The Universties are Next

The Universities are next…
 
 I seem to write a blog post about once a year.  This year, 2025 may be the year when I do more.  I had never intended to use this site for personal essays about current issues but these are the times in which we live.  Unexpected things happen.  People voted for President assuming that whoever won would follow the law, respect the Congress and the courts and governing norms.  This has not been the case and as an ordinary citizen there seems to be no place to go with our concerns.  So,  with this post,  I launch a few random thoughts about the issues I am experiencing as the unprecedented administration unfolds.
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My husband and I are graduates of a small Lutheran liberal arts college in Iowa.   We got an excellent education there that prepared us well for successful careers.  In the tradition of the liberal arts, we learned to look at the big picture, to ask why and why not?
We have watched with dismay the dismantling of science and research programs at major universities and the punitive attack on DEI programs.  Using Federal funding the administration is punishing Columbia University first by withholding $400 million.  Johns Hopkins has had $800 million in grants cancelled.   
Still, we were shocked to learn that a private scholarship that we have funded at our alma mater,  entirely with our own personal funds is being rewritten against our wishes, solely because the scholarship funds were designated to give preference to U.S. students of color or Tanzanian students.  
Redefining the terms of our scholarship fund shocked us because of the reach of this movement against the existing diversity of our society.  If the anti-DEI agenda reaches individual scholarship funds in a tiny sectarian school in rural Iowa, where will this oppression reach next?  Will it stop? Or will it permeate our neighborhoods, our churches, our living rooms? 
 











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