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CNN
8 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
These college leaders are keeping the heat on in battle with Trump administration – despite settlements by prominent schools
Donald Trump Diversity and equity Race & ethnicity FacebookTweetLink College is the place where many students entering adulthood find their voice. But when it comes to addressing the White House's ongoing battle with elite higher education, many institutional leaders seem to have lost theirs. 'I don't know how many calls you have to make to get one (university) president to call you back,' President Michael S. Roth of Wesleyan University told CNN. 'The fact that I can, you know, name the people and count them on my hand, it's clearly an effort to keep one's head down and hope that your school will not suffer.' Roth is one of relatively few top university leaders who still openly criticizes the Trump administration for its monthslong campaign to pull funding from schools that don't toe its line on a host of issues, from diversity programs to transgender athletes and pro-Palestinian protests. While most students and professors were away from campus over the summer, the administration spent the season racking up wins against many of its top targets, with settlements from major universities that have promised a combination of fines, donations and policy commitments in line with Trump priorities. 'It's so much worse, I think, than I anticipated,' said Danielle Holley, president of Mount Holyoke College and another outspoken Trump critic who began warning about threats from the administration before Inauguration Day. Only Harvard University has taken on the White House directly in court, although the school has quietly pursued settlement possibilities on the side, a source familiar with the discussions told CNN. For those who have stayed on offense publicly, it's an increasingly lonely fight. 'There's no doubt about it that the severe tactics being used by our federal government are being highly effective,' acknowledged Holley, a civil rights attorney who became the leader of Mount Holyoke, the small central Massachusetts liberal arts college, in 2023. President Trump has made dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs – known as DEI – a top priority in his second term, focusing especially on transgender athletes in sports. 'Institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called 'diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),'' stated an executive order President Trump signed on his second day in office. In a speech to a joint session of Congress, Trump called DEI 'tyranny.' The administration's first major college settlement this year was with the University of Pennsylvania, whose swimming program became a lightning rod after Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete who had previously competed on the men's team, set several women's records in 2022 on her way to dominating the Ivy League championship. 'We acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules,' UPenn President Larry Jameson said in a statement on July 1 announcing the agreement. 'We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.' That apology was worth $175 million to the university, as the White House released federal funding frozen three months earlier. While many universities have reconfigured, renamed, or scrubbed entirely any DEI references from their materials, Mount Holyoke – with just over 2,000 students – still has a dedicated DEI page on its website. 'Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts extend beyond specific departments and are embedded in all areas of the College,' the page states. Holley says continuing to speak out against the government's efforts to curtail DEI is not a matter of obstinance – but is critical to the mission of the 188-year-old college, one of the historic 'Seven Sisters,' and the first of that group to accept transgender students. 'At Mount Holyoke, we are a women's college, and because of that, we are built on diversity, equity and inclusion,' said Holley. Since the University of Pennsylvania's settlement, the deals between universities and the government have gotten more costly and the institutions more prominent. Columbia University signed a landmark $221 million settlement agreement with the administration last month to regain access to its federal grants. Acting President Claire Shipman acknowledged the pressure they faced at the loss of so much money but bristled at the idea that Columbia was surrendering to government intimidation. 'I actually think that the narrative that paints this as a kind of binary situation – courage versus capitulation – is just wrong. It's too simplistic,' Shipman told CNN Kate Bolduan on July 24. 'This was a really, really complex problem.' 'We could have faced the loss of any future relationship in the coming years with the federal government,' added Shipman, 'and that would have effectively meant an end to the research mission we conduct as we know it.' The Columbia deal includes an 'independent monitor' to resolve any ongoing disputes with the government over admissions and hiring, an idea that distresses Holley at Mount Holyoke. 'The idea that an American university would have a government monitor, not related to what they have been found to be in violation of, but related to their academic departments and the way that they hire people,' said Holley, 'I think everyone in the United States should be deeply concerned with the idea that our federal government is attempting to run private universities and attempting to tell those universities who to hire; what they should be teaching in their classrooms.' One week after the administration's deal with Columbia, Brown University, another elite Ivy League school, signed its own settlement with the government that included a ban on 'unlawful DEI goals' and banned transgender women from women's housing. The university also pledged $50 million to workforce development groups in Rhode Island, where Brown is located. 'The Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation's higher education institutions,' Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the deal. 'Woke is officially DEAD at Brown,' President Trump crowed on social media. As the flurry of legal agreements in the past month has made clear, institutions of higher education are not going to hang together in a unified defense against the government's demands. While he continues to speak strongly against the administration, Roth says he understands why other college leaders would cut their own deals. 