Trump’s ongoing attacks on HE ‘reverberate across borders’

Image from University World News

The US administration’s ongoing attacks on higher education have wide-ranging impacts, from reducing international interest in studying in the US to undermining the bedrock legal principle of due process. SAR’s Executive Director Robert Quinn speaks more on the absence of due process in light of a letter from the General Service Administration seeking to terminate federal contracts with Harvard University.

Excerpt: “Robert Quinn, director of the Scholars at Risk Network, was forensic in his analysis, noting that the GSA’s letter “uses allegations – ‘suspected’, ‘possible’, ‘potential’ – without attribution, investigation, or supporting evidence to paint one private company (the university) with alleged, unproven conduct [by] a range of different autonomous actors”.

[…] Quinn underscored the point that the government’s sanction – “the cancellation of unrelated contracts” (which will, for example, impact a number of major hospitals in Boston that are affiliated with Harvard’s Medical School) – is being undertaken “without any regard to due process”, a bedrock legal principle that many of Trump’s executive orders also disregard, as has been noted by numerous judges who have placed injunctions on them.

Quinn’s use of the phrase “one private company”, which, in law, is what Harvard is (it was founded as a corporation by the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, under the name President and Fellows of Harvard University, in 1628), is important because by proceeding against it without due process, the administration opens the door to proceeding against other corporations, all of which have the same legal standing.

“What is to stop the administration from doing the same to any other private entity in the country – a private corporation, family business, community group, charity, or church – without recourse?”

Quinn then expanded his critique to another bedrock constitutional principle.

“And what happens to the ‘full faith and credit’ of the US government [enshrined in Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution] if signed contracts can be cancelled after the fact on transparently ideological grounds?”

Nathan M Greenfield reports for University World News. Read the full piece here »