Will Universities Be Reborn in the Image of Trump?
Most people aren’t living through a blatantly governmental wresting of control from universities — the quintessential citizens of Civil Society — such as is ongoing in Florida and Texas, especially, but in many other places as well. I have and still am. If government can’t make academics shut up, it can still tax and regulate them to death. For example, there have been at least seven congressional Bills introduced to increase the endowment tax on colleges and universities. None out of a desire to perfect tax policy. All since student demonstrations erupted on campuses across the country and people got mad that there was so much rowdy, and sometimes hatefully racist, speech and debate happening. They are S. 3514, H.R. 9213, H.R. 8913, S. 3465, H.R. 7033, H.R. 6585, and H.R. 9331. None of those bills have been acted upon. But their sponsors are now in control of all three branches of federal government by party affiliation. So observers are navel gazing and expecting a “reckoning” for universities.
The worst thing we university liberals could do right now is to keep wondering why “they” hate us, why blue-collar workers seem to vote — as we understand it — against their own interests in sidling up to an authoritarian in a red tie who courts other billionaires, or why human nature itself did not come through for us and make the arc of history bend toward justice as we define it. History has been waiting to explode our hubris; and sometimes, even as we have facts, truth and rule of law on our side, we make ourselves good targets with our jargon, our righteousness and our fragmentation. We are out of touch with working class Americans, even if the policies that Democrats have enacted work for them.
And this, from another article last week:
With Donald J. Trump’s victory to a second presidential term and a Congress potentially under unified G.O.P. control, Republicans are now poised to escalate their efforts to root out what they see as progressive ideology in higher education.
The return to power of Mr. Trump comes at a vulnerable moment for higher education. Universities have been under increasing pressure from lawmakers, while public confidence in colleges has fallen. Last year, two Ivy League presidents resigned following their widely panned performances before Congressional panels that grilled them about how they handled pro-Palestinian activists on their campuses. Other top university leaders have resigned amid criticism over protest responses. Mr. Trump has said he thought that colleges needed to be reclaimed from “Marxist maniacs,” and his running mate, JD Vance, has described universities as “the enemy.”
darryll k. jones