'The fear I think many schools have is that the federal government is willing to not obey the laws as anyone has understood them before, and so the lawless federal government is very frightening,' said Roth. 'If someone pays a ransom to get their kid back from a kidnapper, I don't criticize the parents for making a deal,' he added. 'It's the kidnappers that deserve our criticism.' The Trump administration has been fighting a two-pronged civil rights battle against colleges and universities – demanding an end to DEI programs that the government says are discriminatory while also accusing several institutions of antisemitism in their handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus in 2024. In court filings involving Harvard, one of the last major holdouts, the Department of Education has pointed to the university's own report on antisemitism to claim the school ignored rampant discrimination against Jewish students and faculty members. 'Protestors followed and verbally harassed some Jewish students, vandalized Harvard's campus, and posted swastika stickers near Harvard Hillel's Rosovsky Hall,' a government brief says, citing Harvard's investigation. The university also released a report on discrimination against Palestinians and Muslims on campus – an issue not mentioned in the Department of Education's complaints. The Trump administration says Harvard has been talking to them behind the scenes about finding a way out of their legal standoff, which includes a second lawsuit in response to the administration's attempt to cancel Harvard's international student program, a move a court indefinitely put on hold in June. 'We're still in negotiations,' McMahon told Fox News last week. 'We are closer than we were. We are not there yet.' But Harvard President Alan Garber has told faculty that retaining its academic freedom without government-monitored 'intellectual diversity' – a major sticking point in early dealings with the administration – remains nonnegotiable, according to the student-run Harvard Crimson newspaper. 'Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,' Garber wrote in April when the school first filed suit against the government over more than $2 billion in frozen research funding. The fight continues to be costly for Harvard. A federal judge has not yet decided whether to order the government to turn the money spigot back on, causing budgetary pressure that prompted Garber to take a voluntary 25% pay cut. The administration's intense pressure on higher education programs and students has not been met with complete silence. An open letter signed by more than 600 college presidents in April called Trump's actions 'unprecedented government overreach.' 'We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,' said the letter. 'However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses.' But Roth, one of the presidents who signed the letter, doesn't believe putting out one statement is enough. 'I was glad that they did, but I don't see many people sounding the alarm that this is an assault on the integrity of one of the most successful systems in America, the higher education system,' Roth said. Although not as prominent as Harvard or Columbia, Mount Holyoke is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research institution with a billion-dollar endowment, and Holley says its focus on women's issues has been a double whammy for its funding. 'If you are a researcher in this country, doing work on women's health, or doing work on women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), doing work on women in leadership, any research that has to do with women is being caught up in those government searches and is being canceled,' she said. 'When one of our research grants was cut, the wording from the federal government was that this kind of work related to gender is not beneficial and not scientific.' But the cuts have not only come from the Trump administration, according to Holley. She said some private funding sources are also stepping back and cutting grants because they are afraid to associate themselves with a school that might run afoul of the president. 'I would say that the estimate is about $2 million (in lost research funding), and that's both cancelations from the federal government directly and cancelations from private funders who fear what the federal government might do,' Holley said. At Wesleyan University – an institution in Middletown, Connecticut, with about 3,000 students – responding to the administration's policies and executive orders has meant reconfiguring some DEI programs. A summer camp program aimed at middle school girls in Middletown who were interested in STEM studies is now open to boys, as well. 'The fact is that girls weren't signing up for STEM as much as boys, so that's why we had that program,' said Roth. 'But it seemed to some boys – big boys, I guess – to be reverse discrimination.' With many other schools eliminating DEI programs or making them all but invisible, Holley believes that the quick moves to roll back those commitments, even without an immediate and direct legal threat, says as much about the schools as it does about the government. 'I think it is a representation of the fact that many organizations maybe did not believe in these principles as strongly as they said that they did, and the government has provided them with an out,' she said. After encountering limited pushback from its Ivy League targets, the Trump administration is moving on to public institutions, starting with freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA is now actively negotiating with the Trump administration over a possible settlement. A government draft proposal would have the university pay $1 billion dollars, CNN has learned. 'There is a possibility that this administration, once they are done kind of dealing with Harvard and some of the larger institutions that they may begin to turn to the small liberal arts colleges,' said Holley. Despite the millions of dollars at stake in a fight with an administration flush with recent victories, Holley insists her criticism won't be muted. 'My mom was raised in the Jim Crow South, you know, both of my parents survived the Jim Crow era in this country, and I'm a student of the civil rights movement,' Holley said. 'In these moments, I would never think of not speaking up.'
