Right to notice the comparable fear that had been emanating from conservative Christians for awhile (indeed, many liberal voices were recently claiming that institutions like my own Christian college, in the news for multiple LGBTQ debacles, should be denied any 'federal funds,' even those used by students to pay tuition, e.g. Pell grants or loans). However there are a few crucial differences between that concern and the direct action being taken against Columbia, Penn, Harvard, etc. (which I find horrific, btw). First is that Trump's leverage here is largely at the level of federal research grants, especially those in medicine and the sciences... and most small Christian colleges do not depend on those (and when he soon tries to tax or control their huge endowments, same result: most Christian colleges only have small ones). Second, American freedom of religion laws should guarantee that federal (or even state) oversight cannot encroach on religious non-profits, including colleges. And third, those same freedom of religion laws arguably extend to a student's right to use federal aid to attend a religious college if they choose it: most courts would view a federal restriction on not using such aid at religious colleges as a way of punishing or marginalizing those who might desire a religious education.
(Sidebar: it should be clear that what Trump is doing now is straight out of the fascist playbook: you intimidate the elite intellectual centers, universities, and especially the powerful and prestigious ones, in order to control them and silence the critics at each because you know they lean progressive... but they also teach students to think for themselves. And you'd do it -- in classic propagandistic style -- in the name of free speech when your real aim is to stifle such speech. To the extent that left-leaning politicians usually do not have such fascist goals, doing such looks unlikely when it comes to Christian colleges. Nevertheless the proof of concept thought should be disturbing.)
For a state, their universities, public/private/religious/secular are all important resources for training young people, creating wealth and creating an educated workforce. For the federal government, universities are not viewed inherently as assets, but as political footballs. You are right to expect more of this from both sides. I teach at a Christian university and have been accused of being woke by someone who knew nothing about my university, and wondered what kind of diversity training (which they viewed as indoctrination) I had experienced.
Right to notice the comparable fear that had been emanating from conservative Christians for awhile (indeed, many liberal voices were recently claiming that institutions like my own Christian college, in the news for multiple LGBTQ debacles, should be denied any 'federal funds,' even those used by students to pay tuition, e.g. Pell grants or loans). However there are a few crucial differences between that concern and the direct action being taken against Columbia, Penn, Harvard, etc. (which I find horrific, btw). First is that Trump's leverage here is largely at the level of federal research grants, especially those in medicine and the sciences... and most small Christian colleges do not depend on those (and when he soon tries to tax or control their huge endowments, same result: most Christian colleges only have small ones). Second, American freedom of religion laws should guarantee that federal (or even state) oversight cannot encroach on religious non-profits, including colleges. And third, those same freedom of religion laws arguably extend to a student's right to use federal aid to attend a religious college if they choose it: most courts would view a federal restriction on not using such aid at religious colleges as a way of punishing or marginalizing those who might desire a religious education.
(Sidebar: it should be clear that what Trump is doing now is straight out of the fascist playbook: you intimidate the elite intellectual centers, universities, and especially the powerful and prestigious ones, in order to control them and silence the critics at each because you know they lean progressive... but they also teach students to think for themselves. And you'd do it -- in classic propagandistic style -- in the name of free speech when your real aim is to stifle such speech. To the extent that left-leaning politicians usually do not have such fascist goals, doing such looks unlikely when it comes to Christian colleges. Nevertheless the proof of concept thought should be disturbing.)
For a state, their universities, public/private/religious/secular are all important resources for training young people, creating wealth and creating an educated workforce. For the federal government, universities are not viewed inherently as assets, but as political footballs. You are right to expect more of this from both sides. I teach at a Christian university and have been accused of being woke by someone who knew nothing about my university, and wondered what kind of diversity training (which they viewed as indoctrination) I had experienced.