Letters to the Editor: Trump’s battle with Harvard marks ‘a defining moment for America’

To the editor: I just spent a year and four months making a film at Harvard, the third film I’ve made there in the past seven years. I worked closely with faculty and undergraduates, including international students, on two of those projects. The accusations against Harvard by President Trump via Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are complete nonsense (“Trump administration bars Harvard from enrolling foreign students,” May 22). Never in my life have I had the good fortune to be immersed in such a welcoming, stimulating place of scholarship and resources for learning about every subject one can imagine.

It’s obvious that Trump is throwing every weapon in his arsenal at Harvard for one reason only: Harvard defied his strong-arm attempt to tell the university whom to admit, whom to hire and what to teach. If Harvard succeeds in retaining its intellectual freedom, Trump will be revealed as an emperor with no clothes. He put himself in a position where he can’t back down. He’s made all-out war his only option.

This is a defining moment for America. “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” Noem belligerently threatened. If Trump succeeds in crushing Harvard, all other American institutions of learning, science and humanities will be at risk. Harvard has a unique reservoir of legal and financial resources, but it can’t withstand the power of the United States government alone. All universities must unite in defying Trump’s absurd, malevolent demands.

Peter Coonradt, Redlands

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To the editor: Trump is clearly hostile to elite private universities, but his antipathy toward Harvard stands out.

It seems the motivation is to destroy Harvard. Why? Perhaps the president, known for holding grudges and wanting revenge, has a reason specific to Harvard. We know he attended Fordham, then transferred to Penn, an Ivy League school. What we don’t know is where else he applied, only to be rejected, 60 years ago. Harvard?

Richard Merel, Hermosa Beach

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To the editor: Trump and Noem couldn’t care less about the safety of Jewish students. They care deeply about dissent. We are on a very slippery slope.

Patrick Mauer, Pasadena

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To the editor: As a former U.S. foreign student in Asia and a Fulbrighter in Canada, I’d hate to see other nations reciprocate in kind.

T.D. Proffitt, Santa Ana