This week, more than 60 current and former university presidents—from some of the nation’s most respected institutions—issued a powerful joint statement in support of Harvard University President Alan Garber. Why? Because Garber refused to capitulate to sweeping, ideologically driven demands issued by the Trump administration.

Let’s be clear: this is not just a Harvard story. It is a battle for the soul of a nation.

The Trump administration’s April 11 letter to Harvard is nothing short of a political ultimatum: comply with our vision for admissions, faculty hiring, curriculum, student speech, and campus governance—or face the loss of $2.2 billion in federal funding and your tax-exempt status.

It’s political coercion wrapped in the language of campus governance. And it represents the most significant federal overreach into university autonomy in modern U.S. history.

So here’s the question:
Where is your university president?

I did a quick search for Michigan, and found only three former University of Michigan presidents…

The Cost of Silence

If your campus leadership hasn’t issued a statement, called a town hall, or joined this growing coalition of resistance, it’s time to ask: Why not?

• Are they afraid of political blowback?
• Do they agree with the Trump administration’s attempt to eliminate DEI programs and police “viewpoint diversity” through federally approved audits?
• Are they prepared to accept government intrusion into core academic functions in exchange for temporary peace?

Because this moment isn’t about partisanship. It’s about whether or not your institution is prepared to stand for the basic freedoms and liberties that make American higher education the envy of the world.

If Harvard—the richest, most powerful, and best-known university on the planet—can be threatened into submission, what hope do smaller public institutions or regional colleges have?

What’s at Stake

The April 11 letter sent to Harvard is stunning in its scope. It demands that the university:

• Strip Shared Governance Power from Students and Faculty Not Aligned with Federal Government Political Values Restructure Harvard’s governance to silence students, junior faculty, and any tenured faculty viewed as “activists.” Empower only those who align with government-approved interpretations of scholarship and “order.”
• Purge Hiring Practices of DEI and Enforce Ideological Compliance on Faculty—Including Mandatory Plagiarism Investigations Eradicate any race- or equity-informed hiring policies, enforce rigid merit-only standards as defined by the state, and require “plagiarism reviews” for all current and future faculty—opening the door to retroactive targeting and surveillance.
• Mandate “Colorblind” Admissions While Demanding Racial Reporting Ban the use of race, national origin, or related “proxies” in admissions—while simultaneously forcing the university to publicly disclose detailed race-based data about accepted and rejected students.
• Screen and Report International Students for “Ideological Threats” Subject foreign students to loyalty tests aligned with government-defined “American values,” report suspected violators to immigration authorities, and surveil visa holders for signs of political dissent.
• Impose a Political Audit for Campus ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ Mandate annual federal audits to enforce ideological quotas in every department, with power to restructure or override faculty hiring if political “balance” is not achieved to federal satisfaction.
• Target Entire Academic Disciplines for an Ideological Purge Investigate and potentially sanction programs such as Education, Public Health, Divinity, Human Rights, and Middle Eastern Studies, which are accused of fostering antisemitism or ideological bias.
• Abolish All Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Immediately dismantle every DEI office, committee, program, and policy—regardless of their relevance, legality, or community support—under threat of losing federal funds.
• Criminalize Protest and Student Dissent Institute blanket disciplinary crackdowns on students engaged in protest, defund and ban entire student organizations based on their political views, enforce a campus-wide mask ban, and retroactively punish past protest participants.
• Establish a Government-Run Whistleblower System Require Harvard to facilitate direct reporting pipelines to the federal government, allowing anonymous surveillance and internal policing of faculty, students, and administrators.
• Enforce Total Financial and Operational Transparency to the Federal Government Demand full quarterly reporting, audits of all foreign funding, immigration data sharing, and real-time federal oversight of financial, academic, and international university activities.

This isn’t regulation. It’s control.

And it mirrors tactics used by authoritarian governments around the globe—from Hungary to Turkey to Russia—where universities are no longer places of debate, discovery, or dissent, but instruments of the state.

Historical Parallels and Future Warnings

What’s happening now should alarm anyone who understands the fragility of freedom.

In Hungary, the government drove the Central European University out of the country by revoking its accreditation and imposing ideologically motivated requirements. In Russia, public universities are now essentially arms of the state, where professors risk losing their jobs—or their freedom— or lives for speaking out against the regime. In Turkey, thousands of faculty were fired after a failed coup attempt, and university rectors are now appointed directly by the president.

The Trump administration’s letter to Harvard reads like a blueprint borrowed from these regimes, cloaked in the language of “accountability.”

But make no mistake: this is not about accountability. It’s about control.

Higher Education Is Not the Enemy

For decades, American universities—public and private—have partnered with the federal government to produce groundbreaking research in health and technology, prepare the workforce, and protect U.S. global competitiveness. From vaccine development to national security innovations, these partnerships have saved lives and fueled prosperity.

Now, the very institutions that make these contributions possible are being threatened for not aligning with a specific political worldview.

This isn’t just dangerous. It’s self-destructive.

If these threats succeed, we will teach the next generation that power, not truth, determines what is fact.

Who’s Standing Up?

Thankfully, not everyone is silent.

The signatories who stood up this week include former presidents of Stanford, Columbia, the University of Michigan, Spelman, Rutgers, the University of Virginia, MIT, and dozens more. Some are retired, but many are not. Their courage reminds us that leadership is not about polling or optics—it’s about principle.

Their collective message is simple: this is an authoritarian incursion, and it must be stopped.

But their voices, as powerful as they are, cannot carry this alone.

Where Is Your Leadership?

So again, I ask:

• Is your university president missing without action?
• Has your institution issued a statement supporting academic freedom?
• Have your trustees spoken out?
• Has your student body been informed of the implications for their education?
• Has your local faculty senate convened an emergency meeting and passed a Mutual Academic Defense Compact?

If the answer is “no,” then the silence is deafening.

And if the federal government comes for your institution next, will anyone be left to speak?

This Is the Time to Choose

There are moments in the life of a nation when institutions must stand not just for themselves, but for the principles that define them.

This is one of those moments.

The question is not whether your institution is elite, wealthy, or in Harvard’s orbit.

The question is whether your institution believes in its own mission enough to defend it—publicly, unequivocally, and now.

Silence may seem safe in the short term. But as history has shown us, authoritarianism feeds on silence. It feeds on “neutrality.”

The longer university leaders wait to speak, the more likely it is that their own autonomy will be next on the chopping block.

So if your president is missing—demand to know why.

And if you are a faculty member, staff member, student, parent, alumnus, or trustee—this is your fight.

The freedom to teach, to think, to question, and to learn is on the line.

And we will either defend it together—or watch it disappear, one campus at a time.