University Should Move to Protect Academic Freedom

US President Donald Trump is trying to bully at Harvard University. Under the promotion of the “diversity of view”, his administration canceled all federal scholarships of the university and tried to prevent it from hosting international students.

The Trump version of “ViewPoint Divesity” is an invitation to erode the variety and control efforts for those who unite its policies and beliefs. Harvard University officials showed his worthy intention to resist his attacks, as they recorded tactical victories in the court, which kept some of his authoritarian measures. But the latest reports before New York Times It raises a disturbing possibility: the university may partially give up at least to the president’s demands.

If Harvard University remains committed to its principles, it cannot give in to the Trump administration. The university must be ready to meet the costs that this courage requires.

We worked as professors in Hungary and Poland, two countries facing authoritarian populism as well. Our experiences show that when right -wing systems target prestigious universities, the only strategy of universities to stay in the long run may be the transfer of at least part of their operations to more hidden states. In the case of Harvard, the step abroad can enhance the global university status and help maintain its basic values.

Trump’s popular play is closely similar to the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Urban party, who ruled the country since 2010, and the Poland law and Justice Party (PIS), which held power between 2015 and 2023. The right -wing regimes in both Hungary and Poland attacked independent institutions, including trial, media, and civil society.

Universities occupy a special place in the list of authoritarian songs. Institutions such as Harvard University undermine the extreme right agenda by exposing their moral bankruptcy and intellectual cohesion. The “diversity of the point of view” that Trump demands at Harvard University is not achieved – not because of any left -wing bias at the university, but because the main principles of global administration’s view cannot stand up to the dangerous academic audit.

The deprivation of climate change and the analogous rhetoric are not valid scientific positions. No serious theory of justice will not support policies that the rapid immigrants from African from South Africa while fleeing black and brown refugees who flee war and climate. There is no reliable legal doctrine that is not possible to behave Israel in Gaza or Trump’s threats to its land attachment by force. There is no sincere reading of our history that can ignore its deep intertwining with racism.

Trump must understand that large parts of his agenda cannot be intellectually defended, but he also knows that it is possible to participate in universities. Throughout history, even institutions committed to scientific progress have served unprecedented systems and social standards. In Nazi Germany, the jurists glorified the Führir authorities while lending legitimate biologists to fake ethnic theories. In the United States, women and minorities have long been excluded from academic life – a legacy that is still visible in research that neglects these groups.

Trump and his allies have drew a strong lesson from history: Academic prestige can only give legitimacy to unfair power, but also to transform dominant social standards. The dual universities ’capabilities-political resistance or support-make them major goals for potential authoritarianism. Throughout Eastern Europe, these leaders have sought not only to restrict academic freedom, but also to capture academic power.

In Poland, the PIS government has provided comprehensive high education reforms. Summit in the language of accountability and productivity, and high measures are mysterious, and your Catholic essay with ideological ideology to emerge-sometimes arranged on equality with good reputation publications such as nature. The government has used new magazines classifications to distribute grants and identify academic promotional offers.

Funding was directed to the institutions that chanted the PIS agenda. Academic governance was central, as the authority turned into university presidents instead of independent university Senate members. The entire institutions have been created, such as the Nicolaus Copernicus Research Center, by loyal political appoinals-part of a public strategy for the development of the anti-province elite.

This model of academic capture is well done in the relatively flat general university system in Poland. But in the United States, the academic circles are defined by a handful of strong special institutions that are not commensurate – among them. Elite Schools constitute this national academic culture, in part due to the fact that doctoral graduates go to staff colleges throughout the country. Consequently, Trump’s attacks on academic circles are directly comparable to what happened in Hungary, as Urban forced in 2018 to leave the most influential academic institution in the country, Central Europe University (CEU).

When comparing CEU and Harvard, New York Times He wrote that Ceu “is much smaller and had no Harvard’s influence.” But this evaluation is misleading. Inside Hungary, CEU was used equally or greater than Harvard in the United States. CEU is funded by the American Hungarian optimum George Soros and attracts students from more than 100 countries. Before its expulsion, CEU was the only international university in Hungary. Its scholars have obtained a large share in an inconsistent form of European research grants granted to Hungarian institutions.

