Standing Up for Higher Education

My Remarks at the Stand Up, Harvard! Rally

Below is a transcript of my remarks delivered at the Stand Up, Harvard! Rally on April 12, 2025, in Cambridge Common. The short remarks articulate why Harvard and other universities must push back on Trump’s attack on higher education.

Protestors in Cambridge Common, April 12, 2025. Source: Boston Globe

It is amazing to see everyone out here standing up for Harvard and standing up for our community.

I am here with you standing up because I understand that what Donald Trump is trying to do to our community is an attack on free speech and an attack on democracy.

When authoritarians attack democracy, they attack universities. Because universities are places of free thought. Vladimir Putin attacked universities in Russia. Victor Orban attacked universities in Hungary. But we aren’t going to let that happen here. We are going to stand up.

Let me tell you something. My colleagues and I organized a letter asking Harvard professors to sign their names telling Harvard to stand up to these attacks on higher education. Over 800 faculty signed.

But you know who couldn’t sign their name? I heard from dozens of professors, people who aren’t citizens, who said they wanted to sign but they were afraid of retribution. Nobody in the United States should have to be afraid to speak their mind. Nobody should have to be afraid to criticize their own government. So, we need to stand up for those people who can’t be heard right now.

And let me tell you, when I have called on Harvard to speak up in defense of higher education, I have heard from people across the country who have said “Yes, we are waiting on you Harvard. When will you speak up? If you don’t speak up, who will?” We need to stand up for the people who are asking us to stand up.

And I want to tell you about my hometown. I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California, in a poor agricultural community. When I was a kid, my hometown was on hard times. But you know what we heard? We heard that the University of California was going to open a new campus somewhere in the San Joaquin Valley to bring education to the region. And people dreamed that the new university would be in my town. So, people organized and they lobbied and they worked for it. And that university did open, and it transformed my community. It brought jobs, it brought new knowledge, and it brought pride. This is what universities can do for a community. Donald Trump wants to take all of that away. But we are going to stand up and stop him.

And let me tell you about another place that was once dreaming of a university. When the Pilgrims came to Boston, looking for religious freedom, they knew that free people needed education, so one of the first things they did was go across the Charles River and founded a new town and a new college. They had big aspirations for that little town, so they named it Cambridge after the famous university in England. That new little town grew into this wonderful, thriving, diverse community we stand in today. A community and a university admired across the world. Donald Trump is trying to take it away. But we are going to stand up and stop him.

And when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts set up a Constitution for their new free people, they wrote in that Constitution that “Wisdom, and knowledge…[are] necessary for the preservation of…rights and liberties…[so] this commonwealth [will] CHERISH the university at Cambridge.” That’s actually the word they used “CHERISH”.

And after the birth of the United States, the Harvard graduate John Adams said that higher education was necessary for the preservation of the free people in the new republic. He said that “no expense . . . would be too extravagant” to support education. Donald Trump is trying to take away what we cherish. But we are not going to let that happen because no expense is too great to keep us from standing up for education.

Donald Trump is trying to take away higher education. He is trying to take away free speech. He is trying to take away democracy. He is trying to take away our community. But we are going to stand up and stop him.

So, let me ask you:

Will you stand up for the people who need us to stand up for them?

Will you stand for our democracy?

Will you stand up for our universities?

Will you stand up for our community?