Upon Further Review, the Northwestern Capitulation Still Stinks

My initial reaction to Northwestern University's settlement with the Trump administration was dropping a couple of F-bombs on social media and calling the school's administrators a bunch of cowards. It was the sort of knee-jerk response I try to avoid, but now a week later, I don't think I'd change a thing. Indeed, upon further review, the Northwestern capitulation still stinks and I'm convinced will seem even worse in hindsight.

My personal story involves degrees from three schools – a bachelor's in history from Princeton, a master's in journalism from Northwestern and a law degree from Ohio State – and it's been interesting to watch the schools' different approaches to Trump's higher-education shakedown.

Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber has been uniformly excellent, at least in public, saying all of the right things about academic freedom and freedom of speech, and refusing to sign any kind of deal with the Trump administration. Princeton launched a campaign called Stand Up for Princeton and Higher Education that encourages students, professors, administrators and alumni to share their stories and build a community that loudly advocates for higher education and scientific and medical research. It's been refreshing to see one of our elite institutions stand up for what's right, and I'm proud to call myself an alum.

I expected the least from Ohio State, and the school has not failed to disappoint. I really don't mean that as much of a dig. It's a big state school in a big red state that has enacted some ridiculous legislation that meddles in the school's academic affairs and administration separate from whatever Trump's cronies are trying to accomplish. It would be amazing if Ohio State against all odds chose to fight the full-frontal assault on higher education, but that's just not realistic with a board of trustees beholden to Les Wexner and a reactionary administration. President Ted Carter is looking kind of like an anti-Eisgruber, and his wingman E. Gordon Gee – hired by the university as a consultant for "intellectual diversity" – is writing Fox News op-eds and doing what E. Gordon Gee does best, which is collect paychecks for doing . . . nobody knows what, exactly.

That left Northwestern, and, hoo boy, what a bummer that it chose to surrender, particularly in this moment. The days since the deal was announced have been marked by numerous revelations about the Trump administration's lawless campaign to blow up people in boats, insanely racist rants by the President and multiple corrupt pardons, to say nothing of the dozens of other outrages I could mention. Point being, this is what Northwestern has not only surrendered to but aligned itself with. By playing along with this charade, Northwestern is supporting the administration not just in its efforts to strangle higher education, but in all of its other wanton lawlessness, whether or not it wants to admit that. How could Northwestern's board go along with this? How could it allow an 86-year-old interim president – Henry Bienen, who was president of Northwestern when I received my master's twenty-five years ago! – to commit the university to terms that will impact it for generations?

This is another example of an institution seemingly unable or unwilling to believe that this moment is going to pass and these people are not going to be in power forever. But what Northwestern has done will last forever. This is now forever part of its story. When it mattered most, the school made a deal with the bad guys. It's as simple as that. And it's a permanent stain.