Elite Universities Form Private Collective to Resist Trump Administration

And you wonder what kind of sheet for brains woke dilettants run our elite universities. Rule 1 about survival. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Private Universities aren't entitled to anything from American taxpayers.

These guys either kiss the ring or they're going to kiss the end of a swinging Louisville Slugger.

Elite Universities Form Private Collective to Resist Trump Administration

Separate from public dissent, group of school leaders strategize behind scenes about how to respond and push back against White House

By Emily Glazer, Douglas Belkin and Juliet Chung, WSJ

April 27, 2025 7:46 pm ET

Leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have assembled a private collective to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on research funding and academic independence across higher education, according to people familiar with the effort.

The informal group currently includes about 10 schools, including Ivies and leading private research universities, mostly in blue states. Strategy discussions gained momentum after the administration’s recent list of demands for sweeping cultural change at Harvard, viewed by many universities as an assault on independence.

The collective, as some are calling it, represents a separate, quiet and potentially more potent effort than recent public resolutions from university-aligned groups.

The group comprises figures at the highest levels, including individual trustees and presidents. Maintaining close contact, they have discussed red lines they won’t cross in negotiations and have gamed out how to respond to different demands presented by the Trump administration, which has frozen or canceled billions in research funding at schools it says haven’t effectively combated antisemitism on their campuses.

The group’s aim is to avoid the fate of some top law firms, where one deal led to others following suit. The universities want to make sure other schools don’t go so far as to strike deals that create a worrisome precedent that others would be under pressure to follow, say the people familiar with the effort.

The Trump administration has been worried schools would team up in resistance, because it is harder to negotiate with a united front, according to a source familiar with the government task force. Within the past two months the task force warned leadership at at least one school not to cooperate with other schools to defend against the task force demands, said one person familiar with the warning.

The White House didn’t respond Sunday to a request for comment.

So far, the allied university leaders agree that one red line for them is relinquishing academic independence, including autonomy over admissions, hiring, and what they teach and how it is taught.

One point some have discussed: Several of the schools have been in place for 300 years, while President Trump has been in office for three months, one of the people said.

Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber

Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber. Photo: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg News

Ted Mitchell, who leads the American Council on Education, said he was aware of the informal talks. “I’m encouraged that they’re going on,” he said. “This kind of exchange helps institutions understand the impacts of government actions across campuses and to identify critical non-negotiables that have no place in government regulation.”

A person familiar with the group of school leaders said that members expect their ranks will grow but that current members think of themselves “as ground zero of resistance.”

During his presidential campaign, Trump vowed “to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.” His administration formed the new Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which has used funding threats to force broader changes at universities, notably at Columbia University, which yielded to many demands.

Members of the loose collective have conducted scenario planning to develop responses for various attacks. One area for which they feel poorly prepared: the federal government denying schools the ability to enroll international students, who provide significant tuition revenue and intellectual firepower to campuses. The group also worries the federal government could hinder universities from hiring international faculty, say some of the people familiar with the discussions.

While the university leaders in discussions don’t plan to surrender operational independence of schools to the Trump administration, members might agree to cosmetic changes that allow the White House to look like it has won, according to one participant in the collective.

The initial call for university resistance began in February when the Trump administration ordered a cap on the amount of money schools could allocate for research overhead.

In early March, a judge froze that order. Then, after the task force froze funds at Columbia, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber wrote a column in the Atlantic implying collective action was needed.

“The attack on Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research,” Eisgruber wrote. “Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights.

While some university leaders were grateful, they worried that being publicly supportive would result in the Trump administration taking action, said one person familiar with the thinking at the time.

But the seed was planted and conversations about a collective response between presidents, trustees and senior university officials began taking place at previously scheduled conferences and meetings. As the Trump administration’s efforts expanded to more universities, some school trustees expressed a growing sense of camaraderie with one another and passed around notices of actions on social media.

The sense of mission deepened after the administration’s task force in mid-April sent Harvard a long list of demands, and Harvard went public with it. The list was perceived as broad overreach, said one participant in the collective. Demands included empowering the government to audit Harvard’s hiring and admissions, and audit its faculty for viewpoint diversity. Harvard President Alan Garber said the school couldn’t accept that infringement on their independence.

After Harvard rejected the demands, the Trump administration said it would cut $2.26 billion in research funding, and threatened the school’s tax-exempt status and ability to enroll international students. It also launched a probe into its record-keeping for foreign gifts. Harvard has since sued, with an initial hearing set for federal court in Boston on Monday.

Some people familiar with the group of university leaders said assembling a coalition in which some schools are members creates an out-group of those that aren’t members. That dynamic could serve to divide schools at a moment they are seeking to band together.

The collective is engaging behind the scenes, distinct from the public resistance cropping up in academia. These public statements include a petition from the American Association of Colleges and Universities condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American colleges and universities.” The petition has been signed by more than 500 higher-education leaders nationwide. Additionally, faculty groups at Big Ten schools including University of Michigan, Rutgers and Indiana University have passed resolutions urging their administrations to join an alliance to counter government attacks.

Write to Emily Glazer at Emily.Glazer@wsj.com, Douglas Belkin at Doug.Belkin@wsj.com and Juliet Chung at Juliet.Chung@wsj.com