Write an article about Far beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam \u2013 Sun Sentinel .Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) and made content unique, Retain any existing tags from <\/p>\n
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH<\/p>\n
Ken Beckley never went to Harvard, but he has been wearing a crimson Harvard cap in a show of solidarity. As he sees it, the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his own alma mater, Indiana University.<\/p>\n
Beckley, a former head of the school\u2019s alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University\u2019s Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements.<\/p>\n
No government effort to influence a university \u2014 private or public \u2014 has gotten more attention than the clash at Harvard, where the Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding as it seeks a series of policy changes. But far beyond the Ivy League, Republican officials are targeting public universities in several states with efforts seeking similar ends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happened nationally is now affecting Indiana,\u201d said Beckley, who bought Harvard caps in bulk and passes them out to friends.<\/p>\n
Officials in conservative states took aim at higher education before President Donald Trump began his second term, driven in part by the belief that colleges are out of touch \u2014 too liberal and loading up students with too much debt. The first efforts focused on critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation\u2019s institutions, and then on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n
Since Trump took office, officials in states including Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Idaho increasingly have focused on university governance \u2014 rules for who picks university presidents and boards and how much control they exert over curriculums and faculty tenure.<\/p>\n
As at Harvard, which Trump has decried as overly influenced by liberal thinking, those state officials have sought to reduce the power of faculty members and students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve realized that they can take a bit of a step further, that they can advance their policy priorities through those levers they have through the state university system,\u201d said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow who studies higher education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n
In Indiana, Braun said he picked new trustees who will guide the school \u201cback in the right direction.\u201d They include an anti-abortion attorney and a former ESPN host who was disciplined because she criticized the company\u2019s policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Braun\u2019s administration has ramped up scrutiny of hiring practices at colleges statewide. Indiana\u2019s attorney general, Todd Rokita, has sent letters to the University of Notre Dame, Butler University and DePauw University questioning the legality of their DEI programs.<\/p>\n
Butler, a private, liberal arts school in Indianapolis, was founded by an abolitionist in the decade leading up to the Civil War and admitted women and students of color from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that Butler will uphold the standards they were founded on,\u201d said Edyn Curry, president of Butler\u2019s Black Student Union.<\/p>\n
In Florida, the state university system board in June rejected longtime academic Santa Ono for the presidency at the University of Florida, despite a unanimous vote of approval by the school\u2019s own Board of Trustees. The unprecedented reversal followed criticism from conservatives about Ono\u2019s past support for DEI programs.<\/p>\n
That followed the conservative makeover of New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school once known as the state\u2019s most progressive. After Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a group of conservatives to its governing board, many faculty left, including Amy Reid, who now manages a team focused on higher education at the free-expression group PEN America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen our students started organizing at New College, one of their slogans was \u2018Your Campus is Next,\u2019\u201d said Reid, who saw the gender studies program she directed defunded and then cut. \u201cSo no, we\u2019re not surprised when you see other states redefining what can be in a general education class, because we\u2019ve seen it happen already.\u201d<\/p>\n
The changes at several public universities are proceeding without battles of the kind seen at Harvard. In a standoff seen widely as a test of private universities\u2019 independence, Harvard has filed lawsuits against the administration\u2019s moves to cut its federal funding and block its ability to host international students.<\/p>\n
In Iowa, new DEI restrictions are taking effect in July for community colleges. And the board that governs the state\u2019s three public universities is weighing doing something similar to Idaho, where a new law imposes restrictions on requiring students to take DEI-related courses to meet graduation requirements.<\/p>\n
Historically, the Iowa board has been focused on big-picture issues like setting tuition rates and approving degree programs. Now, there\u2019s a perceived sense that faculty should not be solely responsible for academic matters and that the trustees should play a more active role, said Joseph Yockey, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and the former president of Iowa\u2019s faculty senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we started to see more recently is trustees losing confidence,\u201d Yockey said.<\/p>\n
A new law in Ohio bans DEI programs at public colleges and universities and also strips faculty of certain collective bargaining rights and tenure protections.<\/p>\n
There are few guardrails limiting how far oversight boards can change public institutions, said Isabel McMullen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin who researches higher education.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a board that really does want to wreak havoc on an institution and overthrow a bunch of different programs, I think if a board is interested in doing that, I don\u2019t really see what\u2019s stopping them aside from students and faculty really organizing against it,\u201d McMullen said.<\/p>\n
The initiatives on state and federal levels have led to widespread concerns about an erosion of college\u2019s independence from politics, said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to not only face an attack from the state legislature, but also from the federal government as well,\u201d said Kamola, who is also a professor of political science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.<\/p>\n
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a pair of bills in June that impose new limits on student protests and give gubernatorial-appointed boards that oversee the state\u2019s universities new powers to control the curriculum and eliminate degree programs.<\/p>\n
Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group, said politicians in the state are taking control of universities to dictate what is acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone controls the dissemination of ideas, that is a really dangerous sign for the future of democracy,\u201d Samuels said.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old who is transgender and nonbinary went to college in Massachusetts and got into Harvard for graduate school, but as the Trump administration began targeting the institution, he instead chose to return to his home state and attend the University of Texas in Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI at least knew what to expect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
____<\/p>\n
The Associated Press\u2019 education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM EDT<\/p>\n
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