Remarkably, however, there is little comparable effort among university leaders to coordinate a political response to attacks on academic independence by the administration. Whatever the organizers’ intentions, the signal sent — to the president and to other university leaders — is that appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not. If America’s university presidents believe that their foremost responsibility is simply to keep their institutions operational — collecting tuition and protecting endowments — they are mistaken. Recent congressional hearings — in which university presidents delivered lawyered, evasive answers to basic moral questions — demonstrate the cost of substituting legalism for leadership. Higher education leaders know how to do this.

Source: Washington Post February 09, 2026 17:00 UTC