On April 21, one of the most prestigious and respected universities in the world took the lead and stood up against the Trump administration’s recent harsh attacks against university campuses around the country.
Harvard University’s newly filed lawsuit against the administration went into effect after over 2.2 billion dollars in the schools federal funding was paused after the university refused to hand over its records and reports relating to antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias that they believed was occurring on campus, they also wanted the university to roll back and abolish its DEI programs, which the university refused to comply with.
The 51-page document goes into the administration’s careless and obvious overlooking of which programs they were affecting.
Harvard mentions many concerns they have with the Trump administration, mainly it’s attack on the universities constitutional rights saying “the government has not and cannot identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical scientific and technological and other research it has frozen that aims to save Americans lives, foster.”
Funding for research relating to the university’s science and engineering teams was included in the $2.2 billion cut; some of their research is beneficial for people going through cancer treatments and even astronauts who come face-to-face with radiation while in space.
I see the Trump administration’s blindness cuts as a perfect example of why this administration is simply unqualified. What kind of government punishes a university for not complying with the administration’s political ideology?
Well, I have an answer for that, only a dictatorship would punish an organization that thrives off spreading knowledge and heightening people’s education with cutting important and beneficial funding that helps the university. This administration is giving collective punishment and the people being punished are those who have nothing to do with the universities right to stand up against what I and many others see as an attack on civil rights.
The fact that programs that help push better research for cancer are being affected in this cut shows how the administration does not care about its citizens. This can only lead to this administration attempting to oversee the university so they can watch and approve what is being taught at these institutions. It affects education as we know it and unless other major universities stand up and fight for their right to speak, then free speech and education as a whole is lost.
