Harvard Steps Up - Rob Horowitz

Harvard Steps Up - Rob Horowitz

Admirably choosing to fight back against President Trump’s unprecedented and unconstitutional attack on academic freedom-- rather than bend the knee –Harvard University last week said no to a list of absurd administration demands that, taken together, would surrender the private university’s independence to the arbitrary and ideologically-driven dictates of the federal government.  “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,” wrote President Alan Garber in an open letter to the Harvard community.

 

Among the Trump administration’s demands: external audits of a broad number of academic departments because of supposed records of antisemitism or other bias with no backup for the charges provided; external audits of all departments to ensure viewpoint diversity with then mandated corrective action; the immediate shutdown of any diversity, equity and inclusion programs according to an elastic and expansive definition; a reduction in the power of faculty and students in the governance of the university; and the implementation of what can only be described as affirmative action or even quotas in students admissions to ensure a sufficient number of right wingers are admitted each year.  While some of these goals are worthy, such as increasing viewpoint diversity in departments such as political science and history through adding more professors with conservative outlooks, that doesn’t mean that it is appropriate for the federal government to use a metaphorical gun at a university’s head to force it to comply with its demands.

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Despite the breadth of these demands and the administration at least hinting that the letter to Harvard may have been sent prematurely and without full vetting, President Trump responded to Harvard’s firm refusal to go along with this outrageous power grab by freezing $2.2 billion of already committed federal research funding, putting vital health studies, among other important research at risk.  He followed up by threatening to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

 

Harvard is only the most recent target of the Trump administration’s war on prestigious and world-renowned colleges and universities. Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, Penn, and  Princeton have all been subjected to freezes in previously committed federal grants, totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars per university.

 

The main pretext for these funding freezes and the accompanying federal demands is combating antisemitism.  There is no doubt that antisemitism is a growing and serious problem in the United States as well as on many campuses. While universities--including the ones targeted by the administration--need to do a better job in combating it, the Trump administration’s sweeping interference in internal university affairs and its naked attack on academic freedom in areas unrelated to the problem has no resemblance to a serious, narrowly tailored, and lawful approach to rooting out antisemitism on campus

 

As a Jew, speaking strictly for myself, I find the Trump Administration’s using the excuse of antisemitism to justify its direct attack on academic freedom, its arrest and attempts to deport foreign students here on student visas for exercising freedom of speech, and its freezing of vital health care and scientific research offensive. Additionally, when we allow this kind of targeting of people and institutions disfavored by the government in the long run it makes the Jewish community less safe, if history is any guide.

 

That is why I am heartened to see 10 mainstream Jewish organizations representing a broad swath of American Judaism and facilitated by the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, speak out forcefully against the Trump administration’s actions. “We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights, including the rule of law, the right of due process, and/or the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful protest,’ the organizations wrote in a joint public statement. “It is both possible and necessary to fight antisemitism—on campus, in our communities, and across the country—without abandoning the democratic values that have allowed Jews, and so many other vulnerable minorities, to thrive.

 

Before Harvard stepped up, colleges and universities had been entirely too supine, attempting to preserve federal funding through appeasing the Trump administration’s illegal bullying.  As President Obama pointed out, those large multi-billion-dollar endowments give universities the financial heft and staying power to vigorously defend academic freedom and that is what is required in this dangerous moment. Harvard’s forceful stance has had a positive impact, strengthening university presidents’ spines as more colleges and universities are joining lawsuits and other actions seeking to preserve their independence.

 

The Trump administration’s assault on colleges and universities is just one prong of a broad authoritarian push to use all the power of the federal government without regard to legality to weaken and discredit institutions that are potential sources of opposition, ranging from the media to the courts to law firms.  It is a far-reaching attempt to roll back democracy, straight out of the playbook of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other authoritarian rulers.

 

The example set by Harvard not only fuels the fight to preserve academic freedom; it sends a powerful signal to institutions and individuals working in all sectors of American society that now is the time to stand up for democratic values, even if it requires significant sacrifices.  At a time for choosing, Harvard deserves praise for patriotically standing up for the timeless principles that have made the United States an exceptional nation despite the institutional risks.