As Harvard and Trump Face Off, Some in Higher Education See Academic Freedom and Taxpayer Funding Differently

Leaders from Hillsdale College, the University of Austin, and Harvard’s Republicans diverge from a left-leaning culture.

Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, on April 6, 2023. Hillsdale is a private conservative Christian liberal arts college. Chris duMond/Getty Images

Then-Senator JD Vance said in 2021 that “the universities are the enemy.” Borrowed from President Richard Nixon, the language foreshadowed a battle that has intensified through the opening of the second Trump administration.

President Donald Trump’s team has frozen or cut taxpayer-funded research to pressure universities to shutter their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, and to curb anti-Semitism on campus tied to the anti-Israel protests.