In President Trump’s second term of presidency, he has specifically targeted the American education system. From dismantling the Department of Education to punishing colleges for not following his anti DEI policies, Trump has one main goal in mind: censor American education and control universities’ decision-making capacities.
While universities seemed to initially follow Trump’s guidelines, they are starting to fight back and protect the education students have had for hundreds of years, with one of these being the prestigious Harvard University.
On April 22, Harvard University sued the Trump administration for freezing $2.2 billion dollars in grants. By freezing this funding, Harvard’s international enrollment, another extension of the administration’s immigration crackdown, becomes limited.
This sentiment has become common with accredited American institutions. A group of over 100 universities signed “A Call for Constructive Engagement.” A statement issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and their desire to have a more collaborative and less intrusive relationship with the government.
There is a line between compliance with the government and overbearing, and Trump has reached beyond the point of overbearing.
“Universities are some the first places where protests start. In the spirit of academia and in the company of like minded students, many of America’s most important protest have started on campuses. Of course DEI is not the main focus of any institution but these places give DEI a platform to grow”, states Junior Asmita Bag. Trump’s administration targets famous institutions, it limits their access to programs like their research projects and it’s ability to continue to further the knowledge society has on a wide variety of topics.
Former President Barack Obama, a Harvard Law School alumni, responded to these cuts of funding stating that they are “unlawful,” and nearly a day later the White House responded saying, “The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families is coming to an end. Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege.”
Trump has a lengthy agenda to target education and ensure there is no individuality and intellectual vitality. It wasn’t just a matter of making it so no one was superior to others but it was his attempt to make him more powerful. “Attacking universities is important to Trump’s goal because a lot of the research these universities complete include terms that Trump wants to vilify. Words like “diversify” and “bias” which are terms important to scientific research, but he has categorized these words as trigger words”, says Senior Grace Schmidt.
Education was a fundamental right in the United States, yet Americans now feel the choice they had is slowly being stripped away by the Trump administration to make the country comply with President Trump’s ideals.