Far Beyond Harvard, Conservative Efforts to Reshape Higher Education Are Gaining Steam
24 July 2025 | The Indian Express
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’s attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his alma mater, Indiana University.
Beckley, a former head of the school’s alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Governor Mike Braun, a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University’s Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements.
No government effort to influence a university — private or public—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….