EDITORIAL: Colleges right to oppose overreach

The beauty of colleges is seen, quite literally, in a stroll through campuses: in the eclectic mix of students of varied colors and creeds, of varying intellectual and emotional abilities. This is a place where pursuits both personal and professional get launched, where exploration is encouraged, where limits are tested and exceeded. Fold in an equally vibrant mix of faculty and staffers, and the place teems with a diversity of ideas, knowledge and exciting possibilities.

This is certainly not a place where government should be bearing down, bigfooting with edicts or threats with the goal of groupthink.

So it was absolutely vital — and vastly reassuring — that on Tuesday, more than 190 university and college leaders signed a statement by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) to oppose recent government overreach and orders. Among them: University of Hawaii President Wendy Hensel, who says the statement reaffirms a shared commitment to academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas without fear of retribution.

“As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” the AACU stakes out. “We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”

Government overreach came to a head recently, when the Trump administration warned Harvard University that $9 billion in federal funds could be withheld if it did not comply with a list of demands, such as an audit of student body views and changes to Harvard’s leadership structure, admissions and hiring.

When Harvard refused, the federal government froze $2.2 billion in grants and suggested the university’s tax-exempt status could be revoked. On Monday, Harvard sued the administration to protect funding for its school and affiliates, including Boston Children’s Hospital.

Higher education officials must remain steadfast in their defense of academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight.

Just last week, UH announced that it had lost $30 million in federal monies for research, affecting more than 40 employees and gutting 36 research programs related to “diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) and accessibility, sustainability, renewable energy, climate change and minority health disparities” — and that another $26 million was at risk. Then in a forum Monday, Hensel updated current losses at $36 million, with 48 research programs cut and at least 82 jobs lost.

Federal funding is an extremely significant source of financial support, Hensel said in a February letter to the UH community after President Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders, noting that UH received $386 million in extramural federal funds last year. Programs, research projects and salaries for thousands of UH employees are supported, she said, and “students receive significant federal financial aid and other forms of support implicated by the orders. In short, we cannot carry out our core higher education mission without federal government funding.”

Adeptness will be needed to safeguard hundreds of millions of crucial dollars while navigating political headwinds. One example: UH has already adapted its Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity (SEED) mission statement, from the previous one to “promote diversity in higher education,” to one “cultivating the SEEDs of students success for a brighter future.”

Especially in uncertain times, universities and colleges must remain havens for critical thinking and diversity of views, as long as activities are within society’s laws. So when government threatens to narrow those laws to fall well short of basic rights protected by the Constitution, it must be checked. The rights to peacefully assemble and to exercise freedom of speech — as has occurred on college campuses — are basic ones; they must be allowed and preciously protected. Any government that attempts to infringe on those rights, that attempts to restrict the free flow of ideas via coercive funding, deserves vigorous pushback and to be rebuked.