We speak with one vote against the unprecedented government overshalling and political interference that now endangers American higher education … We must reject the compelling use of public research financing …
American institutions for higher education have the essential freedom in common to determine, on academic grounds, who they have to admit and what is learned, how, and by who … in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions in a full series of geomes without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation.
This is fine, as far as it goes. But what are all these settings going? Doing About the financing reductions, attempts to withdraw their non-profit status, threats not to hire their graduates and the ruling-based evictions? They will ask the Trump government for “constructive involvement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.”
This sounds nice, as naive, and I hope it works well for each of them, because they are looking for a good troubleshooting with a vice-president who has called universities the “enemy” and an administration that demanded that Harvard was subject to the research of each department for non-specific “point of view diversity”.
As a first step to find a common basis and to speak with a common voice, the statement is a start. But statements, like all words, can be cheap. We will see which steps schools actually take – and how much they can speak and act in consultation – while Trump's pressure campaign continues to rattle.
