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Since Jan. 20, many of us in higher education have felt like one of the punching bags for the Trump administration and wondered when and where the fight back would begin.
Thus far, that fight has been relegated mainly to courts of law. Two examples: The American Council on Education and others filed a joint lawsuit challenging the decision to cap the indirect cost rate for National Institutes of Health grants and received a permanent nationwide injunction.
And the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government on behalf of international scholars who are having their student visas revoked and have nearly 90 amicus briefs filed in support. Those are necessary words and actions, but the energy on social media from people on campuses has pushed for a different kind of fight.
On Monday, Harvard University brought the kind of fight that many of us wanted to see on behalf of the industry, by taking the battle to the court of public opinion. We wanted an institution to push back on why we do what we do and the value we bring. And as a communicator, I wanted that pushback to be done with words and actions.
And Harvard delivered.
This fight could only be brought and sustained by an institution with a brand and an endowment as large as Harvard’s so that others can join. This is going to be costly and bloody, but their rollout was done well and in a way that only an institution in their position could enact.
With approximately two weeks until May 1, the traditional admitted student decision day, Harvard knew it had the luxury of pivoting its website away from a prospective student audience to solely respond to the critiques levied against higher education by the Trump administration. Their redesign is sleek and beautifully walks visitors through the impact Harvard’s research makes and humanizes the faculty researchers who perform it.
In addition, the university created a page that outlines the range of innovations from Harvard researchers and faculty so that people understand Harvard’s marks can be found on Sesame Street and among medical breakthroughs, and its researchers’ impacts are commonplace in our daily lives.
In its statement, Harvard focused on “the promise of higher education” and broadened its language to focus on all of the academy, not just one campus, the Ivies or research universities. This language provides an important shelter for all institutions to huddle under during this current storm, and I want to be clear that the words Harvard chose matter.
I continue to advocate that we can only win the public’s support if we can describe in very clear language how our work directly impacts the average person’s life. Institutions need to stop complaining that they are losing billions in funding support—which is hard to process when people are worried about the price of eggs—and pivot to explaining how research dollars are investments in institutions. That allows for an explanation of the multiplier effects of these dollars by institutions in local economies as employers, to advance medical technology and provide medical care, to create technology and agricultural advancements, and to support local schools and communities. I would argue that higher education represents the promise of America’s future, and research fuels it.
I’ve advocated for higher education to “go to the mattresses” since the administration referenced its desire to kneecap higher education and began to implement its plan. This phrase is a reference to The Godfather; in the movie You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hanks’s character describes what this phrase means to Meg Ryan’s character. He types into an antiquated AOL chat screen, “It’s not personal, it’s business. Recite that to yourself every time you feel you’re losing your nerve. I know you worry about being brave. Don’t. This is your chance. Fight.”
These words are the same advice I would give to any student, staffer, faculty member, administrator or board member. But in this case, it is personal and it is business and this is your chance. Fight.
