Defunding or Deceasing? Mr. #47’s Deadly War Against Universities in the United States
In recent days, 503 presidents and administrators of universities, colleges, and academic societies across the United States have signed an appeal entitled “A Call for Constructive Engagement” to voice their opposition to the political and governmental interference and meddling of their country’s new administration with one voice. An “interference” and “overreach” that is “unprecedented” and is “endangering” higher education. This is what the appeal reads.
The signatories do not oppose reforms, if they are constructive, nor do they oppose the government’s control function, which they consider legitimate, nor are they against activating funding systems that are more equitable and effective. However, they oppose the interference of the new administration of Mr. #47, as some of my acquaintance call Mr. Donald Trump so as not to be disgusted by naming him, which they consider unjust, unmotivated, and illegal because it affects the lives of those who study and work on their respective campuses, besides going against the freedoms guaranteed by their Constitution. They also strongly oppose the use of public funding as a coercive system to bend university teaching practices to government-imposed guidelines.
The U.S. higher education system is as diverse as the goals and expectations of the students it serves. It ranges from research universities to community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public and private institutions; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, while others serve particular groups. What they have in common, however, is full and unrestricted autonomy in determining, academically, who to admit to learning and who should teach; what to teach and how to teach it. All colleges and universities, in their pursuit of truth, share a commitment to operate as centers of open inquiry where all faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across an full range of viewpoints, without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation.
Because of these freedoms, institutions of higher learning are essential to the prosperity of the United States and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good. Colleges and universities are engines of opportunity and mobility, anchor institutions that contribute to economic and cultural vitality regionally and in local communities. They foster creativity and innovation, provide human resources to meet the fast-changing demands of U.S. dynamic workforce, and are themselves major employers. They nurture the scholarly pursuits that ensure the nation’s leadership in research, and many provide health care and other essential services. Most fundamentally, U.S. colleges and universities prepare an educated citizenry who to sustain democracy.
The price of abridging the defining freedoms of higher education in the United States will be paid by our students and our society.
On their behalf – ends the appeal of the 503 academic leaders – on behalf of our current and future students, and all who work and benefit from our institutions, we call the government for a constructive engagement that improves our institutions and benefits our republic.
Why have these 503 academic leaders signed this appeal, which is receiving more and more signatures every day? Dan Garisto explains it to us in the Nature magazine, who analyzed a 900-plus page project, called “Project 2025” to defund science, from which much of the radical roadmap that the administration of Mr. #47 is following was taken.
What is this “Project 2025″about? It is a manual aimed at conservative politicians that in the last two months has shocked the scientific community of the country because it has led to a wave of indiscriminate dismissals, of suspended grants, of canceled programs. And yet – the article says – most of these measures had been planned years in advance and made public. Why didn’t they realize it before when something could still be done or said? Probably they didn’t want to convince themselves that a large part of the U.S. electorate were so silly to elect Mr. Trump for a second tenure.
But who developed the “2025 Project”? It was a right-wing think tank based in the US capital, the Heritage Foundation in 2023 as a political guide and model for the possible second Trump presidency. What is the Heritage Foundation? It is a private institution, one of the main forces behind the rise of conservatism in the United States, founded in 1973, whose mission – says its website – is to “promote conservative values based on free markets, limited government, individual freedom, traditional U.S. values and a strong defense base.” The heritage it refers should be Judaic-Christian ideas, following some Italian websites, while – funny to know it – in the official site of the foundation the reference to the Judaic is completely missing, who knows why? Probably because the extreme conservativism of the Christians do not admit any interference, especially if Judaic (those who still have on their hads the blood of Jesus Christ).
Moreover, the ultra conservatives like Mr. J.D. Vance follow the concept of Ordo Amoris, introduced by Saint Augustine and explored by Saint Thomas Aquinas. In contrast to the teachings of the founder of Christianity, it establishes a fictitious order to which selfless love for one’s neighbor should be directed, even establishing a hierarchy of priorities in human relationships: first the family, then others, that is, the community, the nation and, finally, humanity as a whole and the individuals. Therefore, the attention to “the last ones” that were so dear to Christ and Pope Francis, can very well go the way of the dodo. Incidentally, it is not clear what the hypocrite J.D. Vance, who believes the opposite of what Francis believed, went to Pope Francis to do. The Pope, in his last moments of life, paternally preferred to forgive this neophyte who probably still understands little or nothing about Catholicism. But that is another story.
The “2025 Project”, however, is a guide that Mr. #47 has always denied during the presidential campaign, claiming not to know it: but we know well how long the affirmations and denials of this ineffable character take.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently “discovered,” Dan Garisto continues, “that more than half of Trump’s executive orders are in line with the recommendations of the 2025 Project. And that most of its 40 authors are now key figures in Mr. Trump’s team.”
So, why are the leaders of US universities protesting? Why have they signed and are signing that appeal? Because Mr. #47 has promptly applied what is provided for on page 355 of the “2025 Plan,” namely the “Cutting funds to universities,” which states “Congress should cap the indirect cost rate paid to universities.”
No sooner said than done. On the orders of Mr. Trump’s team, “but without the approval of Congress” – as Dan Garisto points out – the NIH, the National Institutes of Health of the United States “issued a notice on 7 February declaring that that it would cut the indirect cost rate paid to universities for things such as electricity and equipment maintenance to 15%. This would have slashed billions from university budgets.”
In fact, with an annual budget of 32 billion dollars, the NIH manages about a third of the financial resources of the research system in the USA and is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world.
This would mean not only the Defunding, that is, the cutting of funding, but the Deceasing, that is, the death of the university system of the country because it would cut “billions from university budgets.” And for what reason? Because the 2025 Project “aims to reform the US education system, including universities,” explains Dan Garisto, “to defang and defund the Woke culture warriors” that, according to the 2025 Plan, “have infiltrated every last institution in the United States.”
That Woke culture, that means awareness and sensitivity to social and political problems and injustices, on which even the Italian Prime Minister, Mrs. Giorgia Meloni, said she was in agreement with Mr. #47 in their recent meeting at the White House.
For the moment, however, a federal judge has blocked the measure, which is why universities are protesting peacefully and with accommodating proposals. But other measures regarding universities and research are expected on the horizon, also included in the 2025 Planbut not yet implemented.
For example, as provided on page 461: “promptly restore the ethics advisory committee to oversee abortion-derived fetal tissue research, and Congress – Dan Garisto informs us – should prohibit such research altogether.”
Why could the administration of Mr. #47 implement this measure? Because Mr. Trump in his first term had already “banned the use of fetal tissue in research;” this measure “was later revised by the then President Joe Biden team”. Nothing excludes that Mr. #47 does not want to reinstate the ban. A nonsense like Trump is used to making: “Scientists – Dan Garisto informs on Nature – use fetal tissue for a variety of research, from testing vaccine efficacy to detecting diseases.” “Mr. Trump 2.0 has not yet taken action” but who can say that he will not, given that “in 2017”, the Heritage Foundation “had listed hundreds of priorities” and Mr. #47, “after a year in office” had followed through on 64% of them.” In short, we can expect anything from him.
Meanwhile, the moccasin telegraph plays in full among the top brass of American colleges, universities and academic societies: they are encouraging each other to sign for their survival: the Defunding plan for American universities can be transformed into a Deceasing plan for the entire university and research system. The count as of Friday evening amounted to 503 institutions and societies. But the count is destined to grow and we hope by a lot. Good luck
