Going to college may not seem very political. If you’re a freshman, you’re probably just looking to get a degree and get out. Maybe you already have plans for getting your master’s degree afterwards. Unless you plan on being politically active in college, it is entirely conceivable that you will make your way through the next four years without coming into contact with that dirty word: politics. But politics and education are very much intertwined, and brushing past this reality is no longer affordable. In the face of repeated attacks on education from the Donald Trump administration, your learning in itself is resistance to the regime.
The conservative war on higher education is far from new, although it has reached a boiling fever pitch in recent years. For decades, the right has accused colleges of being too liberal. Student activism against the Vietnam War in the 1960s caused many conservatives to rail against universities for letting protests continue, and this through line has continued into the age of Trump.
Trump and the Republican Party have not made any secret of their opposition to universities and education in general. Their philosophy was neatly set out back in 2021, when Vice President JD Vance argued that “universities are the enemy,” calling higher education “a hostile institution.” In 2023, the protests on campuses across the country against the ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza intensified anger on the right towards universities. During Trump’s 2024 campaign, he ranted that colleges had become “dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” This claim is demonstrably false – although colleges do tend to be more liberal-leaning than the rest of the country, the young people who attend are also naturally more liberal, and higher education often makes people shift to the left. In other words, liberalism in college is more of a natural byproduct than a nefarious domination by left-wing influences. But despite the outlandishness and exaggeration of the verbal attacks, Trump has been willing to go much farther than any previous president in the collegiate culture war, acting extremely aggressively towards higher education and making it an especially dangerous time for universities.
The Trump administration’s assault on universities has been carried out in several ways; the first is using financial pressure. At Harvard, for instance, Trump froze more than $2.2 billion in federal grants and attempted to bar the school from admitting international students after it refused to fold under government pressure and change its policies around diversity, equity and inclusion.
Although the controversy around Trump’s attacks on Harvard and other Ivy League schools made the most headlines, colleges were targeted across the country, including right here at the University of Connecticut. According to statistics from the Center for American Progress, UConn has been marked for a loss of nearly $18 million in federal grants. These grants, mainly coming from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health, were intended to fund important and ongoing research. If Trump’s plan to cut this funding succeeds, vital research efforts will stall and potentially collapse, leaving future progress in the lurch and jeopardizing jobs.
In addition to the monetary warfare, the federal government also revoked the visas of 13 international students at UConn, before eventually restoring them. This followed a countrywide pattern of student visas being revoked, mostly without rhyme or reason, which put many colleges and their students on the back foot.
Trump’s insistence on dismantling the Department of Education, a policy which Ronald Reagan first advocated for and which the conservative Supreme Court recently sanctioned, also stands to negatively affect college students. Since the DOE helps give college-goers federal student loans and aid, obliterating its operations would force these loans to move under the purview of other federal agencies. And with virtually all other federal entitities having their own budgets and workforces slashed, the government may not be ready to handle the loans that many college students need to attend their institutions.
Against this hostile backdrop, getting a degree has become much more political. Since Trump has put himself in direct opposition to universities themselves, the new freshmen of colleges everywhere are now in his crosshairs, like it or not. If, as Vance puts it, universities are the enemy, those who attend them are also opponents of the right. If you are a freshman just entering college, I urge you to embrace this identity. As you navigate your classes, remember that one need not do anything political to be a part of politics. As you do your homework, remember that your education is a powerful tool. As you study for your exams, remember that your learning is an act of resistance against Trump.