photo by: Creators Syndicate

Keith Raffel

Harvard is the oldest American university. Its faculty has won more Nobel Prizes and educated more U.S. presidents than any other school. It’s endured the Salem witch trials in the 1690s, occupation by British troops in the 1770s and the McCarthy Red Scare in the 1950s.

But will it survive Donald Trump in the 2020s?

In a letter sent on April 11, the Trump administration demanded control of which students Harvard admits and who teaches them and what they’re taught. Until Harvard accedes, the administration has ordered the stoppage of over $3 billion in federal support for Harvard, mainly support of lifesaving medical research.

Why has the man who paid a $25 million fine for running the fraudulent Trump University turned his guns on Harvard University? Because if he can intimidate Harvard, what choice will universities less rich and less renowned have but to follow suit?

The Trump administration fired another shot at Harvard on May 22, when Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revoked the visas of all international students enrolled at Harvard under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, thereby barring almost all international students from attending the university.

Taking on Harvard is popular with the Trumpian base. It’s seen as an avatar of elitism. Even the future monarch of Belgium, a student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, was caught up in the ban. But Harvard is not just for the royal and rich. Over half of Harvard undergraduates receive financial aid. During the academic year, I live on the Harvard campus with undergraduates whose parents work as waitstaff in restaurants and who run small bodegas. Their families pay nothing for their education if their income is under $100K and no tuition if under $200K. Harvard opens the door of opportunity for these students.

Even as Trump decries the American balance of payments deficit, the over 1.1 million international students in the United States contributed an estimated $44 billion to the economy during the 2023-2024 school. His right-hand man Elon Musk was born in South Africa but received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Trump’s own alma mater.

But international students benefit the United States for reasons beyond mere economics. The loss of international students will diminish both the education that they receive and the one that their American classmates receive. I have taught, advised and conversed at length with these students. Differing perspectives broaden horizons and catalyze learning. As Harvard President Alan Garber told Harvard’s international students: “If we are to maintain our leading position in science, business and the arts, we must cherish our status as a magnet for talent the world over. To undermine this is to undermine America itself.”

Garber moved beyond mere rhetoric and had Harvard sue the administration for its attempt to expel Harvard’s international students. He is standing up for his university and every university. Already, a federal judge has issued a temporary order to stop the administration from taking away the visas.

However, Trump and his team have the visa stamp. Even if Harvard wins its case, new visas for new students will have to be issued, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio can deny and delay their issuance. What students, what professors will want to come to Harvard with such a threat hanging over them? Even now, many of Harvard’s current international students are in a state of panic and fear coming back this fall.

Fighting the Trump administration in court is the right thing to do, but Harvard needs a contingency plan.

Harvard ought to take steps to open a second campus. Toronto is only 400 miles from Harvard’s main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Students admitted to the university but not to the United States can pursue their studies at a second campus there. Some classes will be attended via videoconference from classrooms in Toronto. Professors from Massachusetts can whisk there in less than two hours by plane to teach classes onsite. Others can be based in Toronto for a semester or longer, and it will be students in Cambridge who attend via the internet. Jet aviation and electronic technology can unite the two campuses.

Harvard undergraduates live in a dozen undergraduate houses, each with a dining hall, library, classrooms and gym. Let’s open one more in Toronto. Students on the main campus could rotate there for a semester, and students in Toronto could rotate or transfer to the U.S.

Harvard can move fast when it must. During the Revolutionary War when the British occupied Harvard Yard, classes were moved to Concord, 20 miles away. After World War II, when the university was inundated by returning veterans, Harvard bought the Brunswick Hotel in Boston to house them. When the pandemic closed down the campus in March 2020, neither I nor any other instructor paused in our teaching — we pivoted and taught via videoconference.

Setting up a campus in Toronto won’t be easy. There’ll be red tape, work permits for professors and deans and visas for students. Garber needs to work with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Harvard College Class of 1987, to come up with a plan to open a Harvard campus in Toronto, ideally this fall.

Nicolas Dominguez Carrero, a graduating senior elected to Phi Beta Kappa and with family from both Texas and Colombia, told the Harvard Gazette: “I think Harvard’s doing an amazing job standing up for academic freedom and democracy, writ large. It is a time of crisis, but if there’s an institution that can weather this storm, it’s Harvard.”

Carrero is correct in his analysis. And to increase the odds that it does indeed weather the storm, Harvard must move with speed, force and decisiveness.

President Garber, pick up the phone and call the prime minister. Today.

— Keith Raffel is a syndicated columnist with Creators.