As John wrote yesterday evening, Harvard declared that it would not “surrender its independence” after the Trump administration demanded significant changes in policies relating to the anti-Semitic intimidation campaigns on its campus. Hours later, they received good news …
… the White House thinks Harvard should be independent as well:
Harvard University said Monday it would resist the Trump administration’s demands to change its governance structure over campus antisemitism concerns, saying the government is overstepping its authority.
Hours later the government announced a $2.26 billion freeze of Harvard’s multiyear grants and contracts.
Do they teach FAFO at Harvard? It might become a necessary field of study in this administration.
This is a curious kind of “independence” that Harvard claims to defend. If Harvard had been independent in the first place, the federal government wouldn’t have any say over its operations. By receiving federal grant money for research, student loans to subsidize its tuition, and other federal monies, Harvard has essentially accepted federal oversight in how the school operates. This is not a new concept; every administration has used the threat of suspension of federal funding to enforce its interpretation of federal laws and regulations in campus policies, especially Titles Vi, VII, and IX.
One of the most significant flexes of that authority came from Barack Obama, whose administration used the threat to force schools to reduce or eliminate due-process protections in cases of alleged sexual harassment and assault. Schools set up kangaroo courts and railroaded accused students in a manner befitting the Salem witch trials for years. Trump reversed those demands in his first term only to have Joe Biden re-impose them, along with federal demands on pronoun usage. And this is apart from the usual federal “suggestions” on curricula, credentialing, and other aspects of policy in Academia, including especially the requirement to hire administrators by the boatload for compliance.
So it’s rather amusing to see Obama attempting to rally support for Harvard’s “independence” while slurping at the federal trough:
Obama applauded Harvard’s decision with a post on X. He labeled the Trump administration’s proposal as “unlawful” and an “attempt to stifle academic freedom.”
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” Obama said. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
Obama’s words echo the sentiments of Harvard University and its lawyers.
Obama did more to stifle freedom on campuses than any other president in modern history, both academic and in terms of liberty. He did so using the very same mechanism that Trump is using now — access to the federal trough. Trump’s response to Harvard applies to Obama as well:
The Trump administration said Monday that the school’s response “reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges—that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”
Indeed. Harvard isn’t arguing for independence; it’s arguing to maintain its umbilical cord to the Treasury to subsidize its operations without federal oversight. If Harvard really wants independence, Hillsdale College has a suggestion:
There is another way:
Refuse taxpayer money. https://t.co/qAtohdDE5C
— Hillsdale College (@Hillsdale) April 14, 2025
At some point, a federal judge will order Trump to restore funding, and this case will wend its way to the Supreme Court, which will likely quash the order. Harvard is not entitled to federal funding if it refuses to comply with the administration’s interpretations of civil-rights laws. However, it would be far cleaner for the administration and the Republicans in Congress to put an end to all federal funding for higher education, as I argued in October 2023 in my essay, “Decolonize Academia Now!” The federal government has no constitutional authority to subsidize colleges and universities, and the 60-year experiment in doing so has transformed Academia into an indoctrination center for the Left, corrupted education to the core, and created disastrous follow-on effects in primary and secondary education.
Put all colleges and universities on the Hillsdale plan. Let them survive with true pricing signals, and enforce civil-rights laws through the Department of Justice in a sane and rational manner. That will not just end the problems, but will cleanly eliminate the entitlement mentality currently gripping Academia.
