Presidents of more than 150 U.S. colleges and universities, including six in Pennsylvania, co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government.
Allegheny College President Ronald B. Cole was the lone co-signer from a Western Pennsylvania institution. Other co-signers from Pennsylvania included presidents from the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette College, Dickinson College, Susquehanna University and Juniata College.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding to colleges and universities in an effort to get them to comply with various demands and directives.
“We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” read the letter, released Tuesday.
“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,” the letter added.
The letter said U.S. colleges and universities “have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.”
Allegheny College, a private liberal arts college in Meadville, did not return a message seeking comment.
In the Trump administration’s escalating showdown with higher education, Harvard University announced Monday that it has filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation,” said the lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court.
The White House quickly responded.
“The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families is coming to an end,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in an email. “Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege.”
Harvard President Alan M. Garber was among the college and university presidents to co-sign Tuesday’s letter, along with presidents from all other Ivy League schools except for Columbia University and Dartmouth College.
While the heads of the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State University did not co-sign Tuesday’s letter, the president of a prestigious association to which they belong — the Association of American Universities — did. The association includes 71 top research universities in the U.S. and Canada.
The Associated Press contributed.