After Harvard, 100 US Colleges Unite Against Trump's Crackdown On Education

The storm that was brewing over the targeting of migrant students in the United States has taken a sharp upswing. More than 100 universities and colleges, including the elite Ivy League institutions, have come together to take on the US government.

Together, they have strongly condemned President Donald Trump's "political interference" in America's education system. The move came a day after Harvard University, America's top educational institution, sued the Trump Administration over its decision to cut billions of dollars of funding while also imposing political supervision on the University.

In a joint letter that called out President Trump's intrusion, the universities and colleges wrote, "We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion."

The letter further states that "We must reject the coercive use of public research funding."

DONALD TRUMP'S DIKTAT TO COLLEGES

Donald Trump has been targeting American colleges and universities claiming that campus premises have been allowed to be misused by students and faculty for alleged "anti-Semitic" activities. The President has also targeted educational institutions for allegedly promoting "woke" culture and "dividing America" over diversity policies, which have now been scrapped by the government.

In order to tackle the situation, President Trump has targeted educational institutions across the US by threatening massive budget cuts, revoking their tax exemption status, curbing the enrollment of foreign students, and in the case of Harvard, treating it as a "political entity". The US President has also ordered external audits on all educational institutions and ordered them to change their policies for hiring faculty - diktats that have put severe pressure on institutions as they face a massive fund crunch should they not follow orders.

WHAT THE COLLEGES SAY

Finding courage in unity, these educational institutions wrote in their letter that colleges are centres where "faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation."

While on the one hand the Trump Administration has gone after institutions, on the other hand it has pursued a massive immigration crackdown targeting foreign students, with their visas getting revoked for little to no reason.

The White House has justified the actions claiming that the protests against Israel's war in Gaza that swept across US college campuses last year were rife with anti-Semitism. The Trump administration also claims that the elite institutions of America have become too "left-wing".

HARVARD SUES THE GOVERNMENT

While most top universities, including Ivy league ones like Columbia, facing a financial risk, bowed to the US government's demands, Harvard University defied the Presidential diktats. The premier university has decided to take the Trump administration to court amid a risk of losing billions of dollars of funding.

"This case involves the Government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard," the Ivy League university said in a lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts federal court.

Calling President Trump's actions "arbitrary and capricious", Harvard University said in its lawsuit that "The Government's actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations."

The Trump administration last week ordered the freezing of $2.2 billion in federal funding to the institution. The Department of Homeland Security also threatened Harvard's ability to enroll international students unless it turns over records on visa holders' "illegal and violent activities."

According to the Harvard University website, foreign students account for more than 27 per cent of all students in the university, according to the latest academic year data.