College and Jewish leaders are speaking up against the Trump administration’s recent efforts to cancel federal funding for higher education institutions.
This week, more than 150 leaders—the vast majority of whom are college presidents and chancellors—signed a joint statement opposing “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
“The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society,” the statement from AAC&U read. “On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.”
Government agencies have punished institutions that the Trump administration believes have permitted antisemitism on campus, canceling billions of dollars in funding across Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and Northwestern universities. Dozens of others face potential Title IX violations, and dozens more are under investigation for potential “race-based” violations.
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“They want to attack campuses, they want to be seen as attacking campuses and they want the media to know they’re attacking campuses,” said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president of Government Relations at ACE, in a recent webinar.
“What they don’t want to do is solve any problems. I think if there was any uncertainty as to whether this was about actually addressing antisemitism on college campuses or not, you just have to run down that list of demands to see how few of them relate in any way to preserving the rights and safety of Jewish students on college campuses.”
The American Jewish Committee, a global advocacy organization for Jewish civil rights, issued a letter earlier in the month stating President Donald Trump’s “broad, sweeping, and devastating cuts in federal funding” to combat antisemitism “will damage America’s standing as a center of innovation and research excellence.”
“All efforts to remedy problems in educational institutions—including those to rectify antisemitism—must be plainly understood, publicly transparent, and specifically targeted to address the problem, and must not curtail the autonomy and academic freedom of higher education institutions that allow them to pursue their essential work.”
Michael Roth, the first Jewish president of Wesleyan University, also decried President Trump’s effort to diminish DEI initiatives on college campus and diminish research funding, NPR reports.
“I know that antisemitism is a real thing and it’s on the rise worldwide,” he said. “But this is like using antisemitism as a cloak to do other things, to get universities to express loyalty to the president.”
Harvard University became the first public university to speak up against Trump when it rejected a list of demands that the administration says serve to combat antisemitism. After publicly defending the role higher education institutions play, the administration froze over $2 billion in funding.
The Ivy League has since sued the federal government from withholding federal funding “as leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard,” The Washington Post reports.
The following article is a part of University Business’ ongoing coverage of President Donald J. Trump’s impact on higher education during his second term in office. Click here for the latest updates.
