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Trump versus Harvard - and freedom to learn
(99 Posts)Forgive the long start, but it does outline the struggle against a state controlling education and learning
On one side is Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, with a brand so powerful that its name is synonymous with prestige.
On the other side is the Trump administration, determined to go further than any other White House to reshape American higher education.
Both sides are digging in for a clash that could test the limits of the government’s power and the independence that has made U.S. universities a destination for scholars around the world.
On Monday, Harvard became the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it demands sweeping changes to limit activism on campus. The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.
The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard (and other universities including other elite ones, but most have caved in - until now.
Already, Harvard’s refusal appears to be emboldening other institutions.
After initially agreeing to several demands from the Trump administration, Columbia University’s acting president took a more defiant tone in a campus message Monday, saying some of the demands “are not subject to negotiation.”
Harvards refusal has now been met with further Trump action
Trump threatened Tuesday to escalate the dispute, suggesting on social media that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status “if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness’
Sickness?
Thesis their attitude to education from schools to universities, to education in the military, and libraries so far in institutes like the Naval Institute - how long before all libraries.
Burning books next?
Back to Harvard:
“The impasse raises questions about how far the administration is willing to go. However it plays out, a legal battle is likely. A faculty group has already brought a court challenge against the demands, and many in academia expect Harvard to bring its own lawsuit.
In its refusal letter, Harvard said the government’s demands violate the school’s First Amendment rights and other civil rights laws.”
More in the article, ie what is supposed to be “sickness”
But this little quote “took the biscuit” in a way for me.
Obviously some republicans at Harvard are in a complex situation, but
A statement from Harvard’s Republican Club implored the university to reach a resolution with the government and “return to the American principles that formed the great men of this nation
Great men of the nation? Are we in the 1950's?
Agree absolutely WWM. Critical thinkers pose a danger to tyrants. Suppress this, control the media , and relax.... play more golf etc;
What any university teaches is the ability to think critically, which is the very thing that authoritarian/populist/fascist governments are afraid of.
They will never stop this. The can however do a lot to suppress it by threats and punitive action. First directed at the university and then at individual.
We see it everywhere where this type of government exists.
This is why Trumps government (or any really, but especially Trump) should not have any say about any type science. Or education. Or reality.
This is an official White House web page about Covid.
www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-true-origins-of-covid-19/
University students unions led the anti-apartheid movement over here I seem to remember.
Certainly the protests we went on were very highly populated with students.
My old University regularly had Student Union subsided travel.
Remember the huge wave of demonstrators against the wars in Vietnam? Most originated in the universities. You get a large number of young people together - and strong feelings. And of course hate speech has to be called out wherever it course, although Trump's regime spouts so much hate speech himself its pretty disingenuous.
But it doesnt mean to say the whole of the University is somehow permeated with dangerous radical culture.
It's an excuse by Trump to control what is taught and learnt and who teaches. It is removing policies that have allowed Harvard to encourage/offer entry to women and people of colour over the last 20 years, and will cut out the grant help that the poorest students get. He's doing this to all the universities.
foxie48
Many of the student actions in US universities (including Harvard) have been anti Israel not antisemitic but some US citizens seem as incapable as some UK citizens in recognising the difference.
Well said Foxie.
Exactly foxie
Just looked this up -
In the 1920s, the President A. Lawrence Lowell implemented policies (unofficial quotas), aimed at limiting the number of Jewish students. He was concerned that a large influx of Jewish students would deter "Boston Brahmin"
Recently the Israel-Hamas conflict and the ensuing campus activism, have resurrected these old tensions. There's been increased scrutiny, legal challenges, and intense debate about the nature of antisemitism and its manifestation on campus in the form of Palestinian support.
As an aside, one of my closest Jewish friends however went to Harvard. Years ago of course.
Many of the student actions in US universities (including Harvard) have been anti Israel not antisemitic but some US citizens seem as incapable as some UK citizens in recognising the difference.
He did Lovetopaint, and held a chair as the Mellon Professor of History from 1980 to 1993 so to accuse Harvard of antisemitism is absurd.
Galaxy
I would think it was a compliment to be refused by harvard to be fair. The first thing that comes to mind is antisemitism.
I thought SimonScharmer lectured at Harvard for years.
As for Trump who has exhibited a lack of education for all to see it is even more abhorrent that he should have such little respect for the intellectual institutions of his country.
How ridiculous. "It was a mistake"!
Good, hopefully it will embolden more to stand up to this bully. The reasons given for this "mistake" by the White House are frankly laughable.
I don't quite understand whats changed imaround (tho it was a clear blunder)
because hasn't the government still taken away the federal funds and the matter of the IRS still ongoing.
Whats happening at other major Universities? There is so much at stake, ie cutting/overseeing curriculum, cutting research, demanding a role in who gets appointed to teach - are those all going through?
He blinked. Again.
www.cnbc.com/2025/04/19/trump-white-house-harvard-funding-mistake.html
There is still the matter of the IRS taking away their tax exempt status on his orders though.
Clearly he's decided to leave Gaza and Ukraine for the next series (if he gets one!) that's unless he can come up with a new ending that puts him back as a hero, ATM that seems to be tricky.
Trump doesn't have long term strategy, he's totally fixated on the next sound bite and the next cliff hanger! If his presidency was a series on Netflix he'd be getting the ratings but people would be saying the plot is a bit far fetched.
Trump 2.0 will eventually affect people all over the world, in ways his supporters will have never considered. The medical research lost alone will be massive.
So sad too, what they have cut.
"Previous federal funding to Harvard helped fund childhood leukemia research that increased the survival rate from 10% to 90%. It helped fund key breast cancer research that extended the lives of women by 25%.
It’s just announced groundbreaking research on glioblastoma brain cancer patients.
So we’re playing politics with funding that’s supposed to currently be going to Alzheimer’s victims, stroke victims, diabetes victims, and that advancement can’t wait for politics."
Universities are typically among the places where dissent or debate about any government's policy start.
And of course anyone who disagrees with or picks over Trump's policies is either "stupid" or "bad", so places where such people can congregate have to be diminished.
No matter how much they add to America's prestige, because who cares what other countries think of the USA? They're either "stupid " or "bad" too.
I think it’s a nonsense to behave as Trump has done. He’s a man baby, he’s probably seeking revenge because he wasn't bright enough to get in. Condemning the top university in the USA to an uncertain future because of some actions by some people is crazy. There are 23,000 of the brightest students affected by this petty behaviour.
(basically all curriculum review and decided by government appointed committees: all appointments decided by same: cuts in departments decided by same)
Read what Trumps administration actually intends to do
www.axios.com/2025/04/16/harvard-columbia-demands-trump-vision-universities-influence
FriedGreenTomatoes2
And my last post on this. Sure the racist cultural Marxists at Harvard can teach whatever drivel they want - they just can’t do it with public money. Go Trump!
My goodness, you've bought the Kool-aid.
What happened with the lack of action vis a vis Jewish Students was totally unacceptable but was addressed and settled to the point where
"Marc Kasowitz, a lawyer for Students Against Antisemitism, said in an interview he had "great confidence" that Harvard was committed to protecting its Jewish students, including those targeted simply for supporting Israel"
This does not however mean quite traditional and often conservative institutions have suddenly morphed into "racist cultural Marxists". Typical Trump labels thrown at anyone who disagrees with him.
It remains a fight to teach, learn, and research onto subjects independent of a forced, pro Project 25 curriculum.
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