After Harvard University sued the Trump administration this week over its decision to freeze billions in federal funds to the school, more than 440 higher education leaders from around the country have signed a joint statement condemning the administration’s efforts to control universities.
The government’s “political interference” and “overreach” is “now endangering higher education in America,” they wrote.
The signers come from a variety of colleges and universities from across the country, as well as higher education associations, illustrating the breadth of the threat they say President Donald Trump poses to academia. Joining in the statement were officials from large public research universities like the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and smaller private colleges such as Amherst and Kenyon.
In Minnesota, signers included the presidents of Augsburg University, Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College, Carleton College, the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University, St. Catherine University, St. Olaf College, Macalester College, Metropolitan State University, the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, St. Paul College and the University of St. Thomas.
Rebecca Cunningham, the president of the University of Minnesota, hadn’t signed the statement as of Thursday afternoon.
The statement, circulated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and signed by a total of 443 people as of Thursday, focuses on concerns that the Trump administration is attacking academic freedom.
“We must oppose undue government intrusion into the lives of those who learn, live and work on our campuses,” the statement said.
Many of the presidents who signed, including Alan M. Garber of Harvard, also face financial risks as a result of the administration’s deep cuts to research contracts and grants. Garber on Monday said his school had chosen to sue the administration after it issued a list of demands that included auditing its professors for plagiarism and appointing an outside overseer to ensure its departments were “viewpoint diverse.”
Harvard refused to comply with the demands, and the administration said it would freeze $2.2 billion in federal money.
