Poisoning the Ivy

Will American universities be able to retain their international character?

- Saikat Majumdar

A reign of terror is raging through the world of American higher education. The Donald Trump administration is as determined as it is vindictive against what it sees as the political, intellectual and administrative transgression of the liberal conscience of this world. It has been chillingly strategic about dismantling programmes in its arch enemy, measures in diversity, equity, and inclusion. The most recent spectacle has been the battle between Harvard University and the Trump administration, with Harvard pushing back against the federal government's diktats on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and the government hitting back with restrictions on the university's recruitment of foreign students and scholars.

In spite of everything, I remain an optimist. As someone who has studied and taught in the US for many years, I believe in the integrity and the robustness of its institutions, and particularly that of its judiciary. As I write this, news has come in that the court has granted Harvard a temporary restraining order on the United States Homeland Security's attempt to strip the university's ability to recruit and retain international students, who make up a quarter of its enrolments. Rich and formidable, Harvard may be harder to bully than others, but I believe more universities will push back. They will negotiate with the government, relent to some claims, as Columbia University has done, but also deceive and dissemble wherever they can—such as playing around with trouble-giving terminology in their policy language. I was in the US earlier this year and I saw universities work around DEI initiatives simply by removing words such as “gender”, “race”, “diversity” etc from their statements and websites, but not essentially changing the function of these offices. The hope is to work around agents of the government, placate them with neutral terminology, but carry on with as much of the work with DEI as before.