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Cornell University campus. (Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard | File photo) George Owens | gowens@syracuse.
com More than 200 college presidents and academic leaders from around the country ― including several from Central New York schools ― released an open letter on Tuesday speaking out against “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” against educational institutions by the Trump administration. The statement was released by the American Association of Colleges and Universities , and comes just one day after Harvard University filed a lawsuit against the federal government looking to stop the Trump administration’s freeze of more than $2.2 billion in grants.
The funding freeze came after Harvard said it would defy a long list of demands made by the administration over how the college is run. Alan M. Garber, president of Harvard University, was among those signing the statement.
The statement included signatures from educational institutions across the country ranging from Ivy League universities to community colleges. The leaders of several Central New York schools signed the statement, including the presidents of Le Moyne College, Cornell University, Colgate University, Hamilton College, Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. As of 5 p.
m. Tuesday, neither Syracuse University nor the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse had representatives sign the document, although the AACU was periodically updating the document with more signatures. Upstate New York schools whose leaders added their names to the document included nine SUNY schools as well as Nazareth College, St.
Lawrence University, Stony Brook and Union College. The statement, titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” reads: “As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight.
However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding. “America’s system of higher learning is as varied as the goals and dreams of the students it serves.
It includes research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, and others are dedicated to serving particular groups. Yet, American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.
Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation. “Because of these freedoms, American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good. Colleges and universities are engines of opportunity and mobility, anchor institutions that contribute to economic and cultural vitality regionally and in our local communities.
They foster creativity and innovation, provide human resources to meet the fast-changing demands of our dynamic workforce, and are themselves major employers. They nurture the scholarly pursuits that ensure America’s leadership in research, and many provide healthcare and other essential services. Most fundamentally, America’s colleges and universities prepare an educated citizenry to sustain our democracy.
“The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic.” On April 11, the Trump administration sent a five-page letter to Harvard with a a series of demands for the university, including major changes in leadership; ceasing all diversity initiatives in admissions, hiring and promotions; reforming international admissions to screen out applicants “hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the U.
S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence“; reporting to federal authorities any foreign student who commits a ”conduct violation”; auditing the entire student body, staff and leadership for “viewpoint diversity”; and more. When Harvard said that it would not meet the demands, the administration announced that it was freezing $2.
2 billion in grants for the school, and President Trump threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status as an educational institution. Harvard is not not the only university that has had funding frozen or cut by Trump. After the administration froze $1 billion in federal funding and grant money, Cornell University joined a lawsuit against the U.
S. Department of Energy and DOE Secretary Chris Wright , alleging cuts to its research grants violate federal regulations. Last month, Columbia University said that it would agree to demands made by Trump administration , which had threatened the school with a loss of federal funding.
Another Ivy League school, Brown University, has been threatened with $510 million in funding cuts ..
