Universities across the nation should stand in solidarity with Harvard University as it pushes back against President Donald Trump’s revoking of the Ivy League school’s right to host international students via a federal student-visa program.
This latest attack on Harvard follows Trump’s earlier threat to stop all federal funding the school receives that’s estimated at $2.2 billion in multi-year federal grants. Trump is now suggesting that Harvard lose its tax-exempt status. It’s all cat and mouse, really.
The escalating punishment on Harvard comes after the university is defying Trump’s order to eliminate all DEI and affirmative action initiatives, further crackdown on Palestinian rights protests on campus, allow third-party oversight of many of its academic programs, and turn over the identities and conduct records of international students.
Harvard President Alan Garber said, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights…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.”
Global ramification, Weakens U.S. Soft Power
While the U.S.’ “hard power” (economic and military) arguably is waning, our nation’s “soft power” – the ability to influence others through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion or force — remains robust. The U.S.’s soft power – our culture, values, and institutions’ influence globally — is seen as our country’s greatest asset to many.
This is why some of the brightest students around the world come to Harvard and America’s elite universities. Foreign students make up about 25% at Harvard, about 40% at Columbia University, 44% at Carnegie Mellon University, 40% of graduate students at MIT, to name a few.
How does the U.S. benefit from foreign students? First, the work, especially in research, that these foreign students contribute to at Harvard helps to advance our nation’s leading edge in science, health and technology. Second, many of these students after graduation eventually work in the U.S. at some of the country’s top companies, hospitals and research institutions. Third, those who do return to their home countries bring with them American ideals of democracy, freedom of speech and a love for America. These students often end up as leaders in their respective countries that work towards better inter-country relations, cooperation and peace.
The value of geopolitical soft power cannot be underestimated and Trump’s wrecking ball on Harvard puts it at risk as the best and brightest worldwide could begin to elect to study at other top universities outside the U.S. Who loses in such a scenario? The U.S.
What’s really happening?
The attack on Harvard is ultimately an assault on academic freedom, the First Amendment and freedom of speech. The U.S Supreme Court has made it clear that academic freedom on university campuses is an essential component of that right to free speech.
Trump wants to control what’s said in classrooms and what universities research about so that they fit Trump’s ideological agenda. This is dangerous to our democracy and it’s unconstitutional. It also fits the pattern of other autocrats in other countries who target their universities for greater societal control.
No university should be in this position where if they do not comply with Trump’s demands, they could face tremendous financial hardship or in some cases could go bankrupt. It’s simply authoritarian.
One demand exceedingly disturbing is Trump’s directive to have him appoint a federal overseer who would audit every course, every department on campus, and that federal overseer would require Harvard to hire who Trump wants to teach and to change courses to meet his ideological preference. It’s beyond federal overreach, and ironic, considering that it is Trump and Republicans who’ve consistently for years complained about federal government overreach.
Besides greater control, critics believe Trump’s foreign student ban at Harvard is an extension of his xenophobic policies and culture wars. The divider-in-chief he is, Trump is attempting to make this into another populist-elitist wedge issue, saying he would consider giving that money diverted to Harvard to go toward trade school programs. That’s hardly believable considering all the ways in which he’s already failed middle-working and poor Americans like reducing inflation.
Fortunately, Harvard is the world’s richest higher education institution and has the deep pockets to fight Trump legally. But it will not be easy fighting against the full weight of the federal executive branch and potentially losing about a quarter of its students that pay full tuition.
Universities and colleges must stand with Harvard because it’s not just about Harvard but their own future. After Harvard, who’s next? Americans must also take a serious interest on this issue as well. It’s a fight for freedom of speech and a rejection of authoritarianism.
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