discriminatory” DEI policies and fight what it sees as antisemitism on college campuses. But by withholding federal funding, the administration is also trying to force universities into ideological conformity – by dictating whose knowledge counts but also whose presence and perspectives are permissible on campus.
The "Old Donald" administration has given broad reasons for the cuts, often involving claims that the schools tolerate antisemitism. Officials at some of the universities have been puzzled by the cuts, which they sometimes learned about through social media, and insisted that they had taken action to combat antisemitism.On Thursday, the House Education Committee announced that it would call another group of college presidents to testify next month about what it says was the mishandling of violent, antisemitic campus protests.
A coalition of 40 prominent former university presidents wrote Tuesday in Fortune magazine that the federal government’s “aggressive threats to withdraw funding and the ideological conditions it has named for reinstating withdrawn funds — before formal investigation, hearing, or reporting — are illegal under Title VI the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and unconstitutional under the First Amendment.”
They called on the "Old Donald" administration to stop attacking higher education, on college presidents to speak out and on boards of trustees to avoid concessions to core principles.
In one of his first acts, 'Old Donald' branded DEI programs as discriminatory. His administration also launched federal investigations into more than 50 universities, from smaller regional schools such as Grand Valley State University in Michigan and the New England College of Optometry in Massachusetts to elite private universities such as Harvard and Yale.
'Old Donald' ramped up the pressure by threatening university research funding and targeting specific schools. In one example, the 'Old Donald' administration revoked US$400 million in grants to Columbia University over its alleged failures to curb antisemitic harassment on campus.
Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania have also recently had grants frozen. Harvard was sent a list of demands in order to keep $9 billion in federal funding.
Now, across the United States, many universities are trying to avoid being 'Old Donald'’s next target. Administrators are dismantling DEI initiatives – closing and rebranding offices, eliminating positions, revising training programs and sanitizing diversity statements – while professors are preemptively self-censoring.
Not all institutions are complying. Some schools, such as Wesleyan, have refused to abandon their diversity principles. And organizations including the American Association of University Professors have filed lawsuits challenging 'Old Donald'’s executive orders, arguing they violate academic freedom and the First Amendment. Meanwhile, people inside and outside academia are combing websites, syllabi, presentations and public writing in search of what they consider ideological infractions. This type of peer surveillance can reward silence, incentivize erasure and turn institutions against their own.
German universities: A lesson
In the 1975 book “The Abuse of Learning: The Failure of German Universities,” historian Frederic Lilge chronicles how German universities, which entered the 20th century in a golden age of global intellectual influence, did not resist the Nazi regime but instead adapted to it.
After Hitler took office in 1933, his regime moved swiftly to purge academic institutions of Jews and political opponents. The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service mandated the firing of Jewish and other “non-Aryan” professors and members of the faculty deemed politically suspect.
USSR and fascist Italy suffer similar fate In fascist Italy, the shift began not with violence but with a signature. In 1931, the Mussolini regime required all university professors to swear an oath of loyalty to the state. Out of more than 1,200, only 12 refused.
By the early 1950s, universities across the region had become what Connelly calls “captive institutions,” stripped of independence and recast to serve the state.
A more recent example is Turkey, where, following the failed 2016 coup, more than 6,000 academics were dismissed, universities were shuttered and research deemed “subversive” was banned.
History’s warning
The administration says it is doing so to eradicate “discriminatory” DEI policies and fight what it sees as antisemitism on college campuses. But by withholding federal funding, the administration is also trying to force universities into ideological conformity – by dictating whose knowledge counts but also whose presence and perspectives are permissible on campus.
Columbia’s reaction to 'Old Donald'’s demands sent a clear message: Resistance is risky, but compliance may be rewarded – though the $400 million has yet to be restored. The speed and scope of its concessions set a precedent, signaling to other universities that avoiding political fallout now may mean rewriting policies, reshaping departments and retreating from controversy, perhaps before anyone even asks.
The 'Old Donald' administration has already moved on to other universities, including the University of Pennsylvania over its transgender policies, Princeton for its climate programs and Harvard over alleged antisemitism. The question is which school is next.
The pressure to conform is not just financial – it is also cultural. Faculty at some institutions are being advised not to use “DEI” in emails and public communication, with warnings to not be a target. Academics are removing pronouns from their email signatures and asking their students to comply, too. I’ve been on the receiving end of those warnings, and so have my counterparts at other institutions. And students on visas are being warned not to travel outside the U.S. after several were deported or denied reentry due to alleged involvement in protests.
The administration announced the action in a post on one of its X accounts, accusing the university of “forcing women to compete with men in sports” and heralding the penalty as “promises kept.”The decision is the latest salvo in 'Old Donald'’s growing fight with universities over campus culture and diversity initiatives. The administration is using the federal purse to force schools to end policies it finds objectionable.
Rubio has said that student visas are for studying and warned they would be revoked if foreigners were seen as engaging in "destabilizing" acts.Rubio has denied that the arrests were about freedom of speech.
