“I think this is the greatest fear in civil society, including in the higher education system, since the McCarthy era.” Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University.
This page is part of a resource collection on far right extremism. See also: Universities Standing up to Trump.
Why Authoritarians Attack Universities
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: How Authoritarians Target Universities: What happens on campus reflects and often anticipates democratic decline.
Articles: 2025
March 7. Marina Dunbar & Joseph Gedeon: Trump administration cancels $400m in funds to Columbia University: Government alleges university failed to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
March 12. Calder McHugh: A College President Gets Real About Trump’s Attack on Universities: Wesleyan University President Michael Roth lets loose on Trump’s executive orders and the detention of Mahmoud Khalil.
March 14. Colin Binkley: More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump’s anti-DEI campaign.
March 17. Jason Stanley: Trump is setting the US on a path to educational authoritarianism.
March 20. Anna Dumont: What Autocrats Want From Academics: Servility In 1931, Italian scholars were made to take loyalty oaths. Will that happen to us?.
March 25. Rashid Khalidi: Does Columbia still merit the name of a university?
April 3. CTV News: ‘Pervasive culture of fear’: This Yale professor is planning to move to Canada.
April 14. The Guardian: Trump officials cut billions in Harvard funds after university defies demands.
April 6. NPR: How Princeton University is navigating the loss of federal funding.
April 8. The New York Times: Trump Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern.
May 5. Liz Essley Whyte & Douglas Belkin: Trump Administration Proposes Terms for Federal Oversight of Columbia University.
May 6. Lauren Lassabe Shepherd: ‘The universities are the enemy’: why the right detests the American campus.
May 22. Elissa Nadworny & Jonaki Mehta: Trump administration revokes Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.
May 23. The Guardian: Trump’s Harvard visa threat could wipe out several of school’s sports teams.
May 27. Elissa Nadworny: Trump administration moves to cancel remaining federal funds to Harvard.
May 27. Joseph Gedeon: Trump orders agencies to cut all federal ties with Harvard.
May 30. PBS News: Harvard professor calls Trump’s attacks on funding and students ‘authoritarianism.’
May 30. Michael Sainato: Unions representing Harvard workers fear Trump’s ‘authoritarian turn’.