In an alarming grab of executive power, President Donald Trump and his administration have targeted education, including universities.
The administration has frozen billions of dollars in research funding. It has revoked millions more. It has gutted the Department of Education. This is an assault on knowledge and on the ability to produce research that betters the nation and the world.
In the past two weeks, the federal government has turned its attacks on education to two of our peer institutions. On March 7, Trump cut $400 million in Columbia’s federal funding. This morning, Trump froze $175 million in the University of Pennsylvania’s federal funding.
Last week, the Department of State unprecedentedly revoked a Columbia doctoral student’s visa because she allegedly participated in pro-Palestine protests on campus. Just a few hours later, Columbia graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — an agency without precedent to act in cases like these. These actions reflect the weaponization of federal force against university students, an attack on the principles of knowledge-seeking and First Amendment-protected free expression on every university campus.
These actions did not stop in Morningside Heights, just as they will not stop in University City.
Some institutions have been cowed by threats from the federal government. This acquiescence is dangerous. Complying with constitutionally contested directives before judges rule on their legality normalizes them. As Columbia’s example has taught us, even repeated concessions to the Trump administration won’t protect you. As an institution relatively insulated from financial shocks from the federal government, we have a unique responsibility to speak out. Even among the Ivy League, Princeton’s wealth, prestige, and historical reputation as the most conservative Ivy give the University unique influence.
Princeton has rightly stood behind its values by refusing to comply in advance. And, Wednesday morning, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 stepped up to embody these values by speaking out in defense of higher education publicly in The Atlantic.
We commend President Eisgruber for finally stepping up in this way — doing so will encourage others to join us. But it is imperative that he follows through with the commitments he outlined. We will be waiting for the University to implement plans to defend academic research, pursue litigation against policies that jeopardize its vital functioning, and protect its other core values, like free inquiry, the well-being of all community members, and supporting individuals from diverse backgrounds. We hope to see these steps taken, and will proudly support the University when they are.
“Universities are independent centers of ideas and often prominent centers of dissent,” professors Ryan Enos and Steven Levitsky wrote last week in The Harvard Crimson. “Autocrats are allergic to sources of dissent, so they almost invariably seek to silence, weaken, or control them.” The Trump administration has targeted some universities — and will continue doing so to others — not for their individual policies, but because the free pursuit of knowledge threatens its power.
So individual efforts from any one institution will not be enough. Universities need to stand together. In response to anti-democratic action, working collectively is the only way to protect democratic principles. If the Trump administration uses its Columbia playbook with other universities, one at a time, each school will have to fight the federal government alone.
But as Princeton stands up first, it can invite others to stand with it. Through coordinated action and litigation, universities can show that they will never again fight the Trump administration’s attacks alone.
The Editorial Board disagrees about whether Eisgruber’s piece on Wednesday sufficiently established that commitment and when it is appropriate for students to prescribe policy solutions to their university administration. But we agree with Eisgruber that universities must defend themselves, and we look forward to the public use of existing alliances with other universities to defend all of higher education.
We will stand behind President Eisgruber and his colleagues when they implement plans to protect their students, faculty, and independence.
Each school may fall when targeted alone, but we can endure when we stand united.
149th Editorial Board
Isaac Barsoum ’28
Raf Basas ’28
Frances Brogan ’27
Eleanor Clemans-Cope ’26
Preston Ferraiuolo ’26
Anna Ferris ’26
Ava Johnson ’27
Christofer Robles ’26
Bryan Zhang ’26
The Editorial Board is the institutional voice of The Daily Princetonian and consists of nine members: two managing editors, the head Opinion editor, and a group of six Opinion section editors, columnists, and contributing writers. It convenes to discuss issues and current events of interest to the Princeton University community, as well as collectively write signed editorials addressing them, which reflect the consensus of a majority of the Board’s membership. The Editorial Board operates independently of the newsroom of the ‘Prince.’
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