India Today
07-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
When Mahua Moitra met Pinaki Misra
In a country where political affiliations often harden into personal barricades, the quiet marriage of Mahua Moitra and Pinaki Misra has offered a rare moment of grace—where lives intersected not just across parties, but personal histories, geographies and two members of Parliament—one still in active office, the other a seasoned legislator who did not recontest in 2024—tied the knot in a private ceremony in Berlin on May 30. It was a deeply personal affair, far removed from the usual pomp of political unions. The news broke only on June 5 when Moitra shared a photograph of the couple on social media, captioned: 'Here's to new beginnings.'advertisementThe story of how Moitra, the fiery Trinamool Congress MP from West Bengal's Krishnanagar, came to marry Misra, the erudite former parliamentarian from Odisha's Puri, is not one of grand declarations or ideological convergence. It is a story of lives lived in parallel, then increasingly in separated by age and background—Moitra was born in 1974 and educated at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts while Misra, born in 1959, studied at Delhi's prestigious St. Stephen's College and later at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi—the two shared an understanding of what it meant to navigate Indian public life on their own terms. Both had experienced the vicissitudes of power and public scrutiny. Moitra, who began her professional journey as an investment banker in New York and London, left the corporate world for Indian politics in the 2000s, first with the Youth Congress and then Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Known for her powerful interventions in Parliament and unflinching critiques of majoritarianism, Moitra is a polarising but widely admired figure, especially among younger voters and civil liberties trajectory was more classically establishmentarian. A four-time MP from Puri—first elected in 1996 on a Congress ticket and then thrice with the Biju Janata Dal—he built a career on his legal acumen and dignified parliamentary conduct. His legal expertise spans constitutional, corporate and environmental law, and his record in the Lok Sabha includes chairing the Standing Committee on Urban Development and serving as leader of the BJD parliamentary had been married before. Moitra's former husband, Danish financier Lars Brorson, rarely made public appearances during her political career, and she has mostly kept that part of her life private—except when correcting misinformation on social media. Misra had married Sangita Misra, a respected judge of the Odisha High Court, in 1984. They have two children and later divorced say the connection between Moitra and Misra grew gradually, based on conversation, shared values and a mutual appreciation of intellect and independence. Their interactions grew more frequent in recent years, and their bond deepened through a mutual understanding of solitude and resilience—qualities common to those who survive long in politics without surrendering their was not a union forged in haste. With both individuals having rebuilt themselves after complex personal journeys, it was a relationship grounded in maturity and choice of Berlin for their wedding was telling. Cosmopolitan, historic and a city of reinvention, it offered them privacy and symbolic resonance. The ceremony was intimate—attended only by close friends and family. Moitra wore a pale pink Varanasi brocade saree with an off-shoulder blouse, striking a balance between classic tradition and modern elegance. Misra appeared in a simple, cream-toned kurta, understated as photograph she later posted captured not just the joy of the moment, but also the ease and depth of a relationship that had grown out of the public speculation swirls about what this alliance could mean politically, neither Moitra nor Misra has offered comment. Misra, having not contested in the 2024 parliamentary elections, appears to be stepping back from electoral politics, though he continues to remain a prominent figure in legal and intellectual circles. Moitra, on the other hand, returned to the Lok Sabha in 2024 after a turbulent period that included her expulsion in December clear, however, is that theirs is not a political alliance but a deeply personal one—built on affection, shared experiences, and a willingness to step away from the din of public life when an age of performative relationships and curated public personas, Moitra and Misra have rewritten the script—proving that even in the most polarised of landscapes, connection and companionship can thrive. Their union reminds us that politics, for all its storms, is still inhabited by human beings—with hearts, histories and hopes of their to India Today Magazineadvertisement
