Trump ‘just wants to make Harvard bleed,' and these alumni are standing up to him
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Harvard's
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This ignores the work Harvard
The stakes could hardly be higher. As another signatory, the conservative writer Bill Kristol ('73), put it in a
Over the past few months, the stance of Crimson Courage and other concerned alumni has veered from admonishing the university not to capitulate to
Crimson Courage has taken no specific stand on what might constitute a fair compromise, said Miles Rapoport, former senior fellow at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and a Crimson Courage leader, but it is 'totally united in defense of academic freedom, constitutional law, the democratic process, and against government overreach.'
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Perhaps unintentionally, Trump's attack has had a unifying effect on the campus community; indeed, some Crimson Courage leaders had been on the barricades against Harvard during Vietnam-era protests. Even Lawrence Summers, the former Harvard president who has been a
in an interview, 'it's a principle of organizing that you have no permanent opponents or permanent allies.'
Finfer is helping to organize a rally at the Moakley courthouse on July 21, when US District Judge Allison Burroughs will hear Harvard's
To be sure, not all Harvard alumni agree. After all, it was billionaire donor William Ackman ('88) who set off a cascade of troubles for Harvard in 2023 by
It's hard to see at this point how Harvard and Trump can both claim victory in any agreement to suspend hostilities. Trump will want to prove that he stuck it to the '
as Rapoport put it, if 'he just wants to make Harvard bleed.'
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Renée Loth's column appears regularly in the Globe.
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