Carnegie Mellon president joins university leaders in condemning ‘unprecedented government overreach’

Presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including a dozen in Pennsylvania, have co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government.

Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian was the lone co-signer from a Southwestern Pennsylvania institution. A Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman said the university had no additional comment.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, other co-signers from Pennsylvania institutions included presidents from Alle­gheny College in Meadville, Bryn Mawr College, Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Haverford College, Juniata College in Huntingdon, Lafayette College in Easton, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Ursinus College in Collegeville.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding to colleges and universities in an effort to get them to comply with various demands and directives.

“We speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” read the letter, published Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

The letter continued: “We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live and work on our campuses.”

The letter said U.S. colleges and universities “have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.”

In the Trump administration’s escalating showdown with higher education, Harvard University announced Monday that it filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.

The administration has argued universities allowed antisemitism to go unchecked at campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza.

“The Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation,” said the lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court.

The White House responded quickly.

“The gravy train of federal assistance to institutions like Harvard, which enrich their grossly overpaid bureaucrats with tax dollars from struggling American families is coming to an end,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in an email. “Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege.”

Harvard President Alan M. Garber was among the college and university presidents to co-sign Tuesday’s letter, along with presidents of all other Ivy League institutions except for Dartmouth College.

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel, who heads Western Pennsylvania’s largest institution of higher education, did not co-sign the letter sent Tuesday. The university could not immediately explain why. Pitt is a member of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

The Associated Press contributed.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect additional colleges and universities co-signing the letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.