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Why the US visa interview pause has triggered another crisis for colleges
US colleges face new crisis as international student visa interviews halted. (AI Image) A recent directive by the Trump administration to pause new visa interviews for international students has ignited uncertainty across US college campuses. The timing, coming just months before the academic year begins, has left universities scrambling to understand the implications for enrollment, finances, and long-term academic planning. Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts institution in Massachusetts, is among those already seeing the effects. Of the 140 international students admitted for the upcoming academic year, only around 50 have received their visas, with the rest either stuck in limbo or uncertain if their appointments will result in approvals. As quoted by CNN, Kavita Khory, director of the college's Center for Global Initiatives, said, "This is supposed to be a celebratory time… and suddenly, all of that's been thrown up in the air. " Uncertainty replaces celebration for students and colleges The visa pause has affected not only incoming international students but also current ones who need visa renewals. Universities have reported confusion due to a lack of guidance from the US State Department. Speaking to CNN, an official at a research university on the East Coast said, "Time is of the essence for these students. The uncertainty piece of it is what's making it challenging." While the State Department, through spokesperson Tammy Bruce, has stated that the administration is prioritizing national security and that visa adjudication is a "national security decision," no clear timeline has been offered for when the suspension will end. As reported by CNN, Bruce said more guidance would be provided in the coming days. Financial, academic, and emotional fallout expected The University of California system, where international students make up about 9% of the 2024 undergraduate enrollees, expressed deep concern. In a statement to CNN, spokesperson Stett Holbrook emphasized that international students are essential to the university's research and teaching mission and warned that delays in processing could have ripple effects on budgets, staffing, and services. Smaller private colleges without large endowments are especially vulnerable. As quoted by CNN, a former university official explained that institutions face a "three-pronged" crisis: a loss of revenue, a disruption in academic talent, and a human toll on students and communities. Fear of a lasting reputational hit and brain drain Beyond the immediate enrollment issues, colleges worry about long-term damage to the US's reputation as a destination for global talent. CNN quoted a university official saying there is a "chilling effect" on international student recruitment. Chinese students, who make up about a quarter of international enrollees, face heightened scrutiny after President Trump announced plans to "aggressively" revoke their visas. Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, told CNN that international students are already the most vetted group of nonimmigrants and that the policy is a misuse of taxpayer resources. "It is a poor use of taxpayer dollars," she said. Karen Edwards from Grinnell College added, "It really breaks my heart," reflecting fears that political tensions may permanently deter students from choosing the US. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
International students are still here — but, they worry, for how long?
