WASHINGTON — Dozens of American college and university presidents have signed a public statement to call out the Trump administration’s policies toward higher education.

Saying the federal government has engaged in unprecedented overreach and political interference, the leaders said they “reject the coercive use of public research funding.”

What You Need To Know

  • Dozens of American college and university presidents signed a public statement to call out the Trump administration’s policies toward higher education

  • Saying the federal government has engaged in unprecedented overreach and political interference, the leaders said they “reject the coercive use of public research funding”

  • Representing a variety of large and small schools across the country, the letter was signed by the presidents of Harvard University, American University, Oberlin College, Middlebury College, Amherst College, Princeton University and dozens of others across the country

  • The statement comes one day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration to stop its freeze of $2.2 billion in research grants

The statement comes one day after Harvard University sued the Trump administration to stop its freeze of $2.2 billion in research grants. Earlier this month, the Trump administration wrote a letter to the school demanding a change to its admissions policies, as well as an audit of diversity on campus. 

The federal government imposed the funding freeze after Harvard President Alan Garber said the school would not limit activism on campus.

Garber was one of nearly 200 signatories to a letter that read, “American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how and by whom.”

Representing a variety of large and small schools across the country, the letter was also signed by the presidents of American University, Oberlin College, Middlebury College, Amherst College and Princeton University.

“Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation,” the letter said.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies have reduced staff and cut scientific research grants to multiple schools, including Harvard and Columbia, saying they haven’t done enough to combat antisemitism.

The University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and Princeton have also had some federal funds frozen. 

Over the past month, the Trump administration has begun the process of terminating hundreds of international students from a federal program that allows them to enroll in U.S. schools. Last week, an immigration judge said the Trump administration could deport a Columbia University student activist who led pro-Palestinian protests.

Published on the American Association of Colleges and Universities website, the letter called for “constructive engagement” to improve their institutions with the Trump administration. “American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good.”