Academia Shrugged

Well, not quite. But who knows how this will develop. Stephanie Saul and Alan Blinder for the NYTimes (April 17, 2025): Emerging From a Collective Silence, Universities Organize to Fight Trump.

The Trump administration’s swift initial rollout of orders seeking more control over universities left schools thunderstruck. Fearing retribution from a president known to retaliate against his enemies, most leaders in higher education responded in February with silence.

But after weeks of witnessing the administration freeze billions in federal funding, demand changes to policies and begin investigations, a broad coalition of university leaders publicly opposing those moves is taking root. The most visible evidence yet was a statement last week signed by more than 400 campus leaders opposing what they saw as the administration’s assault on academia.

Although organizations of colleges and administrators regularly conduct meetings on a wide range of issues, the statement by the American Association of Colleges and Universities was an unusual show of unity considering the wide cross-section of interests it included: Ivy League institutions and community colleges, public flagship schools and Jesuit universities, regional schools and historically Black colleges.

“We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” the statement said.

Although it contained no concrete action, and what’s next was unclear, the collective stance reflected a group more galvanized than ever to resist.

400 may seem like a lot, but given the number of colleges and universities in the country, 6000, it's not a lot. Still, it's a start. At least someone is trying to say NO.

As for the title of my post, I'm referring to Ayn Rand's last novel, Atlas Shrugged:

The book depicts a dystopian United States in which heavy industry companies suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against "looters" who want to exploit their productivity. They discover that a mysterious figure called John Galt is persuading other business leaders to abandon their companies and disappear as a strike of productive individuals against the looters. The novel ends with the strikers planning to build a new capitalist society based on Galt's philosophy.

We're now living a dystopian novel in the United States. As for the universities withdrawing, what would that mean? I suppose it would mean the faculty. Where would the faculty withdraw too? Greenland? The total population of Greenland is about 60,000. There are roughly 1.5 million faculty in American colleges and universities. They aren't going to Greenland. Where could they go? Well, since the Feds appear ready to abandon Africa, they could go there. Maybe they could hide out in Wakanda behind the stealth technology provided by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Who knows, maybe they'd even hook up with The Mystic Jewels for the Propagation of Grace, Right Living, and Saturday Night through Historical Intervention by Any Means Necessary.