Harvard University President Alan M. Garber has displayed extraordinary courage by issuing a resounding and uncompromising “no” to the Trump administration’s most recent attempt to encroach on Harvard’s independence.
On March 31, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism urged Harvard to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and ban masks at protests. Then, on April 11, the Trump administration issued a list of demands that threaten nearly every aspect of the university, vowing to cut $9 billion in federal funding if Harvard refused to comply.
As the first university president to so defiantly stand up against the Trump administration, Garber has laid the path for others to do the same. President Joseph E. Aoun, since you have so far lacked the courage to lead, you must now find the courage to follow.
Already, within hours of Garber’s statement, Columbia University committed to fighting any future efforts by the government to impede on its independence, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology warned that the threat of unexpected visa revocations “will make it less likely that top talent from around the world will come to the US.” Northeastern should do the same.
Crises of courage, where people and institutions are fearful of doing what they know is right, yearn for exemplary acts of courage — no matter how small. Such acts inspire and empower. They set the political groundwork for others to follow suit. As the Harvard Crimson’s Editorial Board so aptly put it, “Harvard cannot stand alone.” It certainly must not.
Garber’s statement begins by reminding us of the vital role universities play within the American ecosystem: “New frontiers beckon us [universities] with the prospect of life-changing advances.” At their best, universities are laboratories of exploration and experimentation. They are places where ideas, no matter how far-fetched, flow freely and where knowledge is acquired for its own sake.
Many of us have forgotten this guiding idea. We have been distracted by rising tuition costs and disillusioned by a belief that colleges are devoid of values. Harvard has shown us that principles, values and morals are still alive and kicking. But they need to be defended against those who try to squash them.
The drastic changes the federal government has demanded of Harvard make it clear that the bedrock ideal that underpins all other university principles, academic independence, is at risk today. President Donald Trump seeks to entrench government control and oversight over nearly every aspect of Harvard, a private institution. His government contorts the true meaning and seriousness of antisemitism, using it as a justification for cutting dissent off at the knees. The administration presents itself as a savior of academic independence while simultaneously undermining that very ideal.
Reading the government’s letter, it becomes increasingly clear that this is not a good-faith, concentrated effort to “combat antisemitism.”
One of its demands is to reduce the “power held by students … faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship.” The government’s failure to define what qualifies as being “more committed to activism than scholarship” is no mistake — it is an obvious effort to chill all campus activism. Do all protesting students fall under this definition? Do all faculty members who sign open letters? Fear begins where clarity ends, and this administration’s systemic use of vague language is a clear attempt to cause confusion and proliferate fear.
The Trump administration also wants to dip its fingers into who Harvard decides to hire. The letter reads, “All hiring and related data shall be shared with the federal government and subjected to a comprehensive audit … at least until the end of 2028.” Harvard, and all private organizations, have wide discretion over who they hire as faculty members, staff and administrators. The government has never had a say in this before for the same reasons the government cannot tell your neighborhood coffee shop who they can hire: It is unconstitutional.
The administration is also asking Harvard to “immediately report to federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, any foreign student, including those on visas and with green cards, who commits a conduct violation.” While we can only guess what the government might define as a “conduct violation,” Harvard’s student handbook mirrors rules laid out in Northeastern’s Code of Student Conduct. If these demands were forced on Northeastern, an international student who breaks any of our student conduct rules — including minor infractions such as producing too much noise in residence halls or smoking tobacco on campus — would be reported to the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. These reports would then be used, as they already have been, to revoke visas of individuals the administration deems “anti-American.”
A time for Lux, Veritas and Virtus
It is a regrettable reality, and one that underpins how far this country’s principles have fallen, that carrying out one’s duty is now branded a courageous action. Yet the lack of strong leadership at almost every level of American civil society — fueled by a naive belief that keeping one’s head down today will serve to spare the onslaught tomorrow — has made courage an increasingly rare sight. Courage is no heroic act; it is simply finding the strength to do what one knows is right. Fear and uncertainty must be overcome.
We should applaud Garber for having the courage to draw a line in the sand and begin the fight. It is a fight that has to happen. Trump is not a president that will stop all on his own — pushback is the reasonable answer to an individual that has no red lines.
Garber ends his statement by ushering forth Harvard’s motto: Veritas, or truth, which “guides us as we navigate the challenging path ahead.”
Northeastern too has a motto: “Lux, Veritas, Virtus,” or Light, Truth, Courage.
To President Aoun: Now is the time to embody the motto of the university you lead.
Jack Masliah is a fourth-year political science and philosophy combined major and deputy opinion editor for The News. He can be reached at masliahlitchi.j@northeastern.edu
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