These Pennsylvania College and University Presidents Say the Trump Administration’s ‘Unprecedented Government Overreach’ Endangers Higher Education

The presidents of 23 Pennsylvania colleges and universities have joined 457 other higher education leaders from across the country to condemn the Trump Administration’s attacks on academic freedom. 

“As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” states the letter organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

President Trump is seeking to completely overhaul higher education in the United States, which he wildly claims is “dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” He has declared war on college accreditors, DEI, curriculum, campus free speech, and has threatened to withhold federal funding to get his way – which amounts to “extortion”.

READ: Here’s What Trump Hopes to Achieve by Targeting Universities

“Most fundamentally, America’s colleges and universities prepare an educated citizenry to sustain our democracy,” the AAC&U letter states. “The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society.”

Read the rest of the letter HERE. 

List of Pennsylvania Signatories:

1. Ronald B. Cole, President, Allegheny College
2. Wendy Cadge, President and Professor of Sociology, Bryn Mawr College
3. John C. Bravman, President, Bucknell University
4. Farnam Jahanian, President, Carnegie Mellon University
5. Elizabeth M. Meade, President, Cedar Crest College
6. Rhonda Phillips, President, Chatham University
7. James J. Greenfield, OSFS, President, DeSales University
8. John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College
9. Michael Avaltroni, President, Fairleigh Dickinson University
10. Barbara K. Altmann, President, Franklin & Marshall College
11. Wendy E. Raymond, President, Haverford College
12. James Troha, President, Juniata College
13. Nicole Hurd, President, Lafayette College
14. Daniel J. Myers, President, Misericordia University
15. Kathleen E. Harring, President, Muhlenberg College
16. Andrew W. Barnes, President, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design
17. Cheryl McConnell, President, Saint Joseph’s University
18. Jonathan D. Green, President, Susquehanna University
19. Valerie Smith, President, Swarthmore College
20. John Fry, President, Temple University
21. Joseph Marina, SJ, President, The University of Scranton
22. J. Larry Jameson, President, University of Pennsylvania
23. Peter Donohue, OSA, President, Villanova University