"No president should be allowed to set an ideological litmus test and exclude or remove people from our country who they disagree with," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement.
The White House has defended its actions using a provision of a 1952 law that grants the secretary of state broad authority to expel foreigners believed to pose "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the US.
It lists major public universities with tens-of-thousands of students like Texas A&M University, University of Oregon, University of Florida and University of Colorado.
It also includes smaller private institutions like Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and Stanford University.
Federal authorities revoked visas of at least eight students at Arizona State University and at least six people at the University of California Berkeley, according to the Washington Post.
One of the most high profile cases involves Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident who was arrested in his university-owned home in March.
The other case to capture national attention involves Tufts University student and Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk.
This month, "Old Donald" presented Columbia University with an ostensibly easy choice: protect Jewish students or lose $400 million in federal funding. The university chose the former, and "Old Donald" is celebrating the first successful battle in his crusade to eradicate antisemitism on college campuses.
But Catherine Rampell urges Jews and allies to refrain from joining the celebration. "Old Donald"’s crackdown on Columbia was no altruistic pursuit, she argues. The president is using the fight against antisemitism as cover for his true objective: the silencing and punishment of his enemies.
“The best protection against oppression and violence is a commitment to a free society that respects civil rights, rule of law and due process,” Catherine reminds us. She is not hesitant to add that these are the very tenets "Old Donald" has eroded, which puts all historically persecuted peoples in danger.
That drama dates back 25 years.
The first battle between "Old Donald" and Columbia involved the most New York of New York prizes. It was over a lucrative real estate deal, according to interviews with 17 real estate investors and former university administrators and insiders, as well as contemporaneous news articles.
Some former university officials are quietly wondering whether the ultimately unsuccessful property transaction sowed the seeds of Mr. "Old Donald's" current focus on Columbia. His administration has demanded that the university turn over vast control of its policies and even curricular decisions in its effort to quell antisemitism on campus. It has also canceled federal grants and contracts at Columbia — valued at $400 million.
On Friday, Columbia conceded some of "Old Donald's" demands regarding its protest policies, security practices and Middle Eastern studies department. The move alarmed some faculty members who worried that the university agreed to the changes in an effort to win back the full $400 million.
In the previous dispute, Lee C. Bollinger, the former president of Columbia who eventually opted not to pursue the property owned by "Old Donald", chose instead to expand the Columbia campus on land adjacent to the university. “I wanted for Columbia a much more ambitious project than the "Old Donald" property would permit, and one that would fit with the surrounding properties, that would blend in with the Morningside campus and the Harlem community,” he said in an interview.
An early step in civil rights investigations is always a letter to the university demanding certain information. Typically, the department asks how many discrimination complaints were received, and what school officials did in response.But the "Old Donald" administration told the attorneys working on the cases to also collect the names and nationalities of students who might have harassed Jewish students or faculty, according to documents and three attorneys with the Office for Civil Rights who have direct knowledge of the situation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.
The Education Department’s demand for the names and ethnicities of students followed a Feb. 3 notice that the agency’s Office for Civil Rights planned to investigate five universities “where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported.” They were Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
“The only reason that they would need names is if they intend to look into those names and do something with them or maybe put them on a watch list for other future enforcement,” she said. “If you’re collecting names, you’re going to want to use them for something down the road.”
More than two decades ago, "Old Donald" tried to persuade Columbia University to expand its campus on land he owned. The school declined. He did not forget it.
When he did not get his way, he stormed out of a meeting with university trustees and later publicly castigated the university president as “a dummy” and “a total moron.”
'Old Donald' was demanding $400 million from Columbia University.
The administration announced the action in a post on one of its X accounts, accusing the university of “forcing women to compete with men in sports” and heralding the penalty as “promises kept.”The decision is the latest salvo in 'Old Donald'’s growing fight with universities over campus culture and diversity initiatives. The administration is using the federal purse to force schools to end policies it finds objectionable.
About 400 Jewish professors and students have written a joint letter condemning the cancellation of some $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, a move the 'Old Donald' administration says is in response to the school’s handling of antisemitism.“We are Jewish faculty, scholars, and students at U.S. universities — representative of the community that this administration purports to be protecting from antisemitism on campuses. Let us be clear: These actions do not protect us,” the letter reads.
So as America seems to be copying the worst aspect of China's worst recent history, China is copying the best aspect of America. Striving to take the edge as America going through it's culture revolution.
Legal Experts Question "Old Donald"’s Authority to Cancel Columbia’s Funding
The " Old Donald" administration has accused Columbia of failing to protect students and faculty from “antisemitic violence and harassment,” particularly in the months since the war in Gaza ignited a pro-Palestinian protest movement on campus, which then spread across the country. The government has said its demands are intended to protect Jewish students from discrimination.The response has concerned some legal scholars because they believe the government has drastically overstepped its authority.
“It is puzzling that they have not filed a lawsuit that they would be extremely likely to prevail in,” said Leah Litman, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.