Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas: Governments Against Universities

News of political upheavals from the United States reaches us almost daily. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, government initiatives would extend to universities, writes Professor Rimvydas Petrauskas, Rector of Vilnius University.

At first, these took the form of more general warnings from the US administration and recommendations to revise policies on specific issues of interest to the government. The management at Columbia University has already complied with several government requirements.

However, a few weeks ago, drastic and direct action was taken. The US president decided to freeze approximately $2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University (a broader review of a $9 billion grant is reportedly pending), citing insufficient efforts to combat antisemitism on the university campuses.

The administration has also threatened to revoke the university’s special tax-exempt status, which it rightfully shares with many other educational and charitable institutions. Prior to this, the university had received a list of requirements, including the obligation to shut down certain operational programmes and areas, as well as to scrutinise students from abroad.

President Donald Trump's most recent decree initiated an investigation into foreign grants awarded to US universities. It is an action bearing a strong resemblance to the Russian government's notorious campaign against ‘foreign agents’.

In response, Harvard President Alan Garber issued a formal letter stating that the university would not compromise its academic independence and rights. He affirmed 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.”

Trump’s actions have been condemned by more than 100 US universities, which in an open letter expressed outrage at “unprecedented government overreach and political interference”, and Harvard has taken the US presidential administration to court.

There is more worrying news. In apparent alignment with the shift in President Trump’s policy toward Russia, the University of Minnesota has withdrawn its February 2022 statement condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It is reasonable to assume that similar instances may become more frequent, and the academic community is observing developments in the United States with growing apprehension. There is no doubt that a significant number of university community members now face the real threat of losing the ability to carry out planned research, or even their jobs or places of study. Some may simply refuse to continue working in such politically coercive conditions.

It did not take long for reactions to emerge. Just a few days ago, Ghent University in Belgium voiced concern over the state of academic freedom at US universities. It also issued a warning to its staff about potential travel restrictions to the United States and the risks associated with data sharing in specific fields subject to heightened scrutiny by the US administration.

The relationship between universities and public authorities has always been multifaceted. On the one hand, universities were established as communities of scholars and students, with the freedom to study and conduct research as a defining principle. On the other hand, universities came into being through the privileges and endowments granted by rulers – many of whom became eponyms of these institutions – and served to supply educated personnel for the expanding administrations of the said rulers.

Inevitably, this close relationship gave rise to tensions and complications, with some conflicts resulting in the mass departure of faculty and students. For instance, disaffected Oxford scholars relocated to Cambridge, while German academics dissatisfied with their status at the University of Prague emigrated to the newly established Leipzig University.

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, all authoritarian regimes have viewed universities as adversaries and have taken measures to suppress them.

The policies of Nazi Germany towards universities are well known; they were marked by strict control and the discrimination and persecution of academic personnel – regrettably, they were facilitated by many members of the academic world at the time.

Russian universities were among the first institutions where both the Soviet and Putin regimes imposed their rule and academic oppression, which led to the intellectual and moral decline of these institutions.

In his ongoing battle against liberal democracy, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán forced a successful international institution, Central European University (CEU), to relocate a significant portion of its operations to Vienna. Universities in other countries are also facing unlawful interference in their academic activities by public authorities.

It is easy to understand why universities have become targets for authoritarian governments. By their very nature, universities are centres of free teaching and learning, and more specifically and above all, of free thinking and critical knowledge.

Over many centuries, initially in Europe and later around the world, universities have earned their status as centres of free thought – a status that has become an integral part of their community’s identity. This identity is passed down from generation to generation and instilled in all who join universities.

Historically, universities have been at the forefront of movements resisting oppression, whether the Vilnius Uprising of 1830–1831 or the Prague Spring of 1968. For their role in these movements, universities have faced punishment. Both closures of Vilnius University – first by the Tsarist government in 1832, and later by the Nazi regime in 1943 – were direct responses to the resistance from faculty and students.

Universities also assume responsibility for morally flawed decisions made under external political pressure. One such example is the Memory Diploma initiative at Vilnius University, which serves as a symbolic act of remembrance and redress, honouring members of the academic community who were prevented from continuing their work or studies.

Universities affirm the fundamental principles of free thought and speech in their statutes and mission statements – principles they do not treat as mere rhetoric. At Vilnius University, the first of our four core values is openness: to diverse ideas and perspectives, to people, and to identities.

Naturally, universities not only have the right but also the responsibility to combat the spread of false information and disinformation, and to uncover deliberate distortions of truth. However, they fulfil this role through their own expertise and by fostering open debate.

In doing so, universities stand at the vanguard of democracy, assuming responsibility for its preservation and fostering it at a time when democratic institutions are under threat in various parts of the world.

Today, more than ever, it is essential that academic expertise and science diplomacy are successful in reaching out to both policymakers and broader society. Universities will sustain their credibility and emerge stronger if they continue to be spaces of freedom, research-based knowledge, and critical thought. They are able to adapt to the changing conditions, as they have done repeatedly throughout history.

Last year, while attending a conference at Yale University and observing the ecosystem of research and study that has developed there over several centuries – including many features that could serve as a model for us, such as the tradition of the endowment, an inviolable university fund which we are still in the process of developing – I could not have imagined that exactly one year later I would be writing about the threat to this academic oasis.

Three professors from this university, including Timothy Snyder, a historian well known in Lithuania, have already left Yale and taken positions in Canada.

Since their establishment at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, US universities have stood as bastions of freedom and democracy. In the 20th century, they played a vital role – and grew intellectually stronger in the process – by providing refuge to large numbers of academics fleeing authoritarian regimes.

Physicist Albert Einstein, philosopher Hannah Arendt, and historian Ernst Kantorowicz are just a few notable examples of this broad academic solidarity. One can only hope that the 21st century will not witness a reversal of this movement and that US universities will continue to defend their status of academic freedom. Vilnius University has many friends and academic partners in the United States, and we deeply value these ties and are committed to preserving them.

It is now our responsibility to support our colleagues, as members of the universitas magistrorum et scholarium, through both symbolic gestures and concrete actions.

Academic freedom and the autonomy of universities are values that no political power has the right to restrict. Together, we must firmly state that we will not cooperate with institutions or individuals who support or enable the erosion of academic freedom or violate human rights.

We are prepared to offer dignified working and study conditions to at least some of those who, due to political or financial pressures, are prevented from pursuing their academic careers. United by a shared commitment to freedom of thought and conscience, universities and their communities represent a powerful force – one that will resist and will not yield.