The CEU pivotal role in the intellectual scene of Hungary is exactly the reason that the Urban system targeted it unabated. Although Orban also made the structural university changes that resemble those in Poland – such as a ban on graphics programs approved in sexual studies – the attack on CEU has become a catalyst and a pivotal point of the broader assault on academic freedom.

Despite the efforts made by the CEU leadership to negotiate with the Hungarian government, the university was finally forced to transfer all its certificates programs to Vienna. This transition from the university requires securing new facilities, obtaining accreditation from the Austrian authorities, and providing support to the faculty and families who have been uprooted due to this step.

Harvard University can eventually face a similar account, especially if the Trump brand of tyranny exceeds its second term to an ideological heir such as Vice President JD Vance. The emergence that makes Harvard very influential is what makes it weak. As for the movement “Make America great again” (Maga), Harvard University is more than just a liberal institution: it embodies the cultural authority that the populists repeat. Obtaining the governance of Harvard University and academic production will be a major coup in the broader effort of the movement to reshape the prevailing liberal intellectual and cultural standards.

Even if Harvard University succeeds in its reported efforts to negotiate the ceasefire with Trump or win more legal battles-as is the case with international student visas, at least temporarily-he will still face threats. Trump or his successor will not allow the university to work normally while challenging the immoral and hostile Maga movement. The bureaucratic harassment, legal uncertainty, and abusive requirements – such as forcing the visa applicants to submit their social media history to the United States government – will deter the best global talent.

Federal financing-or even a calm bias against Harvard University’s federal scholarship proposals will be freeze similarly to the university’s ability to employ senior students and faculty members. As the Polish example shows, the changes in incentive structures reshape academic behavior: not every researcher is ready to make professional sacrifices for the principle. Over time, senior medical researchers may migrate, for example, from Harvard to institutions that still provide access to research funded by the federal government.

Worse, the CEU case shows to what extent can the intimidation campaign go against the academic institution. One of us, who has served in the teaching staff in CEU since before his expulsion, remembers the government -sponsored advertisements that explain Soros. At one point, a pro -governmental newspaper published the names of some faculty members in CEU, describing it as “Soros Mercenaries”.

Looking at Trump instincts and speech, it is easy to imagine similar rings that take place in the United States. Even if the share of international students in Harvard is diminishing, the American immigration and customs raids on students ’homes or classrooms can send a chilling message to potential applicants and faculty. It is not reasonable for the government to be able to declare Harvard to be an unqualified factor for US federal service, which makes the university less attractive to local students and increases its financial dependence on international students, which may not be able to host safely.

Harvard is very rich, and its establishment precedes its establishment in the United States. But our experience shows that there is no amount of status or endowment that can protect the university from the specified hostility of the state. When governments are ready to use all power tools to attack academic freedom, universities are no longer able to carry out their basic mission of educating students and conducting meaningful research.

In CEU, exile left deep scars. Instead of deprived it in Central Budapest, the university is now occupying a rented office building in a residential area in Vienna. Some faculty and employees uprooted their lives to take this step – but many of them left the entire institution. Since the far right acquires power throughout Europe, including in Austria, there is no guarantee that today’s shelter will not become the battlefield of tomorrow.

However, exile also brought new opportunities. CEU is now proud of perhaps the most diverse faculty in its history, partly due to the fact that Vienna is an attractive place for researchers to work and live. Harvard, with much larger resources and get to know the global names of CEU, have more options to flourish abroad. If Harvard’s intention to move publicly, countries around the world will compete to host them – transportation costs can be shared with the new host government.

Although CEU has transferred certificates granting programs to Austria, it has maintained a presence in Budapest and continues to operate research centers there-so far, outside the scope of the organizers in Hungary. Likewise, Harvard University can maintain university campus elements in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Partial transport does not need full departure.

Our experience with academic acquisitions in Poland and Hungary provides a flagrant warning to Harvard and the liberals on a wider scale. Looking at the extremism and collective gravity of the extreme right, there will be no return to the liberal comfort area. Each path forward requires disruption and sacrifice.