Cambridge: Will Harvard stand firm against the pressure from Trump? Professor Ryan D. Enos worries. – They have complied in advance, even though they say they’ve taken a stance.
- Authoritarianism makes us dumber. It saps our intelligence and our creative talent. professor Enos says.Photo: Tore Oksholern
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Academia vs. Trump
Will America’s democratic institutions survive Trump?
As unrest spreads, researchers and lecturers at universities are doing what they can to keep activities running as normally as possible. In laboratories and lecture halls, it’s business as usual. But the disruptions are mounting. What are faculty thinking about their situation—now, in the near future, and in the longer term? How are the students doing?
In a series of articles funded by the Fritt Ord Foundation, The University Newspaper and Uniforum will visit a number of universities in the United States this fall. We report on the situation as it is experienced on the ground.
Among the Ivy League universities, Harvard tops the list of those in MAGA’s crosshairs. It is rich, old, and one of the highest-ranked universities on the planet. Its president, Alan Garber, has declared that Harvard will not yield. Still, Ryan Enos, professor of government and director of the Center for American Studies, is not completely convinced.
The college who was founded in 1636 was named fter it's main benefactor, John Harvard.Photo: Tore Oksholen
- They’re doing some of the things that Donald Trump wanted them to do. And so, you know, there have been professors here who have lost their jobs because of the leadership’s compliance, he says.
Harvard has a record of taking sides at crucial moments in U.S. history. In the years before the Civil War, Harvard’s authorities stayed out of the public debate over slavery, and even attempted to suppress abolitionist sentiment on campus. Although many faculty and alumni supported the abolitionist cause, university leaders viewed it as divisive and harmful to Harvard’s national aspirations.
- As the university later acknowledged, its leaders came up morally short on a matter of great national consequence, Enos writes in an op-ed together with his colleague Steven Levitsky.
Will the Harvard leadership stand firm on the side of academic freedom this time?
In March, the director and associate director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) were both dismissed by the dean of social science. The reason given was an internal review raising concerns about a lack of balance in the center’s programming of Israel - Palestine issues and alleged anti-Israel bias.
This was done shortly after Columbia University bowed to demands from Trump in an attempt to win back $400 million in federal funds.
At Columbia, police were called in to remove student camps from campus. On our way to the Knafel Building, where his office is, we pass through central Harvard campus. We notice new signs that read: Please take note that the following acts are prohibited on Harvard property, including Harvard Yard: erecting or maintaining a tent or other temporary structures …
We comment on this during the interview. Professor Enos replies, rather sardonically, that tenting on campus may not be a good idea. Still:
- I think we can have reasonable discussions about whether there should be tents in the Yard and things like that. But there never used to be signs like that around campus.
Enos believes signs like these signify a wrong turn in relation to academic freedom and free speech.
- What they’re doing is trying to preemptively chill speech. And one could argue that right now is the time when we most need things like protest and speech in the United States. When universities assist in chilling speech that way, I think they’re doing the wrong thing. It’s something we might ultimately regret.
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Ryan D. Enos
Ryan Enos is a political scientist at Harvard University, where he is a Professor of Government and director of the Center for American Political Studies.
He is the the founder and director of the Harvard Digital Lab for the Social Sciences and the Working Group on Political Psychology and Behavior.
Professor Enos researches at the intersection of politics, psychology, and geography to study behavior and attitudes in the United States and other countries.
- Has Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, done well so far, do you think?
- It depends on what you mean. I think there are two things to keep in mind here. One is that the Harvard leadership has, of course, done well by standing up for what’s right and standing up against the authoritarian attacks of the Trump administration. Because when they do that, they’re not only doing what’s right for Harvard, but they’re doing what’s right for democracy in the United States. And that’s not only something that affects us now – it affects future generations in the United States, and frankly, it affects the whole world, Harvard being the most high-profile institution to take a stand against the Trump administration.
What’s unfortunate, he says, is what he calls 'Harvard’s complying in advance.'
- Even though they say they’re taking a stand, they’re doing some of the things that Donald Trump wanted them to do, he says, referring among other things to the dismissal of the CMES leadership.
- This was something that the Trump administration actually celebrated because they said it’s what they wanted Harvard to do. Free speech on campus has been rolled back somewhat significantly. There are more restrictions on how students can protest and on what faculty are allowed to express. These are all things the Trump administration has been demanding of Harvard – even though Harvard insists it’s fighting back.
They feel they have a lot to loose
- What’s your prediction? Will the MAGA administration succeed in breaking Harvard?
- Unfortunately, so many institutions – not just universities, but also law firms, media organizations, and others across the United States – have already capitulated to these attacks by Donald Trump. Unfortunately for Harvard in particular, I think one of the reasons it’s likely to capitulate is that people feel they have a lot to lose. They think that if they protect Harvard’s place in the world, it would be acceptable to sign away some of their democracy.
On the other hand, he reminds, both faculty and students maintain pressure on Garber not to cave in.
How has Enos experienced this year’s MAGA war on academia on a personal level?
- Authoritarianism makes us all dumber, he retorts.
- It saps our intelligence and our creative talent. One reason is the uncertainty that’s created when you can’t trust the law or your government, and you fear they might seek retribution for what you say and write. Will I be in trouble? Will my students be here next year, or will they have to go back to their home countries?
- So it’s the creeping self-censorship?
- It’s the self-censorship, but also the way these things crowd into your mind. Is my university going to capitulate to Donald Trump? Is ICE going to come and take my students away? Those kinds of thoughts. Then it’s hard to focus on the things I’m supposedly being paid to think about.
Resilient students
This is something we need to understand, Enos emphasizes – the fundamental value of democracy and freedom.
- This is one of the reasons it bestows benefits on society: when people have freedom, they’re more creative, more industrious. When you worry about your government arbitrarily punishing you, you become less creative.
- To what extent do you fear for your students – for their security and for how they’ll succeed as future candidates?
- The Harvard students have proven to be remarkably resilient, and that reflects who they are, professor Enos says.Photo: Tore Oksholen
- I do worry about it. I will say, though, that the students have proven to be remarkably resilient, and that reflects who they are. The students I have in my classes now seem to have more energy for learning than I’ve seen in a long time. That’s wonderful to see, and it really speaks to their character.
For the international students, however, the situation is worrying. They fear political retribution from the administration if they take part in demonstrations or other forms of political activity.– I can see that wearing on many of them, and it worries me, he says.
If Charlie Kirk had not been assassinated, he would eventually have held a rally on Harvard’s campus as well. What is Professor Enos’ analysis of Kirk’s appeal to university students?
- I study politics for a living at Harvard, so you’d think that means I know a lot about politics. And I think I underappreciated just how important Charlie Kirk was to many people. Students at Harvard held a vigil for him – that caught me by surprise. Part of it might be because he was killed, but at the same time, I think it’s because many on the political right in the United States feel particularly disrespected and shut out from elite culture at universities.
- Kirk was a hard-core Republican who paved the way for Trump’s reach to younger people. Why have the Republican Party and academia become such stark adversaries?
- It’s becoming increasingly easy to predict someone’s party affiliation based on their education. It may be that as academics become more liberal, they discriminate more against conservatives. And when that happens, Republican students on campus feel disrespected – and I think they’re probably right.
- Is MAGA a conservative movement?
- I’ve stopped describing the Republican Party or the right – the MAGA Republican Party – as conservative, because I don’t think that’s largely accurate anymore. I describe it as right-wing. They want to conserve the status hierarchy of income, race, and other things in the United States – especially race. In that sense, they might be labeled conservative, though.
