Amid Universities Battle, Some in Higher Education See Funding and Academic Freedom Differently

Then-Senator JD Vance said in 2021 that “the universities are the enemy.” Borrowed from President Richard Nixon, the language foreshadowed a battle that has intensified through the opening of the second Trump administration. President Donald Trump’s team has frozen or cut taxpayer-funded research to pressure universities to shutter their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, and to curb anti-Semitism on campus tied to the anti-Israel protests. While the administration calls the protests and some academic programs anti-Semitic, many in academia defend them on the grounds of free speech. After Harvard University refused to accept demands related to those and other issues, the administration froze $2.6 billion in federal dollars that would have gone to the Ivy League flagship....