'Being told not to go home, and then also being forced to stay but not knowing exactly where to stay, while also being low-income and first-generation, it's sort of destabilizing,' said Shrestha, 22, who is pursuing a double major in international relations and South Asian Studies and asked to use her last name only to protect her privacy. Signposts outside of the Williston Memorial Library on the Mount Holyoke College campus in South Hadley. Courtesy Mount Holyoke College Advertisement As commencement season comes to a close and campuses empty out across the region, many of the 80,000 or so international students enrolled at Massachusetts colleges and universities are grappling with anxiety and ambiguity. Many international students have stopped using social media in recent weeks and started using Signal, an encrypted messaging application. When they go out, they carry copies of their legal documents. While some are afraid to leave the country for fear they won't be able to get back in, others who had their visa statuses temporarily terminated left and are now unable to return to resume their studies. Advertisement Massachusetts has the Last week, the Trump administration moved to revoke Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students, a play that was immediately The message to international students everywhere: ''America is not open for business, the best and brightest should stay home or go elsewhere‚' ' said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, which represents around 1,600 colleges and universities. The United States is essentially 'saying to every other institution in the country: 'You could be next,'' Mitchell added. The unease is palpable, from Harvard Yard to the farm fields of the Five College Area in Western Mass. Amber, a junior at Harvard who is from Canada and asked to use her middle name for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration for speaking out, said she 'couldn't believe her eyes' last week when she read Trump was trying to ban foreign students at her university. A statistics major, Amber had secured her internship in the US in the fall of 2024, and went home to Canada before starting her summer job. But now, she is unsure if she'll even be allowed back in — for her internship, or for her senior year at Harvard. Advertisement The situation has brought back memories of when she was in high school during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'All of the hopes and dreams that you have for a really great senior year are now kind of in flux,' she said. As president of the graduate student government at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, John Arigbede is constantly fielding emails from his international peers, and the questions haven't stopped just because the semester is over. In April, 13 UMass Amherst students had their legal statuses 'Education is about opening your mind to different things, right,' he said. 'But in a situation where you cannot talk freely, or live freely, or travel freely within the safest part of the world — that is a psychological burden.' Traffic on North Pleasant Street at UMass Amherst on May 24. Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Boston Globe Arigbede's position puts him in touch with nearly Advertisement 'We get those emails day by day,' he said. ''Can I travel?' 'What if I'm held up at the airport?' 'What if my status has been inactive and then I am arrested?' Because these things happen in a split second.' Josie, a rising sophomore from Bolivia who goes to college in Boston and asked to be identified only by her first name due to fear of retaliation, said she now avoids speaking Spanish in public and has memorized the phone numbers of her friends in case she's apprehended. An aspiring journalist, she joined the school newspaper her freshman year and soon found herself writing about immigration policies that could affect her personally. 'It felt like, as the months went by, everything just kept getting more and more serious,' she said. 'It's been kind of intimidating to be in the US, and I feel like I'm not welcome [here] all the time.' Some domestic students are rallying to support their international classmates. Ian Tincknell, who is from Westford and was recently elected as vice president of the graduate student government at UMass Amherst, earlier this month helped organize a solidarity campaign, 'We Are One UMass,' 'to show we are grateful to have international students here, and we're very upset that they're feeling at all threatened by our government,' he said. 'That makes me feel just absolutely ashamed.' John Arigbede, right, talks with Ian Tincknell on campus at UMass Amherst last Saturday. Arigbede and Tincknell are respectively president and vice president of the graduate student government, which represents nearly 8,000 graduate students, around 36 percent of whom are international coming from 117 different countries. Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Boston Globe Zhennan Yuan, a 24-year-old from China, is on track to earn his master's degree in quantitative finance at Northeastern University in December. In April, he was among more than 4,700 international students across the country who had their legal statuses terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, without warning. Advertisement Yuan filed a suit in federal court in Boston and was granted a temporary restraining order barring the government from arresting or deporting him. The Trump administration restored Yuan's SEVIS record, but the status of his visa is unclear, and he remains concerned about what will happen next. His suit is pending, with a hearing scheduled for July. 'It is definitely still impacting my life,' said Yuan, who is afraid that if he leaves the country to visit his ailing grandparents in China this summer as planned he won't be allowed to return. 'I spend more time researching and studying policies,' he said, and worries about 'other curveballs' that will prevent him from finishing his studies in the United States. 