Duke students, staff to march on campus to defend higher education :: WRAL.com

Duke students, staff and faculty marched on campus Thursday afternoon in an effort to encourage university leaders to respond to recent moves by the Trump administration.

The demonstration is part of many planned across the country for the National Day of Action for Higher Education. Events range from lectures to walk-outs. 

Demonstrators at Duke wanted protections for international students, faculty and staff, and are requesting the university join a lawsuit against the Trump administration over policy changes. 

The demonstrations come after the Trump administration said it will freeze $2.2 billion in federal research grants for Harvard University, which is pushing back on demands for changes to campus policy including limiting activism on campus. 

In its refusal letter, Harvard said the government’s demands violate the school’s First Amendment rights and other civil rights laws.

Federal money is an investment and not an entitlement, federal officials wrote in a letter to Harvard last week, accusing the school of failing to meet civil rights obligations that are a condition for federal aid. They argued that Harvard has allowed political ideology to stifle intellectual creativity.

Trump’s campaign has targeted schools accused of tolerating antisemitism amid a wave of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses. Some of the government’s demands touch directly on that activism, calling on Harvard to impose tougher discipline on protesters and to screen international students for those who are “hostile to the American values.”

Other demands order Harvard to cease all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to end admissions or hiring practices that consider “race, color, national origin, or proxies thereof.”

Many of the same White House officials who are relishing the political attacks on the elite institutions are products of such schools themselves. Trump is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, while Vice President JD Vance has a degree from Yale Law School.

At least two Cabinet members — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy — earned degrees from Harvard. Hegseth scribbled “return to sender” on his Harvard diploma on live television as part of his crusade against so-called leftist causes at colleges and universities.

Harvard President Alan Garber said the demands go beyond the government’s authority. In a campus message, he wrote that “no government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

The Day of Action also comes after students at some universities have seen their student visas revoked by the Trump administration.

Two students the North Carolina State University and six others at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently had their student visas revoked. 

More National Day of Action events in North Carolina

At North Carolina State University, a workshop will be held for faculty on how to pitch, write and publish successful opinion articles in support of higher education and fully funded research projects. 

At Elon University, the American Association of University Professors will hold a day of action including teach-ins at an outdoor space on campus. 

At Wake Forest University students will hold a watch party and open discussion from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

At UNC-Charlotte, the American Association of University Professors will collect stories from students, staff and faculty about how eliminations of DEI, grant funding, the Department of Education and other changes in national and state policies are affecting the lives of campus community. There will also be all day screenings of AAUP webinars and an evening screening and discussion with community representatives of the 2024 film “Borderland.”

At Coastal Carolina University, the American Association of University Professors and other groups will hold a town hall to discuss what its local chapter is doing to protect and defend academics.