Donald Trump, under the guise of an offer, is trying to extort major universities to support his policies in return for more federal money with the threat of cutting funds that they don’t go along. Specifically, he set conditions to nine universities with the promise of more to come. They have to conform their admissions policies, curriculum, tuition, faculty hiring, grading, and international representation in order to get more federal dollars.
This would be a massive federal intrusion in higher education. It would be a blatant violation of academic freedom and freedom of speech. As Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California’s Law School noted, it is demonstrably unconstitutional, trampling all over the First Amendment.
If anyone has any doubt, look at the Supreme Court decision 13 years ago on Obamacare that would have required states to expand Medicaid programs or lose their federal funding. John Roberts said you can’t do that. To be sure, there are necessary reforms that should be made in American universities, but that should be done not by a partisan agenda set by the federal government for any colleges tempted to go along with his threat.
University of Texas already has expressed an interest. I’d advise you to go back and read what happened to German universities in 1933. Once the Nazis controlled the policies of Frankfurt universities and others, it only began the repression. It’s what bullies do. They start and then it gets worse. Prize professors back then like Peter Trucker and Albert Einstein were fortunate to flee.
This is another move by an authoritarian president and it’s essential that universities combine to reject this threat.