'It is hard to sleep now.' Michael, who asked to be identified by his middle name, also has had trouble sleeping in recent months. Growing up in East Africa, he binge-watched the American TV series 'Boston Legal.' 'I wanted to be a lawyer so bad because of that,' he said and laughed. 'I developed a sense of justice.' He just graduated from Bridgewater State University with a master's degree and plans to pursue a PhD here. But after watching the Trump administration target international students while fanning the flames of anti-immigrant rhetoric, he's now thinking of settling in Europe. 'America's not bad, if things will change,' he said, 'but it needs to go back to a sense of justice.' Advertisement For now, despite all the fear and uncertainty this academic year has wrought, many students are still holding on. At the last minute, Shrestha, the Nepalese student from Mount Holyoke, landed an internship at a women's organization in Washington, D.C.,— a relief that's left her 'feeling positive about my summer now.' Josie, the Bolivian student in Boston, wants more than anything to fulfill her dream of having a career in journalism in the US. 'I still have hope, for some reason, that things will get better,' she said. 'I'm just clinging on to that sense of hope.' Brooke Hauser can be reached at
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Healey at Mount Holyoke: ‘This is a moment that clarifies our values'
SOUTH HADLEY — Massachusetts, like the graduates of Mount Holyoke College over the past 188 years, will stand for science, democracy and inclusion, Gov. Maura T. Healey said in a commencement address Sunday. 'This is a moment that clarifies our values,' she said to the more than 600 graduates gathered on the lawn on the South Hadley campus. 'It may feel as though you are graduating in the worst timeline. But the crisis of this moment, the challenge of this moment, also offers a huge opportunity. … In a time like this, how you live makes a statement. Who you are makes a difference.' Healey — a Harvard graduate who identified herself to Mount Holyoke graduates as 'a Radcliffe woman' — said the history of women's liberal arts colleges, beginning with Mount Holyoke, is 'a legacy of leadership, a legacy of courage' that informs her own values. Without mentioning President Donald Trump or members of his Republican administration, the Democratic governor described 'starkly different visions of America (that) are in conflict: A democracy defined by pluralism versus a system of hierarchy and domination. Constitutional rights which are universal versus the privileges of power. An economy of innovation and opportunity versus greed and inequality. A social vision that is rooted in freedom versus fear and hate. And a vision of higher education as the foundation of our leadership in the world, not as a domestic enemy to be torn down.' Addressing the graduates, she added: 'I know which vision I stand for. I know you do, too.' Introducing Healey, college President Danielle R. Holley described the governor's vision as 'opportunity for all,' and said her status as a woman and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community has 'galvanized' the students of Mount Holyoke. In her remarks, Healey told the graduates that this moment is 'yours to confront.' 'Values and people we hold dear are being attacked and vilified,' she said. 'It's a frightening time in many communities.' Healey noted that 2025's graduates enrolled in college during a moment of uncertainty, as the world was emerging from the COVID-19 state of emergency. She said they will rely on that aspect of their educational career, in addition to their formal course of study. 'You also learned something about resilience,' Healey said. 'It's a good thing, because you face another test now. You graduate in a time of political upheaval. In a time of great uncertainty about the future.' Healey didn't dwell on the specific political debates of 2025, but advised graduates to stay true to their values and to live lives of care and compassion in everything they do. 'Life is about the little things, the daily engagements,' she said. 'In this world today, where so many are feeling dislocated, apart, experiencing some alienation, the more you can do to reach out and engage in the smallest of ways, with a smile, with a gesture, with a hello — trust me — it'll do amazing things.' One of the graduates in the audience, Bee Mayberry of Texas, said after the ceremony that Healey's remarks pointed in the right direction. Mayberry — who majored in American politics and studied the beliefs and tactics of the far right — would have been open to a more forceful condemnation of Trump policies, but recognized that Healey tailored her remarks to the non-political nature of the event. A graduate from one of the more than 50 countries represented in Mount Holyoke's class of 2025, Fei Yang Liu of China, said she felt Healey hit the right tone for a graduation speech. In her remarks, Healey drew a connection between this political moment and the American Revolution that began 250 years ago, with volunteer militia standing up to British troops. 'Some ordinary folks in our state stepped forward to defend their right to self-government and due process,' Healey said. 'They started the revolution that gave us our country. … In times of choosing, Massachusetts has always understood the assignment. That will not change. Massachusetts will not be silent. We will not back down. As long as I am governor, we will stand up for our students, neighbors, workers, communities. We'll stand up for the rights guaranteed by the constitution. We'll stand up for a vision of America where freedom is not just for the few, but for all.' Exhibit explores Springfield's witch panic that occurred years before Salem Speed bumps petition gains support after child killed by car in Springfield Number of older homeless adults increased nearly 20% this year in Hampden County 'His mercy was never returned': Jordan Cabrera sentenced to 12-15 years for fatally shooting Jahvante Perez Read the original article on MassLive.
