Attacks on higher education are mounting rapidly. Now, in one of his more cynical moves, President Donald Trump seeks to force his vision of education, to stop what he has labeled the “anti-American insanity” of higher education, and force colleges and universities instead to do his bidding, limiting or erasing any course, program, department or event that involves open inquiry, critique or protest. Yet his method depends on us believing that this assault is the failure of educational institutions to control antisemitism.
No one should believe this is his true motive. Instead, the charge of antisemitism continues to be the cudgel for hammering universities and colleges to comply with his mission. Make no mistake, this sleight of hand relies on the administration and others conflating two distinct practices: antisemitism and criticism of the State of Israel. In other words, you cannot criticize the State of Israel for its horrific attack on Gaza, or for the oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza for decades, without being charged with antisemitism. Logic defies this assumption as tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Jews worldwide (some of whom are Jewish Israeli citizens) who, while abhorring the Hamas attack on Israel, continue to protest against Israel’s continued assault on Gaza, including tens of thousands of children killed or injured. Trump, and those who carry out his wishes, make no such distinctions.
Many of us, however, see that Trump’s goal is much more sinister. Among others, journalist Natasha Lennard analyzes Trump’s crackdown on universities and asserts that it is Trump’s mission to take control of American thought by killing academic freedom and freedom of speech. She writes, “The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, corporatize and re-whiten higher education.” If using antisemitism to mask Trump’s goal of controlling American thought sounds cynical, it’s because it is. If it were about antisemitism, we might ask why Trump, himself, has exhibited his own brand of antisemitic behavior for years, including hosting and pardoning political allies who are known antisemites.
Yet, the Trump administration persists in using the weaponization of antisemitism in their attack on academic institutions, beginning with Columbia, stating that their withdrawal of funding is about protecting Jewish students and staff. We need only to look at what Trump has demanded of Columbia in exchange for recouping some of its funding, including putting ethnic studies programs into receivership, for proof of his real goal: to put academic freedom and university governance in his hands. In other words, force universities themselves to change their fundamental values and practices to suit Trump or else the Trump administration will do it for them. Without academic freedom, we cannot have freedom of thought. Without freedom of thought, we cannot have freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment, we cease to be a democracy. Columbia has largely capitulated.
As Trump continues to annihilate American democracy by asserting that the truth is what he says it is, morality is what he says it is, law is what he says it is, and the Constitution means what he says it means, shouldn’t we be able to rely on the administrators leading our universities to stand with us? To protect us? Sadly, that’s not happening. Lennard calls this shameful. When our “university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — [fail] to stand up for their purported missions of critical thinking and academic freedom they [put] some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.”
Cornell is on Trump’s hit list. We must pressure the Cornell administration to stand up against Trump’s desire to control America’s colleges and universities. Unfortunately, the path forward looks grim as the Cornell administration has already given in to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI bullying by removing DEI references, especially those relating to gender and race, from its materials, using draconian punishments of pro-Palestinian student protestors, and preemptively changing university policy regarding protest, all in order to align themselves with outside critics. Now that the architect of these plans has been awarded the presidency of Cornell by the Board of Trustees, the future looks even more bleak.
Our only power is in our unity and together we must resist. We must stand up and fight for our First Amendment freedoms, especially academic freedom and freedom of speech, or Cornell, like other American colleges and universities, once the envy of the world, will become one more battle lost in our fight to save what’s left of our democracy.
The American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, is at the vanguard of resistance in its commitment to academic freedom. On April 17, the national AAUP is calling for all its chapters to conduct a “day of action” on behalf of higher education. At Cornell, this will include an event open to all community members. Watch for details.
Cornell University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors Executive Committee:
Risa Lieberwitz, President
David Bateman, Vice President
Ian Greer, Secretary-Treasurer
Darlene Evans, Executive Committee member
Suman Seth, Executive Committee member
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