And Then They Came for…You. 

Universities…universities…oh wherefore art thou universities. Where are you for your students? For the attacks on freedom of expression? On protest? Why all of a sudden are some of the most powerful institutions outside the government—higher education institutions—going silent when the attacks on students reflect constitutional violations? And no, a “We did not aid the federal agents” does not suffice. 

The knee-jerk defense? It seems to be, “They [the government] won’t come for us if we cooperate.”, which, by the way, is an eerie and dystopian sentence to write about the United States government. Inaction is complicit in supporting the behavior of the current administration, which, towards students, is akin to authoritarianism. I believe Martin Niemoller’s poem “First they came for the socialists…” is appropriate.  

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist. 

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–because I was not a Jew. 

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me. 

— Marin Niemöller

Will we only speak when there is no one left? As kids, our schools taught us to never be bystanders to bullying, but to speak up. So why are they the bystanders now? 

Few universities have been bold enough to outwardly defy the president. Yet they’ve survived. The dean of Georgetown Law has pushed back against a warning from top federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., regarding the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. While this warning did not directly involve student deportation threats, it reflects broader pressures on academic institutions. The prosecutor cautioned that Georgetown Law students would not be hired unless the school eliminated its DEI initiatives. By rejecting this demand, the university has demonstrated its support for its students rather than leaving them out to dry.

Dean William Treanor rightfully told the government that the First Amendment prohibited the government from dictating what Georgetown’s faculty taught or how to teach. This is how you counter the current administration. You remind them that they act within the confines of the law and the Constitution. 

Additionally, more than 600 Harvard Faculty members have urged the Governing Boards to resist demands from Trump. The President is not King—until we start treating him like one. There are limits to what the administration can do to private institutions, and if they stand up against this persecution, they can win. Universities are not alone. Most of them, however, rolled over. Though their students are being attacked, the silence is deafening, failing to address the constitutional violations at hand. 

However, we have moved past DEI threats and hiring fears. Now there is a fear of the unknown consequences of voicing an opinion deemed unacceptable by the administration. The most recent case is that of Rumeysa Ozturk. In a video regarding the detention, if you can call it that, masked figures approach her. No uniform, no badge in sight. Masked figures, with a black SUV. Detention…kidnapping…interchangeable words in this situation… all before anyone could even stop to think, “What about due process?”. 

She was not charged with a crime, and even though a federal judge ordered that she must not be moved outside of Massachusetts, she was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. What did she do? What so many of us choose to do in school newspapers: write an opinion. Her article called on Tufts to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel. A senior spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security found that she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans”, with no evidence to support the statement. 

Being pro-Palestine and against the genocide occurring in Gaza, where recently the death toll hit 50,000 Palestinians (most likely a higher number), is not equivalent to being pro-Hamas, or anti-American. Being against genocide and the violation of human rights does not mean you are anti-American. 

Even if you disapprove of the current state of affairs in the US (still, not anti-American), that is you exercising your constitutional right. You cannot cherry-pick rights. You can not vehemently defend the Second Amendment and use it to justify undermining the severity of gun laws after every school shooting, and yet ignore the existence of the First Amendment and crack down on students’ voices. 

One would actually assume that enforcement and protection of human rights are synonymous with the values of the Constitution’s birthplace. 

The US is becoming a society where disagreeing makes you the enemy. It has become a standard that if you disagree with a topic, especially a political one, that’s it. And if you are not an American citizen, it’s a ground for your visa to be terminated at the snap of a finger. 

What happened to intellectual debate? Engaging with opposing views? And most importantly, should you even be given the space to speak your mind, will you be protected? Will your institution support you? 

That remains to be seen, as the list of targeted academics grows. Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia junior who has lived in the US for 14 years with a green card, has had to ask a judge in New York for an order to prevent ICE from arresting her, while challenging the State Department’s determination that she undermines US foreign policy. 

Momodou Taall, a Cornell University graduate student with a student visa, and a dual United Kingdom and Gambia citizen, who filed a suit last week to block the executive order targeting antisemitism, has not been seen. Badar Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown, was arrested and taken to Louisiana. Peaceful protests or publishing an opinion article are not crimes. Why is the administration criminalizing students when we have neo-Nazi rallies occurring in Ohio, and the distribution of KKK leaflets? 

For students to be too terrified to speak out on their campus, to protest peacefully, which is a constitutional right, to speak out against what is happening in the world is not unacceptable–it’s antidemocratic. Yet, Columbia, for example, as a result of the administration’s decision to suspend funding (which has not yet been reinstated), banned masks at protests in most cases, enlisted 36 new campus security officers (with the ability to arrest students), and hired a senior vice provost to oversee the Department of the Middle East, South Asian and African studies. 

NYU also cancelled the ex-head of Doctors Without Borders, Dr. Joanne Liu’s talk on USAID cuts, because some of her slides were perceived as ‘anti-governmental’. Why are these institutions bowing down to a self-proclaimed King when they teach their students every day the principles of equality, government, law, or just basic principles of speaking out in the face of oppression?

Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, was “disappointed” that Columbia did not push back against the administration’s demands. “If the university won’t ‘stand up and fight back’ against government incursions, he said, “then it’s likely we won’t have the kind of higher education which has been the engine of this country’s economy and democracy for the last 100 years.” 

Jason Stanley, a Yale philosophy professor, and two of his colleagues are leaving to go to Canada. “Suddenly, if you’re not a citizen of the United States, you can’t comment on politics if you’re a professor?… That’s crazy, (…) that’s not a free society.” The final straw for Stanley in his decision to leave the United States was Columbia’s refusal to stand up to the Trump administration’s ordinance against them. 

This is not normal. Please, we cannot act as if this is normal. We cannot let stories of students being detained and deported be swept under the pile of headlines attempting to keep up after the Trump administration. 

The current administration’s strategy is to bombard the public with headlines, so we cannot keep track of what is happening, too busy turning our heads left and then right before realizing what is right in front of us. This is how things go unnoticed, these are how crimes are committed. Stop turning your head. 

There were 19.1 million students enrolled in US colleges in fall 2024. The government is the minority —the people who think that the detention and deportation of students because of protests, and free speech, are acceptable, in 2025, are a minority. If we say no, if we stand up to this, the university and students together, we can protect our academic freedom. The start of repressive regimes targets arts, culture, and education. Do not let the Trump administration continue steamrolling over the pillars of society. 

Dear Universities. Please. Students want to attend your institutions. We will support you. Support us too. 

Note from the Editor: The author of this opinion piece wished to remain anonymous. The Sundial Press is committed to publishing a diversity of views that represent the student cohort in all its variety.

Other posts that may interest you: