I compliment President Eisgruber for his leadership nationally in the support of academic freedom and specifically for his efforts on behalf of our Princeton community. As a Harvard professor (emeritus) at Harvard Medical School, I signed the early April letter by Harvard faculty urging the Harvard Trustees/Corporation to refuse the ultimatums of the Trump administration. And they did, providing leadership for the entire academic community. This has been extremely costly to Harvard. Retribution has included termination of many ongoing federal grants, blockage of new federal grants, lowering of the indirect cost rate of existing federal grants from around 70% to 15%, disruption of the visa process for international students, challenges to the nonprofit tax status of the university, and so on. The battle is on. The president has taken a 25% pay cut, senior tenured faculty have been asked to volunteer for a 10% pay cut. A hiring freeze is on. Some graduate programs are on hold for lack of training grant funds. As a physician-scientist, I am not alone in my concern for the future of America’s leadership in science, medicine, and education.
I compliment President Eisgruber for his leadership nationally in the support of academic freedom and specifically for his efforts on behalf of our Princeton community. As a Harvard professor (emeritus) at Harvard Medical School, I signed the early April letter by Harvard faculty urging the Harvard Trustees/Corporation to refuse the ultimatums of the Trump administration. And they did, providing leadership for the entire academic community. This has been extremely costly to Harvard. Retribution has included termination of many ongoing federal grants, blockage of new federal grants, lowering of the indirect cost rate of existing federal grants from around 70% to 15%, disruption of the visa process for international students, challenges to the nonprofit tax status of the university, and so on. The battle is on. The president has taken a 25% pay cut, senior tenured faculty have been asked to volunteer for a 10% pay cut. A hiring freeze is on. Some graduate programs are on hold for lack of training grant funds. As a physician-scientist, I am not alone in my concern for the future of America’s leadership in science, medicine, and education.