Cambridge, Massachusetts (AP) — University professors and students led protests on campus across the United States on Thursday, saying what they say is a widespread attack on higher education. Massive cuts in funding, Expelling international students and Free speech is suffocating About the war in Gaza.
The demonstration took place at schools including Harvard, president Donald Trump’s administration They say they’ll freeze $2.2 billion Grants and contracts threaten university cancellation Ability to host international students.
Rochelle Sang, a graduate student at Harvard Department of Government, said he has become adamant about international students because it is essential to the school’s mission to push “the boundaries of human knowledge.”
“The whole point to receiving this education here and pursuing research at Harvard University is to become one of the best scholars in the world,” said Sun after the protests in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “So, if they weren’t around me, I wouldn’t be able to achieve my goal of being here.”
Sun had a sign that read, “I should write a paper, but I must fight this stupid fascism.”
Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology at Harvard’s School of Public Health, spoke to the crowd about medical discoveries and cutting down critical programs to monitor population health.
“We work to create a better world where everyone living on this planet can thrive fairly,” she said.
Krieger said her grant from the National Institutes of Health ended in late February as she studied discrimination in health.
“We need to turn that money towards research and academic work, and training and education for the next generation that can protect the health of the masses,” Krieger told the cheers.
Targeted federal funding
a Growth list of higher education institutions The federal funds targeted by the government are striving to make the institutions comply Trump administration’s political agenda. A series of threats, and subsequent funding pauses — has become part of the top universities in the US Unprecedented tools To influence the administration on university campuses.
Trump has vowed to pursue these federal cuts Campaign trail Last year, he said he would focus on schools that promote “critical racial theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.”
Republican officials also have Heavily vetted The university was hit by a explosion of Palestinian protests on campus amid the war in Gaza last year. Some Ivy League Presidents He testified before Congress to discuss the anti-Semitism allegations.
Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-hat,” referring to Palestinian extremist groups that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Many protesters said they were against it. Israel’s actions in the war.
This year the US government used immigration enforcement rights Enforcement of international students And scholars who participated in Palestinian demonstrations and criticized Israel for their military actions in Gaza. Some were detained or deported. Others fled the United States after learning that their visa had been revoked.
Ronald Cox, a professor of political science and international relations at Florida International University in Miami, said at a small event Thursday that international students were horrifying.
“They don’t know if they could be deported or not. They don’t know if they could turn to the El Salvador prison,” Cox said. “There was no legitimate process. For the most vulnerable students, it’s kind of an open season.”
“You can’t appease a tyrant.”
Thursday’s protest at Harvard comes days after it became the first university Openly ignore the Trump administration Because there is a need for radical changes Limit your campus activities. The university constitutes the demands of the government as a threat to autonomy that the Supreme Court has long recognized American universities, not just Ivy League schools.
Meanwhile, about 450 people appeared at the University of California Berkeley University to protest. There, Professor Emeritus and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich opposed Trump’s appearance.
“You can’t appease a tyrant,” said Reich, who served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. “Columbia University tried to soothe the tyrant. It didn’t work.”
First Columbia University in New York I agreed to some requests From the Trump administration. But the representative president won a more rebellious tone in a campus message on Monday, saying some demands were “not the subject of negotiations.”
About 150 protesters gathered in Colombia last year. They gather in the square outside the building that houses the federal government and holds signs decorated with slogans such as “Stop the war with the university” and “Censorship is a fascist weapon.”
The protest was organized by a coalition for action in higher education, including groups such as the Higher Education Labor and Labor Organization and the American Federation of Teachers.
Kelly Benjamin, a spokesman for the American Association of University Professors, said over the phone that the Trump administration’s goal of incorporating academia is essentially anti-American.
“The university campuses have historically been this kind of conversation, and this kind of robust argument and opposition takes place in the United States,” Benjamin said. “It’s health for democracy, and they’re trying to destroy all of that in order to establish their vision and agenda.”
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press journalists Noah Berger of Berkeley, California, Joseph B. Frederick of New York and Daniel Cozin of Miami contributed to the report.
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