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Category: Education

No evidence linking Tufts student, Rümeysa Öztürk, to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. found

No evidence linking Tufts student, Rümeysa Öztürk, to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. found

The Washington Post reports: Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged. The finding, contained in a March memo that was described to The Washington Post, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have sufficient grounds for…

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Harvard will fight against Trump’s demands

Harvard will fight against Trump’s demands

The Harvard Crimson reports: Harvard will not comply with the Trump administration’s demands to dismantle its diversity programming, limit student protests, and submit to far-reaching federal audits in exchange for its federal funding, University President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced in a message to affiliates Monday afternoon. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can…

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Cornell sues DOE for ‘unlawful’ cuts to indirect costs for research grants

Cornell sues DOE for ‘unlawful’ cuts to indirect costs for research grants

The Cornell Daily Sun reports: The University joined litigation against the U.S. Department of Energy and DOE Secretary Chris Wright, according to a Monday email from President Michael Kotlikoff and Provost Kavita Bala. The plaintiffs of the case are alleging that proposed immediate cuts to indirect costs for University research grants are unlawful by violating federal regulations. This is the second time this semester that the University has had to take “the unprecedented step of seeking emergency judicial intervention after…

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U.S. Naval Academy’s library is a case study in ideological censorship

U.S. Naval Academy’s library is a case study in ideological censorship

The New York Times reports: Gone is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou’s transformative best-selling 1970 memoir chronicling her struggles with racism and trauma. Two copies of “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler are still on the shelves. Gone is “Memorializing the Holocaust,” Janet Jacobs’s 2010 examination of how female victims of the Holocaust have been portrayed and remembered. “The Camp of the Saints” by Jean Raspail is still on the shelves. The 1973 novel, which envisions a…

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Why this U.S. historian is leaving Trump’s America

Why this U.S. historian is leaving Trump’s America

  Amid the drama and turmoil created by Donald Trump’s second presidency, U.S. historian and author Marci Shore last week announced that she — along with her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, and colleague Jason Stanley — would be leaving their posts at Yale University and moving to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto. Shore, Snyder, and Stanley have all been vocal pro-Ukraine advocates, particularly throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, visiting the country multiple times between them and educating audiences…

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All Americans should defend campus protesters

All Americans should defend campus protesters

Xochitl Gonzalez writes: One day this fall, while on campus at Brown University, I was met by two students—cellphones raised, cameras recording. They had spun off from a larger group protesting Brown’s decision not to divest from Israel. They recognized me as a trustee of the university and saw an opportunity to take me to task. They followed me for perhaps a block or two, calling me a hypocrite. For at least one of the students, the war in Gaza…

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Universities that fail to mount a united opposition are ‘about to cost us our democracy’

Universities that fail to mount a united opposition are ‘about to cost us our democracy’

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has turned campaign promises to target universities into devastating action, pulling hundreds of millions in federal funds from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. On Monday, the Trump administration went after Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, announcing that it would review about $9 billion in contracts and multiyear grants. It accused the university of failing to protect Jewish students and promoting “divisive ideologies over free inquiry.” Harvard had been bracing for…

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How American colleges are suppressing political dissent

How American colleges are suppressing political dissent

The New York Times reports: At the University of Pennsylvania last fall, someone splattered red paint on a statue honoring Benjamin Franklin, the school’s founder. Within hours, campus workers washed it off. But the university was eager to find the culprit. A pro-Palestinian group had claimed responsibility on social media. The university examined footage and identified a student’s cellphone number using data from the campus Wi-Fi near the statue at the time it was vandalized. Campus police obtained a search…

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Universities are capitulating to Trump’s demands with a stunning speed and scope

Universities are capitulating to Trump’s demands with a stunning speed and scope

Politico reports: Colleges and universities across the country are capitulating to President Donald Trump with staggering speed, moving to slash progressive policies and crack down on student activism as they face compounding threats from an administration hellbent on reshaping higher education. Columbia University on Thursday appeared poised to submit to a list of Trump administration demands that threaten core tenets of the school’s mission in an attempt to release itself from a $400 million federal funding freeze. The University of…

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The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom

The Trump administration’s attack on academic freedom

Christopher L. Eisgruber writes: The United States is home to the best collection of research universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America’s prosperity, health, and security. They are magnets for outstanding talent from throughout the country and around the world. The Trump administration’s recent attack on Columbia University puts all of that at risk, presenting the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned. The rise of…

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Trump tries to dictate what Columbia can teach and who it can admit — ‘a hallmark of autocracy’

Trump tries to dictate what Columbia can teach and who it can admit — ‘a hallmark of autocracy’

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Thursday demanded that Columbia University make dramatic changes in student discipline and admissions before it would discuss lifting the cancellation of $400 million in government grants and contracts. It said the ultimatum was necessary because of what it described as Columbia’s failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. The government called for the university to formalize its definition of antisemitism, to ban the wearing of masks “intended to conceal identity or…

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Trump is cracking down on colleges that are willing to be bullied

Trump is cracking down on colleges that are willing to be bullied

Jonathan W. Gray writes: The detention of Mahmoud Khalil signals a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on campus dissent. During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised to punish colleges and universities that allowed what he characterized as “illegal protests” against Israel’s conduct in Gaza, singling out Columbia University for special opprobrium. His administration followed up on that threat on Friday by canceling roughly $400 million in grants and contracts. Combined with an earlier interruption of funds from the…

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White House cuts $400 million in grants for Columbia — ‘this is just the beginning’

White House cuts $400 million in grants for Columbia — ‘this is just the beginning’

Politico reports: Columbia University faces the immediate loss of grants and contracts totaling about $400 million for failing to address antisemitism, a Trump administration task force said Friday. The Justice Department task force to combat antisemitism, led by Leo Terrell, has been probing 10 institutions because of their responses to antisemitic incidents on campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. But Columbia, which faced intense scrutiny for its students’ high-profile antiwar encampment and building occupations last spring,…

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Facing Trump’s threats, Columbia inquisition targets students critical of Israel

Facing Trump’s threats, Columbia inquisition targets students critical of Israel

The Associated Press reports: Columbia University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel. The probe is part of a flurry of recent cases brought by a new university disciplinary committee — the Office of Institutional Equity — against Columbia students who have expressed criticism of Israel, according to…

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Trump wants to ‘punish universities’ in every way possible

Trump wants to ‘punish universities’ in every way possible

Michelle Goldberg writes: In 2021, JD Vance gave a speech to the National Conservatism Conference, a gathering of Trumpist thinkers and politicians, titled “The Universities Are the Enemy.” It contained the usual complaints about critical race theory and gender ideology, but it went much further, arguing for a frontal attack on the power and prestige of higher education writ large. Comparing universities to the sci-fi totalitarianism of “The Matrix,” in which parasitic machines have seized control of reality itself, he…

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Harvard’s new antisemitism policy hurts Jews and helps Trump

Harvard’s new antisemitism policy hurts Jews and helps Trump

Jonathan Feingold writes: President Trump recently issued an executive order that purports to combat antisemitism by directing civil and criminal action against foreign students who participated in last year’s campus protests. A related fact sheet, under the heading “Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas,” issues the following warning: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you.” For more than a…

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