Leaders from Hillsdale College, the University of Austin, and Harvard’s Republicans diverge from a left-leaning culture.
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.
While the administration calls the protests and some academic programs anti-Semitic, many in academia defend them on the grounds of free speech.
After Harvard University refused to accept demands related to those and other issues, the administration froze $2.6 billion in federal dollars that would have gone to the Ivy League flagship.
Harvard sued on April 21, accusing the administration of violating its free speech and impeding academic freedom.
Trump plans to withhold another $1 billion from Harvard and has discussed revoking the school’s tax-exempt status.
In response, many in academia have decried what they call an assault on the core values of higher education.
Not everyone in that world agrees.
Leaders from Hillsdale College, known for its conservative culture, and the University of Austin, a new school billed as an alternative to progressive ideology on campus, have drawn different conclusions about academic freedom and the relationship between federal funding and the university system.
“I think what you’re seeing today demonstrates the necessity and importance of independence,” David Whalen, an associate vice president for curriculum at Hillsdale, told The Epoch Times.
Hillsdale does not accept any taxpayer money. The Michigan college is also careful not to accept private donations that might compromise its mission.
“No one gives money without conditions,” said Whalen, an English professor who serves as vice president of curriculum. He said it would be “a dreadful mistake” for Hillsdale to take money from the Trump administration.
More than 1,200 miles away, in Austin, Texas, Patrick Gray thinks the administration’s pressure on heavily taxpayer-funded universities is a form of accountability from the American people.
After all, it is coming from the president they elected.
