As a recently graduated student, I knew this was an important topic to cover. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has put in motion a change to the college experience that students so rightly deserve. For example, it will make it nearly impossible for lower and middle class students to get loans, by slashing funding for any school that doesn’t stick to party-line conservative ideas. This seems like just about every college on the East Coast, plus more in other areas. Not only could it ban foreign students, but the Republican Party will tell you what to teach, and study, and who to admit and hire. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix vibes, anyone?
Of course, Harvard was one of the first universities to stand up to the biggest bully in the US, saying that they wouldn’t be adhering to the policies. So, naturally, Trump lashed out again, this time directly at Harvard.’ In terms of leadership, Harvard must “vow to choose leadership only to those devoted to changes indicated in this letter.” What were the changes, you ask? “Teaching units and students must not only be viewpoint diverse, but the government can decide which teachers and students to admit to Harvard University.”
The university must also establish a whistleblower hotline for anyone to report noncompliance.
Sure, Harvard’s going to listen to that pile of s***. Had to get at least one in here, didn’t we? As Trump can never seem to stay off Twitter, or ‘X’… whatever Musk decides to call his platform, within hours of Harvard’s F*** No, he announced that they would freeze $2.2 billion in grants to the university, plus a ten million dollar contract.
As if this wasn’t enough, You Know Who ordered the Education Department to collect data on race, gender, test scores and GPAs of applicants in order to scrutinize whether colleges are giving minorities priority in admissions. Basically, if you happen to be a different skin color, or a different class, or a different whatever than the current president, you aren’t wanted at Harvard University “under his discretion.”
Thankfully, there are still some sensible people in this world, including Mr. Ament of Harvard, who says that this is a “tactic to try and stop institutions from accepting disadvantaged
students.” As to where Providence Universities fit in the picture, Brown University has already given the administration “full access” to standardized test scores, students’ GPAs, and race. As if it weren’t hard enough for students to get into Ivy League colleges in the first place.
To put it simply, says Ted Mitchell, American Counsel of Education Director, “This is a fishing expedition.”
With Kamala Harris just about to tour her new book 107 Days, around the US, conveniently, Trump has revoked her secret service status. While people in the US and internationally are taking significant blows from this administration, I’m hopeful that we will eventually rise above the darkness; whether it’s in 2028 or sooner. Perhaps we will slowly start to return to whatever form of sanity we can find. Even if we have to fight for all students’ access to universities and a good education. And that, really, is the most important fight we can go out in droves for right now.
Illustration by Olivia Lunger