Academic Freedom: Harvard and beyond
I have recently signed an amicus brief. One of 12,000 Harvard alumni.
More than 12,000 Harvard alumni asked a federal judge Monday to accept an amicus brief urging the court to shield their alma mater from what they described as an “existential threat” posed by the Trump administration’s freeze of nearly $3 billion in federal research funding.
– Harvard Crimson
I can’t believe how universities are being punished these days – and for what reason, really? I don’t believe that it’s for the administration’s stated purpose. I believe, instead, that there is an inflammatory, anti-intellectual energy in the air that our president has given free and dangerous reign to.
Last week, I was on a Zoom call for thousands of Harvard University graduates. I was both surprised and pleased to see the unity of support that was expressed. That feels like a new phenomenon to me – to a degree. Graduates (at least in my circles) have often felt embarrassment for the university’s elite associations and its formidable endowment. (Not enough endowment to support all of its research, however.) In addition, graduates have been haunted by Harvard’s flawed responses to the Vietnam era’s policies on the one side – and its liberal academic leanings and campus atmosphere on the other.
But now, in its hour of persecution, graduates like me are standing in defense of the university, despite its flaws. Because Harvard is standing up to Trump’s attacks.
Personally, I’ve always appreciated the university’s extraordinary history and the academics it has offered me and others. Today I can honestly say that I’m also proud of Harvard’s honorable response to Trump’s pressure against academic freedom. (Although, admittedly, it was pressed to the wall before taking its honorable stance… but take it, they finally did.)
The biggest tragedy of our government’s attack is that the scientific research at Harvard and universities across the country is being stifled or ground to a halt. This feels like nothing but extortion to me. What possible connection can there be between creating lifesaving medical research and a “too WOKE” campus culture except extortion? (There are better ways to discuss campus culture than eradication.)
Now there is a national catastrophe about to be felt by all of us in diminished medical research. Every university and college across the country should know that Harvard was an early guinea pig in this anti-intellectual attack. It will continue.
So I am now happy to stand with Crimson Courage (though I wished they changed the name!) in its amicus brief against this administration. It’s one easy way to begin defending research and truth to power at every educational institution across our country. Yes, an extremely easy step to take – but at least one that’s joined with other universities and pointed in the right direction.
