Its official: President Trump has declared war on the University.
It started with the executive orders banning DEI initiatives. It continued with threats to withhold federal funding from universities that failed to comply with his political desires and demands. Most recently, his administration moved from threats to action: going so far as to actually cancel funding for schools like Columbia University, and slashing federal funding for numerous research universities across the country, a move affecting nearly every part of American academic life. These actions represent more than symbolic gestures — they constitute a structural assault in effort to control the collective mind of the American populace through targeting the autonomy, purpose, and societal role of the American university.
At a time when public trust in the institutions of higher education is already waning, Trump is dealing the final blow. The university is integral to the function of modern American society, a cornerstone of democratic society, and its authority is now being challenged. The university presides over the production of knowledge and the safeguarding of historical and scientific truth, the latter which must remain separate from the influence of partisan politics in order for us to have a free society. If the university crumbles, there is not much left to prevent the complete erasure of factual truth.
The university is not without its flaws, particularly in regards to elite, private universities. Structural elitism, prohibitive costs of attendance and administrative and bureaucratic control just to name a few. But to critique the university is not endorse its dismantling. Reform is not synonymous with destruction.
Trump’s ideal university is to have no university. Education grants people complete freedom of thought and rationality, and with that, a level of immunity to fascist rhetoric. Education at every level — from primary education to academic and professional research — poses a threat to authoritarian leadership, a breeding ground for critical thought and intellectual freedom will continue being Trump’s premier target for as long as control is his priority. As has been written in the folds of history, the dictator always axes the scholars first; The Nazis burned books that opposed their ideology, The Nicaraguan government seized their universities to curb dissent, to name a couple. Even with all of its issues, education matters. The free exchange of ideas without censorship is an essential part of a free nation, a free individual. Without that, we are subject to the control of one individual and all of his selfish pursuits.
Trump has crossed a line that can now never be uncrossed. All university administrators currently answer to him, or risk financially crippling their institution. A fair, democratic society does not function this way — this is not simply a bad policy, it is a profound constitutional crisis, one that is the clearest demonstration of Trump’s totalitarianism thus far.
Trump has shown his hand; it is now Cornell and our peer university’s turn to respond. Cornell’s formation of a task force to examine “institutional voice” may be a genuine effort to assess the university’s public posture, or it may be a preemptive attempt at appeasement. Either way, it risks legitimizing a political narrative that frames academia as subservient to whoever holds their capital — or to President Trump’s threats. Compliance may appear to be the safest bet — but ultimately it is a concession of Cornell’s core values.
As an American Jew studying at one of the universities under Trump’s watch, I am acutely aware that this campaign is not truly about antisemitism. It never was. Trump’s claims of antisemitism are being deployed as a rhetorical shield, allowing him to do what he wants with our universities and quite frankly, we are letting him. When, not if, Trump attempts to withdraw federal funding from Cornell and similar institutions, we cannot be pointing fingers at each other in blame. To follow Will Durant’s famous quote, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has been destroyed from within”. Tension is productive, but fracturing and disorder is not.
What is needed now is not institutional silence or surrender but institutional unity — between the arts and the sciences, between students and administrators, between faculty and the public, between Cornell and other universities. It is only through this type of unified resistance that we can confront Trump’s hostile overreach and reclaim the power he seeks to consolidate. Without this, our state might collapse in on itself in a way that will be incredibly difficult to rectify.
Sophie Gross is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column Observing aims to analyze popular and academic culture at Cornell in an attempt to understand current social and political trends sweeping the country. She can be reached at sgross@cornellsun.com.
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