Hong Kong University of Science and Technology – What we stand for and how we can stand to improve the U.S. Government’s response to Trump

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has also invited current and prospective international undergraduates and postgraduates at Harvard and other US universities to transfer to HKUST, and at least one other Hong Kong-based university has offered similar support.

According to an April statement from the Joint Task Force to combat antisemitism, Harvard’s lack of compliance demonstrates the troubling entitlement mentality that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges. In recent years, learning has been disrupted on campuses. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support.”

Harvard has become a target of the Trump administration in recent weeks. In April, the university declined to agree to the government’s demands for greater oversight of its admissions and hiring practices in order to continue receiving federal money. The government has since cut billions of dollars in federal funding in the form of thousands of grants to researchers at the university.

We must be firm in our commitment to what we stand for. And what we stand for – I believe I speak for other universities – is education, pursuit of the truth, helping to educate people for better futures. Our own students, after they graduates from our institutions, are supposed to serve the world. We’re about serving and producing knowledge for our nation and the world. When we fail in that, then we can expect to be attacked. I think we need to double our commitment to the nation and the world. My fellow leaders are fully supportive of that.

As evidence of how his university’s work directly benefits the U.S. public, Garber points to recent honors awarded to Harvard faculty by the Breakthrough Prize, known as “The Oscars of Science,” for their work on obesity and diabetes drugs and gene editing, used to correct disease-causing genetic variations.

Harvard’s president tells the truth about the U.S. and its foreign students’ home countries – a real problem that we need to address

After a federal judge halted the administration from revoking Harvard’s ability to allow international students to attend, Trump posted on his truth social that the students’ home countries are not at all friendly to the U.S. The president’s post also said his administration wants “to know who those foreign students are.”

Over that period of time, there has been great division on campus. There are professors and students who disagree on what the university should do. The main purpose of the report was to identify the issues that we face, particularly with regard to our Jewish and Israeli students. Some of those recommendations we had already adopted, some we are currently working through. But I do believe that we have a real problem in this regard, or we had a real problem. We have done a lot to address it, and will continue working at it.

Alan Garber: In my view, the federal government is saying that we need to address antisemitism in particular, but it has raised other issues, and it includes claims that we lack viewpoint diversity. We believe that we have issues, and I would emphasize the speech issues. Faculty at some research universities feel like they have to think twice before talking about subjects that they’re teaching if students don’t feel free to speak their minds. That is a serious problem that we need to address. And it’s particularly concerning when people have views that they think are unpopular. And the administration and others have said conservatives are too few on campus and their views are not welcome. In so far as that’s true, that’s a problem we really need to address.

They aren’t true to the best of my knowledge. I need to add, by the way, that this is clearly the subject of litigation, as you pointed out earlier. So we have endeavored to comply fully in line with the law.

Source: As Trump targets elite schools, Harvard’s president says they should ‘stand firm’

The Harvard Lawsuit: Funding the International Students in the U.S. Senate and Senate Majors in Light of the Annihilation Proclamation

Inskeep: Is that a small example of what you’re trying to do in a large way? You want to allow all sorts of ideas, but you want people to be able to engage each other civilly.

Inskeep: Is this what you mean when, in the lawsuit, you say that without international students, which is a quarter of your student body, Harvard would not be Harvard?

What would you tell someone in the middle of the country who is listening to us, that they really don’t have a stake in this? I did not go to Harvard. I’m not sending my kid to Harvard. I don’t like Harvard very much. This seems to be about a different group of people. Harvard deserves what they are getting. In any case, it isn’t important to me. What would you say to somebody who has that attitude?

Garber: I would ask them to learn a little bit more, not only about Harvard, but about universities like Harvard – that is research universities. At the center of our university is where teaching and learning takes place. But actually, if you look at the activities of the university, so much of this is about research. There are so many discoveries from Harvard and other universities that have resulted in improvements in the treatment of cancer.

Source: As Trump targets elite schools, Harvard’s president says they should ‘stand firm’

What is the government trying to do when you’re spending? A warning to research universities in the U.S., and a warning to other universities

Garber: I would say that the federal government has the authority through the budgeting process to reallocate funds. But the question is, what is he trying to solve by doing that? Almost all of the federal funding that we get is used to pay for research universities to do in the form of grants and contracts. So in reallocating to some other use, including trade schools, it means that work just won’t be performed. Is the use of federal funding the most effective? Do you want to curtail your research spending? I don’t care if it goes to a trade school or if it works on highways. The real question is, how much value does the federal government get from its expenditures on research? There is a lot of actual research demonstrating the returns to the American people have been enormous.

The person is called Garber. Well, they said it and I have to believe it, and I’ve repeated it myself. And that is how it’s understood by the other leaders of other universities that I have spoken to. It’s a warning. If you don’t comply with the demands of the government, these will be consequences.