For the scientist Clüver Ashbrook, the plan of the US government is clear: this wants to restrict “the freedom of teaching as a whole” at the universities Tagesschau24-Interview. The strategy is part of an extended cultural war.
The US government of President Donald Trump has been putting more pressure on elite universities since March. First of all, she announced that the state support for a total of 60 universities. The trump administration cited alleged anti-Semitism at the universities in the course of Pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the beginning of the Gaza War on October 7, 2023.
Harvard hit it particularly hard: When the university refused to respond to the US government's claims last week, grants of $ 2.2 billion were put on hold. According to US media reports, the university could soon also lose its tax benefits. Harvard now wants to solve the funding with a lawsuit.
More than 100 other universities recently defended themselves in an open letter. They see an “unprecedented state patronization and political influence”, which today threaten American universities. For Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, an expert in transatlantic relationships at the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Trump government is also concerned with “restricting the freedom of teaching as a whole.”
“Universities should be harassed”
“It is about getting an intervention on what is taking place in the apprenticeship. But it is also about how professors are promoted, how they are set, which student groups can be active on a campus,” she said in an interview with Tagesschau24. The plan of the US government is to interfere in the teaching of the particularly high-out universities everywhere.
That is not surprising: because the dispute with the universities is “a building block in general cultural struggle”, which Trump's government runs. “A sequenced strategy is now being worked out how the universities should be harassed,” said Clüver Ashrook.
“Autocratization of the United States “
For them, the argument between the Trump government and Harvard is a precedent. It is crucial how the legal proceedings against the US government assume. Because Harvard is the richest university in America with 53 billion foundation assets, which could endure a fight against the Trump government for the longest.
“Other universities therefore take an example of the Phalanx, which Harvard is driving,” said Clüver Ashrook. Should Harvard lose the dispute, the renovation at American universities could go much faster. “Then they could be very acute and accelerated to their knees,” said Clüver Ashbrook. “We are there in the sense of the extended cultural war in another set screw of the AutoCratisization of the United States.”
Heavy consequences for research
According to the scientist, the circumcisions from different ministries have already followed. Research in the areas of tuber colosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as and cancer are particularly affected. “Large research projects are put on hold. In the end, this will only be the science location of remaining in the ability to remain innovative.”
