Former Harvard College President Larry Summers assailed President Donald Trump over his deepening assaults on the varsity, slamming a “wildly extralegal” federal funding freeze earlier this week and warning of presidency “tyranny.”
“This is not an isolated thing, what’s being done to Harvard,” Summers mentioned in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Tv. “This is part of a broad and sweeping effort to suppress institutions that challenge the presidential administration.”
Trump is in an escalating standoff with Harvard after the federal government froze $2.2 billion in federal grants for the varsity this week. The president went on to threaten Harvard’s tax-exempt standing and on Wednesday accused the varsity of hiring “radical left” college. Saying Harvard “can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning,” the president mentioned it ought to not obtain federal funds.
The Trump administration, which has accused Harvard of mishandling antisemitism on campus, stepped up its calls for final week by calling for modifications to admissions and hiring practices, amongst different necessities. Harvard President Alan Garber rejected the phrases this week, saying they made clear that the federal government’s intention “is not to work with us to address antisemitism.”
Whereas Summers mentioned Harvard nonetheless must do extra to fight prejudice towards Jews and broaden mental variety, he applauded the establishment’s effort to face as much as Trump.
“Universities have made some very serious mistakes, and yes, they should be pressured and pressured with escalating strength to change that,” mentioned Summers, a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV. “But for the president of the United States to be calling for changing the tax status of his adversaries, this is new and I believe authoritarian and a real question about our democracy.”
A former U.S. Treasury secretary, Summers mentioned he hoped Harvard would discover methods to take care of essential analysis within the face of the federal funding lower, warning of long-term injury from a protracted battle between universities and the Trump administration.
“If the U.S. government goes to war with our great universities, it means a sharp reduction in the kind of scientific progress that has caused the United States to be the envy of the world,” he mentioned. “It means the end of efforts at cures to diseases like cancer and diabetes. It means a substantial risk to our national security, because one of our great national assets has been our capacity for innovation.”
Primarily based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is the oldest and richest U.S. college. It boasts a $53 billion endowment.
“Harvard should not go interjecting itself into politics,” Summers mentioned. However “if an institution like Harvard cannot resist tyranny when applied to it,” he mentioned, “then who can?”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
