OPINION: The U.S. government has launched an authoritarian crackdown on academic freedom

Photo via The White House/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Danny Murnin, a Senior studying Journalism, argues that the academic restrictions put in place by the Trump administration look more like dictatorship than presidency.

In the two months since President Donald Trump began his second term in the White House, the nation has witnessed a stunning, shockingly fast-paced descent into democratic backsliding. The Trump administration has illegally shuttered government agencies without Congressional approval, deprived a staggering number of individuals of due process because of their apparent immigration status, ignored court orders from the federal judiciary and subsequently attacked and threatened judges, targeted public universities’ academic freedom, and attempted to deport legal U.S. residents for free speech they disagree with. 

All the while, the opposition party is debilitated and craven, and the media ecosystem is dominated by figures and outlets favorable to the Trump administration. Most ominously, the legs of individuals and institutions with the power and influence to fight back are bent at the knee instead of straight and tall. From this, the only rational conclusion is that the United States of America is rapidly heading toward authoritarianism. 

Many will say that those of us who believe America is headed toward becoming an illiberal democracy are overreacting and spreading fear for political purposes. I’d wager that raising the alarm bell when the ability to fight back still exists is the only way to avoid reaching the point of no return. This is exactly why I am less frightened by the Trump administration’s actions than I am by the lack of widespread institutional opposition to them. There is no area where this is more true than in the academic space. 

In a “Dear Colleague” letter issued by the Department of Education on Feb. 14, the Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding from schools that didn’t end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. The letter used a very wide interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling to justify the new guidelines in what is without a doubt a gross overreach. 

Despite the clear abuse of power, universities are surrendering. The Ohio State University completely closed its DEI offices late last month. The University of Michigan ended a scholarship program geared toward minority students. The University of Iowa will no longer offer living learning communities in residence halls for Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ students. There are countless more examples just like these.

The most shameful capitulation comes courtesy of Columbia University. Columbia, the site of some of the most intense campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, had $400 million in federal funding pulled by the Trump administration. This included $250 million in grant money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which goes toward critical medical research. Instead of first filing a lawsuit that would’ve stood a strong chance at succeeding, Columbia immediately agreed to the administration’s demands in return for funding being restored, including hiring three dozen special police officers, banning masks on campus and placing an entire academic department under a receivership. 

Columbia is also where Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student there and a legal U.S. permanent resident, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and whisked away to a Louisiana detention center. Khalil’s arrest stems from his heavy involvement with pro-Palestinian activism on Columbia’s campus. He hasn’t been charged or even accused of any crimes. 

I disagree with much of what Mahmoud Khalil believes, but he has a right to speak and express himself freely, and that includes harshly criticizing Israel and the United States’ support of Israel. People can debate the justifiability of Israel’s punishing response to the brutal Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas as much as they’d like, but that doesn’t change the fact that at least 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, the vast majority of them likely innocent. It is morally depraved to suggest that Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent, should be considered a terrorist sympathizer and national security risk for being angry about women and children being bombed.

Khalil’s arrest isn’t even the most egregious example of the administration targeting international students for their political activities. On Tuesday, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University who is a Turkish national on an F-1 student visa, was arrested by ICE. As shown in a viral video, she was quickly snatched off the street by six plainclothes ICE agents outside her apartment while on her way to meet friends for dinner. What makes this case especially infuriating is the fact that the reason for her arrest seems to have been that she co-wrote an anti-Israel op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper last year. 

As the opinion editor of this publication, this hits close to home. I am outraged that the United States government would target a legal resident for expressing her political views in a student newspaper and subsequently disappear her. I’ve written my fair share of articles in the last few years that have upset some people, but I’ve never once considered that my own government would abduct me for it. In this case, the ICE agents in that video are behaving less like law enforcement personnel entrusted with keeping Americans safe and more like a Gestapo unit picking up individuals the regime doesn’t like. 

Still, let’s be clear that none of this is actually about genuine concern over DEI or anti-semitism. The Trump administration and their conservative allies might care about these things, but this reasoning is just a Trojan horse for a more nefarious goal. Universities naturally bring about free thought, political expression, diversity, and intellectualism. In other words, they promote human tendencies that lead people to become more liberal. It isn’t a mystery why someone with a bachelor’s degree is much more likely to vote Democrat than someone without one. 

The Trump administration and Republicans in general have long been openly hostile toward academia. Vice President JD Vance said in 2021 that universities are the “enemy.” It makes sense that universities are their first target in this fast-moving authoritarian takeover. This makes it all the more important for university leaders, faculty, students and everyday Americans to stand up and resist. 

There are plenty of good reasons to dislike higher education and believe it is in desperate need of reform. But this is not a good-faith effort by the Trump administration. Authoritarian campaigns succeed in consolidating power during the early stages when no one fights back because they feel concern is overblown. By the time decent, everyday people realize the concern isn’t overblown, it is often too late.

It isn’t too late to peacefully stop this fascist-esque administration from destroying academic freedom in this country. We must continue to hold our university leaders and elected officials accountable and ask them to speak out against and resist any attempt to further harm the core mission of higher education.

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.