Nearly 200 college presidents challenge Trump

A letter signed by college presidents pushing back against “government overreach and political interference” by the Trump administration has been signed by nearly 200 college presidents and higher education leaders nationwide.

When the letter was released early Tuesday, it was signed by about 100 higher-education leaders, but nearly 100 more leaders added their signatures in less than 24 hours. Massachusetts college presidents make up 16 of the signatures.

Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Suffolk University are among the presidents from Massachusetts institutions that added their names to the letter, which MassLive obtained a copy of late Monday.

The presidents are calling for “one voice” in higher education against “the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” according to the letter.

In an environment where presidents have feared speaking up against the Trump administration despite sweeping demands to reshape higher education, the letter is the first time current presidents have come together in large numbers to express their concerns publicly.

Clark University’s president, David Fithian, told MassLive Tuesday morning that now is a “time for courage and for standing up for what we think is right.”

While Clark isn’t as large as other institutions, nor does it have the level of resources as institutions like Harvard, he said it is crucial to stand up because ”an attack on one is an attack on all of us.”

“Nothing that is happening right now in higher education through executive orders is helping our students, our faculty or our country,” Fithian said. “It’s instilling fear and anger evidently by design and that’s never the right environment to do our best work … or to move our country forward.”

A key concern of Fithian’s is that 13 Clark students have had their visas revoked without explanation — an action that is occurring across the country.

A “key component” of the way the institution educates students is through a diversity of perspectives, experiences and backgrounds, Fithian said. Drawing students from around the world is “fundamental to fulfilling our mission.”

International students comprise about 45% of Clark’s student body, including undergraduates and graduates, he said.

” We’re already hearing from students who are uncertain about coming to the United States to start their education, an educational program at Clark. And for students already here, they’re obviously deeply concerned about their ability to stay, their ability to travel home and return and their ability to continue to study the subjects that they came to study and the right we all enjoy to speak freely about world matters,” Fithian said.

He said he and other presidents who signed the letter embrace free expression and academic freedom principles. What is problematic in this moment is the federal government “dictating to colleges and universities how we should think, how we should teach, what we should research and how we should act as if there’s only one way or right way to do that,”

The Massachusetts college and university presidents who signed the letter, entitled “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” include:

Michael A. Elliott, Amherst College
Alan M. Garber, Harvard University
Sally Kornbluth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sunil Kumar, Tufts University
Harry Dumay, Elms College
David Fithian, Clark University
Melissa Gilliam, Boston University
Paula A. Johnson, Wellesley College
Maud S. Mandel, Williams College
Vincent Rougeau, College of the Holy Cross
Philip J. Sisson, Middlesex Community College
James Vander Hooven, Mount Wachusett Community College
Sarah Willie-LeBreton, Smith College
Lane A. Glenn, Northern Essex Community College
Marisa Kelly, Suffolk University
Michaele Whelan, Wheaton College

Holy Cross’ president Vincent Rougeau said in a statement to MassLive that there has been “clear government overreach into what colleges teach, how they teach and who they teach.”

“The strength of our colleges and universities is key to American prosperity, and that strength is built on a longstanding tradition of academic freedom. I was proud to join with the leaders of a wide variety of institutions to say that, while we are open to constructive conversations about reform, we will oppose any efforts to undermine academic freedom and our institutions’ independence,” Rougeau said.

The letter, released by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, comes after Harvard, a private university, refused to comply with a list of demands from the federal government and, as a result, the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in federal funding and is threatening to withdraw Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

The demands include allowing the federal government to audit student, professor and staff viewpoints, sharing all hiring data with the government, which would be subjected to an audit and giving leadership power to those “most devoted” to enacting the demanded changes, and stripping it away from those who aren’t.

On Monday, Harvard sued the federal government, arguing its constitutional rights have been violated.

“There’s an increase in momentum and I think Harvard standing up to the Trump administration has catalyzed these efforts,” said Lynn Pasquerella, the former president of Mount Holyoke College who now serves as president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

The Trump administration has also frozen federal funding at most other Ivy League schools and Northwestern University, signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, canceled research grants and began investigations into many universities and colleges across the country.

Until now, faculty senates had led the way in publicly speaking out against the Trump administration.

Several of the Big Ten schools decided to band together in “mutual defense.” The University of Massachusetts Amherst is doing something similar.

Fithian said he is open to exploring a wide range of collaborations with other institutions, including alliances similar to those occurring at Big Ten schools.

The letter is open to additional signatures. The group of presidents convened Monday evening to determine the most effective way to maintain the momentum from the letter and what the next paths forward are, Pasquerella said.

” The fundamental purpose of American higher education is for the public good. We’re not here to serve individual students or ourselves, but society as a whole and to engage them in answering the question, ‘What can we do for you?’ So the collective voice comes from, then, looking at the many ways in which we can carry this work forward and change the narrative positively,” Pasquerella said.