The prestigious Ivy League private university has taken a stand against the Trump administration’s demands.

Briefly (see the link for full details), these set out a list that aims to reduce Harvard staff and student independence of action and thought diversity, ensure all hiring and admisissions have “viewpoint diversity”, subjects its newly required reports and audits to governmental oversight and approval and immediately shutter anything perceived as an application of what the United States refers to as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) practices in hiring staff and admitting students and ensure antisemitic regulations are clear. Those thought to have contributed to or incited anything antisemitic – a highly subjective determination often including things that are not truly antisemitic, thus shittign down discussion – are to be reported. The list also demands the enforcement of higher intellectual diversity – specifically adding more to the balance of conservative thinking. Harvard is viewed by some as an elite and overly liberal institution. A list of required changes to punishments, disciplinary actions for past perceived antisemitic activities and more clearly defined rules were also laid out.

The list of demands was refused.

But what if Harvard Univeristy loses?

In posting the headline, “If Harvard, armour-plated by history and padded with funds, can’t beat Trump, no one can,” The Guardian makes a point we should be scared of. If US universities cannot operate – teach, research, and produce new knowledge – in an intense, academic, questioning, discursive, specialised environment informed by knowledge of the past that increases the current knowledge of humanity, then where is that to be done?

The current US regime has requested organisations stop allowing a realistic cross-section of the community around us – a very diverse one – to partake in the higher learning pathway. THat limits the capacity to achieve for everyone. To represent all ideas. To better address your community’s research needs. And the idea that those from overseas or less-privileged backgrounds be given a hand up to the same level of opportunity as those coming from wealthier and better-connected backgrounds seems to have been considered horrific by this list of demands and by conservatives generslly. ‘This is not the kind of viewpoint diversity we are looking for’, I guess?

Harvard has already responded to, or is addressing, some of the issues in the list of demands. Despite that, Harvard is facing a growing range of punitive measures targeting what the government consider likeliest pressure points to bring them into line:

• Freeze 2.2bn in grants and $60m in multi-year contract funding leading to halts on a range of research projects
• Revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program status 
• The internal revenue service (IRS) is considering revlking Harvard’s tax-exempt status

So what if Harvard loses? It’s unlikely that any other US Universities will survive as the regime will learn from the successful use of pain points and apply more pressure or try stabbing elsewhere. Where will such structured learning take place if the University system is so significantly controlled by what seems to be an increasingly facist US regime? Nowhere. And in the typical style of our easily distracted neoliberal democacy, the US populace will probably forget what it had, that something bad happened and be enthralled by the next thing thrust upon it.

It may be that we’re witnessing the successful endgame of years of positioning and repositioning of anti-intellectual dominoes. Or perhaps Harvard can band together with more universities that have not yet acquiesced to federal demands and conduct a successful opposition.

America – this is something you could be losing that has made you as a nation, better, more innovative, more productive, and, of course, made you richer. Are you even aware of what’s at stake? Are you watching? What is the plan? It’s happening now. It’s happened before.