Inside Trump’s Campaign to Tame Higher Education
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- After President Trump's return to power, Justice Department civil rights lawyer Hector F. Ruiz was instructed to open investigations into over a dozen universities, marking a departure from usual fact-gathering procedures and raising concerns of political motivation.
- Ruiz and 17 of his team members resigned within months, yet the Trump administration continued to investigate at least 75 universities on issues like antisemitism and student aid fraud, despite denials of wrongdoing and court rulings against some of their methods.
- The campaign reflects a broader effort by the Trump administration to target political rivals and reshape university cultures, labeling institutions as hubs of "woke" ideology and using investigations alongside threats to federal funding to pressure colleges.
- This approach has led to self-censorship among professors
