Over 100 US university presidents sign letter decrying Trump administration | Trump administration

More than 100 American colleges and universities signed a statement denouncing “bypassing the unprecedented government and the political intervention” of the Trump administration with higher education – the strongest sign so far that American educational institutions are a unified front against the unusual attack of the government on its independence.

the statementWhich was published early on Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, weeks of the installation campaign for management against higher education, and hours after Harvard University became He The first school to prosecute The government on threats to finance them. Harvard University is one of several institutions that have been struck in recent weeks through huge financing discounts and demands that they abandon the great institutional autonomy.

Signatures come from large public schools, small liberal arts colleges and Ivy League institutions, including Harvard heads, Prinston and Brown.

In the statement, university presidents, as well as the leaders of many scientific societies, say they speak with a “one voice” and call for “constructive participation” with the administration.

“We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government control,” they write. “However, we must oppose the unjustified government infiltration in the lives of those who learn, live and work on our university campus.”

A lawsuit comes against Harvard after the administration announced that it will freeze $ 2.3 billion in federal funds, and Donald Trump It threatened to cancel its tax -exempt status, for allegations that the university failed to protect Jewish students from the pro -Palestinians protests. The lawsuit and the statement, combined, determines an increasing muscle response from universities after what appeared to be a lukewarm approach.

While some university leaders in recent weeks have criticized the administration and indicated that they will not abide by its demands, the statement represents the first time that presidents have spoken collectively on this topic. Lin Baskarilla, president of AAC & U, said that the joint condemnation followed a contract for more than 100 university leaders called AAC & U and the American Academy of Arts and Science last week to “meet to speak at this moment of the huge.”

Pascuerla said there is a “large -scale agreement” through a variety of academic institutions on the need to take a collective position.

She said: “Many have written about this flood strategy that is used in current attacks on higher education, a strategy that aims to overcome campus leaders with a continuous barrage of directives, executive orders, and policy advertisements that make it impossible to respond to everything simultaneously,” and explained the reason for its response so far to obtain a joint response. “The university campus leaders have had a lot to deal with them in the past few months, and I think this is part of the reason, but this is also the case in restricting them by the paintings, by many electoral districts that often ask them to do things that contradict each other.”

The Trump administration issued a barrage of measures aimed at universities that the right described as “the enemy” – some of which are under the guise of combating alleged anti -Semitism on the campus and others in a clear effort to eliminate the initiatives of diversity and integration. Billions of federal funds are threatened unless universities agree to severe demands, such as the removal of academic departments from the control of faculty members, “audit” of students ’perspectives and faculty, and cooperation with federal authorities as they target international students for detention and deportation. Along with her actions against Harvard, In some cases, millions of Cornell, Northwest, Bruun, Colombia, Brenston and Pennsylvania University have threatened.

Colombia has Acceptable to a large extent Management requirements to restore financingand Including mode Academic section Under external censorship. Its president did not sign the collective statement.

The signers indicate in the statement that the measures raised against schools, which already increase academic research, undermine long partnerships between the federal government and universities, contribute to an atmosphere of repression, as the signers notice the statement.

“Our colleges and universities participate in a commitment to work as centers for open inquiries, where, in their endeavor, faculty, students and employees have become free to exchange ideas and opinions through a full range of views without fear of revenge, control or deportation,” they write.

Last week, Harvard University released The most powerful reprimand so far Of the administration’s demands, with President Alan Garper Stop the confrontation With the White House, by saying that the university will not “hand its independence or abandon its constitutional rights.”

While Harvard University was the first by a university, Associations and organizations of higher education that represent other faculty members presented other faculty legal Challenges On discounts.

The teaching staff in some universities is also Organization to protect each other, with Several members Among the Big Ten Academic Alliance, Consortium, some of the country’s largest universities in the country, signing a decision to create a “joint defense”.

In another contract by AAC & U on Monday, about 120 university leaders discussed the steps that they might take after that, including efforts to involve their broader societies and the business world to defend academic freedom.

“Referring to the public and asserting ourselves is at risk, what is the atdication if this continuous violation of the academy was allowed to continue,” he added.