College presidents sign letter criticizing Trump

After Harvard University sued the Trump administration this week over its decision to freeze billions in federal funds to the school, more than 440 higher education leaders from around the country have signed a joint statement condemning the administration’s efforts to control universities.

The government’s “political interference” and “overreach” is “now endangering higher education in America,” they wrote.

The signers come from a variety of colleges and universities from across the country, as well as higher education associations, illustrating the breadth of the threat they say President Donald Trump poses to academia. Joining in the statement were officials from large public research universities like the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and smaller private colleges such as Amherst and Kenyon.

In Minnesota, signers included the presidents of Augsburg University, Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College, Carleton College, the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University, Gustavus Adolphus College, Hamline University, St. Catherine University, St. Olaf College, Macalester College, Metropolitan State University, the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, St. Paul College and the University of St. Thomas.

The statement, circulated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and signed by a total of 443 people as of Thursday, focuses on concerns that the Trump administration is attacking academic freedom.

Many of the presidents who signed, including Alan M. Garber of Harvard, also face financial risks as a result of the administration’s deep cuts to research contracts and grants. Garber on Monday said his school had chosen to sue the administration after it issued a list of demands that included auditing its professors for plagiarism and appointing an outside overseer to ensure its departments were “viewpoint diverse.”

Harvard refused to comply, and the administration said it would freeze $2.2 billion in federal money.

— Staff and wire reports

Governor sues paper over records request

Iowa’s governor on Friday sued the Des Moines Register over the newspaper’s open records request, asking the court to validate her office’s withholding of certain emails she claims are protected.

A Register reporter submitted a records request in February to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office, according to the complaint. In response, the Republican governor’s office provided 825 pages of relevant documents and withheld four emails, asserting they were protected because they were “intended to be confidential, and disclosure would inhibit the governor’s ability to receive candid, fulsome, and robust information in the future,” according to the office’s response included in filings.

An attorney followed up on the Register’s behalf last week, arguing that so-called executive privilege is not an exemption in Iowa’s open records law and, even if it was, there was no indication the governor sent or received the emails. The attorney called the withholding “legally indefensible” and asked the records be produced in a week’s time.

Instead, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird sued.

— Associated Press