“We have the right to determine our own missions”
Mount Holyoke College President Danielle R. Holley spoke to “Here and Now” on NPR about the growing tensions between higher education and the federal government.
Mount Holyoke College President Danielle R. Holley recently spoke with NPR’s “Here & Now” show about growing tensions between higher education and the federal government. The Department of Education is investigating over 50 universities for race-conscious recruitment and student support, which Holley sees as an attempt to “punish conduct, thinking and research” at institutions that the Trump administration opposes.
Holley defended universities’ right to autonomy. “We have the right as universities and colleges to determine our own missions,” she said. “The government really has some serious restrictions under the First Amendment about telling us what our values and missions can be.”
Mount Holyoke’s mission, as stated in the strategic plan MHC Forward, is to be “the leading gender-diverse women’s college” that “immerses students in a vibrant, intellectually adventurous global community to develop their voices and vision for the future, preparing them for lives of purposeful leadership in a culturally diverse world.”
With President Trump threatening to withhold federal funds from institutions that fail to comply with his directives, Holley emphasized the importance of resisting political interference.
“For us as colleges and universities, it’s very important that we enforce our own rules and standards of conduct and not let the federal government politicize what we do,” she said. Holley also suggested legal challenges might be necessary, adding, “If it’s the government saying you have to think in the way that we think … then I think the question is really to see them in court.”
Holley also rejected claims that universities indoctrinate students. “I can barely get students to read the syllabus, let alone indoctrinate them into any form of political belief,” she said. She stressed that higher education fosters critical thinking across political perspectives. “We have to talk more about what we are there to do to help students determine how best to use that knowledge to further what they believe are their own values and mission.”
Holley warned, “Attacks on the university are one of the first places where people start when they want to attack democracy.”
