Alice Speri

As universities begin to push back on Trump’s policies, Republican-led states are ‘under threat’ on multiple fronts

Days after the University of Michigan president, Santa Ono, announced that he was leaving his post to lead the University of Florida, his name was quietly removed on Wednesday from a letter signed by more than 600 university presidents denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with academic institutions.

As Ono is set to become the highest-paid public university president in the country, in a state that has often been at the forefront of the rightwing battle against higher education, the reversal, first reported on by Talking Points Memo, underscored the challenges of standing up against the government’s sweeping attacks on education in solidly red states.

Lawmakers on key committee have quoted Hitler and are associated with calls for Jews to convert to Christianity

A number of Republican legislators set to grill university presidents in a congressional hearing on antisemitism this week are associated with calls for Jews to convert to Christianity, have quoted Adolf Hitler, or have reportedly threatened to burn a synagogue to the ground.

A group of Haverford professors, most of them Jewish, has raised concerns about the legislators, pointing to statements they have made in the past and antisemitic incidents in their districts that the professors say they have not forcefully condemned.

Administration launches investigations on basis of 1964 Civil Rights Act, which rightwing activists are fighting to weaken

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to exploit civil rights laws to target diversity and equity initiatives on US campuses by characterizing them as discriminatory.

These efforts escalated this week when the Department of Education escalated its attack against Harvard University, announcing an investigation of the law school over what it claims are discriminatory practices at the school’s student-run journal, the Harvard Law Review. The investigation is one of dozens the administration has launched on the basis of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin.

Administration launches investigations on basis of 1964 Civil Rights Act, which rightwing activists are fighting to weaken

• US politics live – latest updates

The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to exploit civil rights laws to target diversity and equity initiatives on US campuses by characterizing them as discriminatory.

These efforts escalated this week when the Department of Education escalated its attack against Harvard University, announcing an investigation of the law school over what it claims are discriminatory practices at the school’s student-run journal, the Harvard Law Review. The investigation is one of dozens the administration has launched on the basis of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin.