4 days ago
As the Epic Struggle for Harvard Unfolds
To the Editor:
Re 'Trump Tells Agencies to Sever All Funding Ties to Harvard' (news article, May 28) and 'Trump Says Harvard Should Limit Its Admittance of International Students' (news article, May 29):
I am a biology Ph.D. student at Harvard, which will lose all government funds thanks to the Trump administration. My international student friends fear that their visas will be revoked. This is all apparently to punish 'a hostile learning environment for Jewish students.'
As a Jewish student and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Israel, I find these actions and this justification disturbing. In my experience, Harvard is a safe community that takes problems with antisemitism seriously.
I am instead deeply concerned that the Trump administration is using antisemitism as justification — and Jews as essentially scapegoats in reverse — for its attacks on academic institutions. This tactic is a favorite of authoritarian regimes, which fear institutions that choose loyalty to the truth over loyalty to the regime.
Tal Scully
Somerville, Mass.
To the Editor:
As President Trump continues his slash-and-burn crusade against elite universities, particularly Harvard, perhaps the administration should consider that universities are typically made up of young and educated people, who are typically more liberal than the general population.
