So many people are angry at Columbia University. For whatever reason, the Trump administration went after Columbia first, pausing government grants and demanding concessions. Columbia complied quickly and appears ready to do more.

Many faculty at Columbia and many more across the nation were critical of the university’s administration’s solicitous response to the Trump Administration. The Faculty Senate published a report contending that the critical occupation of Hamilton Hall could have been managed and ended without resort to New York City Police. It’s not just that university administration energetically responded to all of the Trump Administration’s initial demands, but also that Columbia police helped ICE agent gain access to student residences.

Faculty and students at Columbia have protested, even as the Trump Administration, predictably, announced investigations and issued demands to a growing number of schools. Given the amount of money at stake, it’s understandable why academic administrators would genuflect to Trump, but it’s also intolerable. The AAUP (American Association of University Professors) was harsh in criticism, labeling its statement “Cowardice and Capitulation: Columbia has Sacrificed its own Students to Authoritarianism.”

Meanwhile, faculty and some administrators elsewhere are determined NOT to follow Columbia’s compliance. Nothing coordinated has emerged; after all, professors are notoriously bad at coordinating on anything. Still, administrators and others are prospecting approaches to protect their academic independence and their students.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

Tufts University president Sunil Kumar issued a statement of support for Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student in psychology who had a student visa, who was picked up by masked ICE officers on the streets of Somerville, apparently for signing an article in the student paper criticizing Tufts’ president’s policies. Kumar filed a declaration in support of Öztürk’s legal team, certifying that she was in good academic standing and had violated no university rules. Kumar demanded due process.

In response to the Trump Administration’s demands of Harvard, including the threat to review $9 billion of federal grants and contracts, more than 600 Harvard faculty have signed a letter urging their administration to:

Publicly condemn attacks on universities.

Legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance. Freedom from political interference has allowed American universities to lead the world in scientific and medical innovation, from which our entire country benefits.

Work with other universities and Harvard’s own alumni networks to mount a coordinated opposition to these anti-democratic attacks.

Brown University president Christina H. Paxson, issued a long statement describing the long history of government support for higher education and research more generally, recommitting to “upholding…ethical and legal obligations under…the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” and announcing that Brown would continue to support its international students with resources “in the face of new challenges.” She also promised to protect academic freedom.

Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber, has already criticized the Trump Administration’s attacks on research financing and higher education more generally. More recently, Eisgruber committed to “principle and a willingness to do hard things…we have to be willing to speak up, and we have to say no to funding if it’s going to constrain our ability to pursue the truth.” Sitting on top of a massive endowment ($34 billion +.…at least until the markets crashed), Eisgruber floated the possibility of issuing bonds to backfill rescinded federal grants.

President Eisgruber, blessed with resources AND courage, may be the exemplar of the moment. The Trump Administration went after the biggest names in higher ed to intimidate everyone else. But those schools have reservoirs of support to fight back. Eisgruber, apparently, understands this fact.

Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard University, understands it as well. Writing in The New York Times last weekend, he excoriated the Administration, underscored the threat to higher education and America, and urged resistance. And, as an aside to today’s Ivy League presidents, whispered,

“They should make clear that their formidable financial endowments are not there to simply be envied or admired. Part of their function is to be drawn down in the face of emergencies, and covering federal funding lapses surely counts as one. Believe me, a former president of Harvard, when I say that ways can be found in an emergency to deploy even parts of the endowment that have been earmarked by their donors for other uses.”

To this point, there are no signs of a unified response; like the Big Law firms, the lack of coordination makes each target more vulnerable. At some point, some of these people who demonstrated brilliance on standardized tests will realize it.

[Note: In 2015, in response to a student occupation of his office, Eisgruber began an examination of the careers of some of the notables Princeton had honored with building names; in 2020, he renamed some of those buildings and programs, stripping former Princeton President Woodrow Wilson’s name. (Wilson also served as president of the United States and left a record of white supremacy that was, in Eisgruber’s judgment, notable even for the time.) ]