Donald Trump is back in the White House, and he’s having a much more eventful term than his first one. Trump is seeing just how far his executive power extends.
The 47th President of the United States is even trying to regulate life on private universities and colleges. Trump wants to make sure that the schools comply with his official polices, such as cracking down on protests of the Israeli government and preventing transgender athletes from competing.
Unfortunately for Trump, one of the country’s most prominent institutions of higher learning is taking a stand and refusing to comply.
“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement.
People reacted to the show of defiance on social media.
“Cut all federal funding to Harvard , stop issuing visas to Harvard students , take away the nonprofit tax status of Harvard. Disallow foreign contributions to Harvard,” one person wrote on Twitter.
“Only authoritarian regimes rule how educators teach. Is it any wonder why the more educated people are, the less likely they are to be republicans?” someone else wrote.
“Harvard suddenly discovers academic freedom—only when their billionaire bubble feels the heat. Where was this energy when public schools got steamrolled?” one person wanted to know.
Trump has already responded by freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here.
