CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) 鈥� University professors and students led protests on campuses across the U.S. on Thursday against what they say are broad attacks on higher education, including , the and about the war in Gaza.
Demonstrations were held at schools including Harvard, where President Donald Trump's administration in grants and contracts and is threatening to revoke the university鈥檚 .
Rochelle Sun, a graduate student at Harvard's Department of Government, said she came to stick up for international students because they're integral to the school's mission of pushing 鈥渢he boundaries of human knowledge.鈥�
鈥淭he whole point of me having this education here and for pursuing research at Harvard is to be among the best scholars that exist in the world,鈥� Sun said after the protest in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 鈥淎nd so if they鈥檙e not going to be around me, then I鈥檓 not going to be able to achieve my goals of being here, either.鈥�
Sun held a sign that read: 鈥淚 should be writing my dissertation, but I keep having to fight this stupid fascism.鈥�
Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology in Harvard's School of Public Health, spoke to the crowd about cuts to programs that are crucial to medical discoveries and monitoring the health of the population.
鈥淲e are doing our work to make a better world in which all living on this planet can equitably thrive,鈥� she said.
Krieger said her grant from the National Institutes of Health was terminated in late February because it studied discrimination in health, the kind of research that likely won't be funded by companies or philanthropies.
鈥淲e need to have that money going towards research and academic work and the training and teaching of the next generation that can protect the public's health,鈥� Krieger said to cheers.
Federal funding targeted
A have had federal funding targeted by the government in an effort to get the institutions to comply with . The series of threats 鈥� and subsequent pauses in funding 鈥� to some of the top U.S. universities have become an for the administration to exert influence on college campuses.
Trump vowed to pursue these federal cuts last year, saying he would focus on schools that push 鈥渃ritical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.鈥�
Republican officials have also universities where Palestinian protests erupted on campus amid the war in Gaza last year, while testified before Congress to discuss antisemitism allegations.
Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being 鈥減ro-Hamas,鈥� referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against .
The U.S. government this year has used its immigration enforcement powers and scholars who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its military action in Gaza. Some have been taken into custody or deported. Others fled the U.S. after learning their visas had been revoked.
Ronald Cox, a professor of political science and international relations at Florida International University in Miami, said during a small event Thursday that the international students are fearful.
鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know if they could be deported, they don鈥檛 know if they can be directed to the El Salvadoran prison," Cox said. "There鈥檚 been no due process. It鈥檚 kind of open season on the most vulnerable students.鈥�
鈥榊ou cannot appease a tyrant鈥�
Thursday's protest at Harvard comes just a few days after it became the first university as it demands sweeping changes . The university frames the government鈥檚 demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.
Meanwhile, roughly 450 people showed up for a protest at the University of California-Berkeley, where emeritus professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich spoke out against placating Trump.
鈥淵ou cannot appease a tyrant," said Reich, who served in President Bill Clinton's cabinet. "Columbia University tried to appease a tyrant. It didn't work."
Columbia University in New York initially from the Trump administration. But its acting president took a more defiant tone in a campus message Monday, saying some of the demands 鈥渁re not subject to negotiation.鈥�
About 150 protesters rallied at Columbia, which had been the scene of huge pro-Palestinian protests last year. They gathered on a plaza outside a building that houses federal offices, holding signs emblazoned with slogans including 鈥渟top the war on universities" and 鈥渃ensorship is the weapon of fascists.鈥�
The protests were organized by the Coalition for Action in Higher Education, which includes groups such as Higher Education Labor United and the American Federation of Teachers.
Kelly Benjamin, a spokesperson for American Association of University Professors, said in a phone call that the Trump administration's goal of eviscerating academia is fundamentally anti-American.
鈥淐ollege campuses have historically been the places where these kind of conversations, these kind of robust debates and dissent take place in the United States,鈥� Benjamin said. 鈥淚t's healthy for democracy. And they鈥檙e trying to destroy all of that in order to enact their vision and agenda.鈥�
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press journalists Noah Berger in Berkeley, California, Joseph B. Frederick in New York, and Daniel Kozin in Miami contributed to this report.
Rodrique Ngowi And Ben Finley, The Associated Press
