President Trump’s plan to Make America Great Again runs right through the cloisters and quadrangles of elite universities.
“Because the colleges are being overrun in this country,” Trump said last year during the height of campus protests against the war in Gaza. “The anti-Semitism — all of the problems going on. They’re being overrun. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said.
The president sees institutions of higher education as incubators of liberal orthodoxy, brainwashing bright young students to believe ideas he vehemently opposes — things like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, non-binary gender, support for abortion rights, and criticism of Israel.
Last week, the Trump administration told Columbia University it canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts because the school allegedly failed to police antisemitism on campus.
Then federal immigration authorities arrested and threatened to deport a Palestinian activist who helped to organize last year’s Columbia protests against Israel. Mahmoud Khalil is a Columbia graduate and lawful permanent resident of the U.S. with a green card. A federal judge has since temporarily blocked the deportation order.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump warned ominously that Khalil’s arrest was “the first arrest of many to come.” He wrote: “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
On May 10, the Department of Education sent a letter to 60 colleges and universities, informing them they too are under investigation for alleged “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” and warning of “possible enforcement actions” if the institutions don’t sufficiently crackdown.
Brown University is one of the schools that received the letter.
Major research institutions like Brown are already reeling from a barrage of Trump-driven initiatives that threaten to cut billions of dollars in federal funding.
Executive orders have predicated future funding decisions on rooting out DEI and so-called “woke gender ideology.”
The administration has also taken aim at science grants, trying to cap rates for facilities and administrative expenses (also known as indirect costs) at the National Institutes of Health at 15% and threatening to cut funding for projects where the subject matter does not align with MAGA priorities.
Given all of those threats, The Public’s Radio this week visited Brown to get a sense of the mood on campus. Despite the glorious weather, there was a definite chill in the air on the Main Green.
“I think it’s a concerning moment,” said Maddock Thomas, a Brown junior wearing a blue blazer and khakis.
“There’s always a tendency to be a bit of a doomer and say this is way worse than what we’ve seen before, but this is a very tough moment,” Thomas said.
Thomas was one of the organizers of an unrelated protest rally taking place at lunchtime Tuesday on the steps of Faunce Hall in support of library workers and post-doctoral students who recently joined a union.
The emcee, a student who identified himself as Carlos, whipped up the crowd by lashing out at both Trump and Brown.
“At a time when the far right is actively targeting students, the question is how is Brown going to protect its student body?” he said. The crowd responded by pounding on makeshift drums and shouting “shame.”
The union organizers say Brown has been slow to agree on a contract, even though the university recognized the union last year. The union says Brown is citing financial uncertainty over the potential loss of federal grants as one of the reasons for the lack of progress in contract talks.
“They have yet to make us a serious offer,” said Susan Neville, one of the bargaining team members.
Meanwhile, many universities have now implemented hiring freezes, shrinking the job market for newly-minted PhDs like her.
Neville said she’s worried her years of education may be for naught. Her post-doctoral research at Brown’s School of Public Health focuses on aid work among children in Ghana.
“The Trump administration has already gotten rid of USAID,” she said.
Neville said she would like to see elite universities stand up to the Trump administration instead of, as she sees it, trying to appease the president.
“I feel like Columbia and Brown and all of these organizations, they’re just rolling over, doing whatever they can to protect themselves, you know, not get targeted by Trump,” she said.
“Why aren’t these universities making a stand?” she wondered. “Why aren’t aren’t they out in the streets with us?”
Brown administrators declined to comment for this story, except to insist there is no ongoing investigation into alleged antisemitism at Brown, despite the March 10 letter from the Department of Education.
“Rather, the letter offered a reminder of universities’ obligations related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” Brown spokesman Brian Clark wrote in an email.
On the broader issue of conflict with the Trump administration, Clark suggested reaching out to the American Council on Education, a D.C. lobbying group that represents major universities like Brown.
The group’s senior vice president of government affairs, Jon Fansmith, acknowledged universities like Brown are facing “a very uncertain time.”
“This is not something a lot of leaders of higher education have practice with, where every week one or two or three executive orders are coming out, or two or three pieces of guidance,” Fansmith said.
He insisted university leaders have their hands full, struggling to satisfy multiple stakeholders and critics.
This story was originally reported by The Public’s Radio.
