Why Harvard is fighting back
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Harvard University, birthplace of napalm, setting of Legally Blonde, currently fighting back against the president in his war on higher education.
What, like it's hard?
You've surely heard about Harvard's showdown with President Trump.
He also wants to see Harvard apologize, and Harvard should apologize.
Just like you've probably heard about the president's wins over at Columbia. But on the far other side of the spectrum, we've got at least 10 Florida state universities. These schools aren't fighting the president. They're going in the complete opposite direction. They're raising their hands up and waving them at ICE, saying... Come on in. Here's our roster of students. See anything you don't like? Question. Detain. Go to town. On Today Explained, we're going to take a look at the two extremes in this fight, fight, fight at American universities.
This week on a touch more, we are live at deep blues business of women's sports summit. Our special guest is Chelsea Clinton, who tells us what it means for her to be an investor in women's sports and what we can all learn from gutsy women. Plus we break down the results of the WNBA draft and look ahead to the W's upcoming season. Check out the latest episode of a touch more wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.
Hey, Cam Hayward here for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This week's episode of Not Just Football, we're live from Green Bay for the NFL Draft. And we're talking with 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, Eric Armstead, two-time Super Bowl champion and former offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Max Starks, and NFL Network and CBS NFL game analyst, Charles Davis. We're diving into our draft day experiences. with Eric and Max and answering your fan questions and getting Charles to share his best go-to phrases for Madden. This episode is now available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. That's Not Just Football with Cam Hayward.
Fight fiercely, Harvard. Fight, fight, fight. Demonstrate to them our skill.
This is Today Explained. My name is Andrew Jack. I'm the global education editor at the Financial Times based in New York. Did you go to Harvard, Andrew? I did have a year on a fellowship at Harvard many years ago. Yes. Oh, you did.
So does this story hit home for you?
Well, I mean, I think certainly in the sense of some degree of skin in the game, I guess.
Yeah. Tell us what is going on with your quasi alma mater right now.
Well, Harvard, of course, has been in the sights of the Republicans and Donald Trump for many months. Like other leading universities, Harvard for a long time was very quiet in public. It wouldn't speak out. It wouldn't give interviews. It was going about its business. And then in recent weeks and months, it's taken a number of moves that some interpreted as attempts to suggest it was responding to to the criticisms of the Trump administration, but also to try and push back any more aggressive enforcement action. So it got rid of some senior leadership at its Middle Eastern Studies Center. It's got underway, though we're yet to see it, a detailed report on anti-Semitism on campus and a number of other initiatives. But really, After the demands escalated from the Trump administration at the end of last week, it switched and decided that it wouldn't accept the conditions that were sought from the government and that instead it would defend academic integrity and free speech.
The Trump administration had something like 10 demands for Harvard, including the elimination of DEI programs and the restriction of acceptance of international students who are, and I'm quoting here, hostile to American values and institutions. Harvard's response? A flat no.
Which is interesting, right? Because I think in this moment, this week, a lot of people are saying Harvard stood up to Trump. But what you're saying is this was a process in which they initially were placating Trump. So do we know... Where this break came from? Did Trump and company push too hard?
We don't know the full story, but clearly this is an evolving situation where also presumably the Trump administration officials are adapting in response to a whole series of other actions they've taken both to the higher education sector across the board and to now something like seven of the most elite universities.
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