JONATHAN JANSEN | Trump’s heinous assault on academia: could it happen here?

I pondered for weeks whether to attend an American educational research conference last week to receive honours for a nomination by colleagues on that side of the world.

The political assault on universities there was simply unbelievable. Individual students arrested for expressing pro-Palestinian views on the streets or on social media accounts which government agents were now actively screening. Professors becoming targets of government repression, losing their grants and, on occasion, their jobs, overnight. International student visas being revoked and then reinstated with a warning. Some professors and students leaving for their home countries or to pursue work or studies in other countries.

Whole universities had their federal (government) funding withdrawn starting with a $400m (R7.42bn) loss at Columbia University and when Harvard pushed back, $2.2bn (R40.79bn) of research funding was withheld. It seemed Trump was targeting the Ivies (Ivy league universities) in particular, but no institution was spared across this country with most of the world’s most prestigious universities.

With a pre-emptive obedience that was staggering to behold, universities started to close down whole departments (such as Middle Eastern Studies at one) and stripped from their programmes any titular references to race or gender or anything suggesting inequalities and injustice in curriculum topics. Not to be outdone by his MAGA president, the governor of Florida stopped the process for hiring a dean at one of that state’s public universities as if this had anything at all to do with him, the politician. Anything that smelt like DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) ground to a halt in universities on grounds that this was unfair to whites in either hiring practices or what was taught.

And so there was more than a little apprehension as I approached customs wondering whether my cellphone and computer would be searched for anti-Trump or pro-Palestinian sentiments. After all, I am a public figure and I hold public views on almost anything, as us newspaper columnists tend do have. Normally it takes me between one and two-and-a-half hours to go through customs, but for some strange reason this time it took about 13 seconds.

“Is that all?” I asked the customs official, more out of shock than anything else. He smiled and waved me on.

To my relief, this mega-conference, the largest education research in the world, was not going to be intimidated by Trump’s attack on universities, academics and students. A sizeable number of research papers was on the Palestinian issue and more broadly on education and social justice in America and abroad.

In my acceptance speech, I assured my colleagues with words from the Good Book, that “this too shall come to pass”. And that as South Africans we don’t do “thoughts and prayers” but “support and solidarity”. Several of the American academics present were stalwarts from the anti-apartheid divestment campaigns on their campuses at the time, and I could sense their anxiety and dismay with what was happening in their country.

Populist politicians despise academics; remember one of them referred to ‘clever blacks’ and everyone laughed?

Given that few can believe the US has descended into this authoritarian nightmare, the question did cross my mind: can it happen here in South Africa, this single-minded assault on higher education? We would be really naive to think that this assault on universities and their treasured values like academic freedom and institutional autonomy could not play out here in South Africa. After all, we are a mere 30 years into our democracy and the shadows of our authoritarian past keep rearing their ugly head to remind us so.

Populist politicians despise academics; remember one of them referred to “clever blacks” and everyone laughed? Remember how, routinely, so-called radical students burn down university buildings because these places do not live up to their standards of right? One vice-chancellor called some of them fascists and left the country. Recall how some of our leading universities disinvited featured speakers either because of personal dislikes or because of some projected threat of violence. Observe how international students, scholars and their families from the rest of the continent are treated between Home Affairs and the campus visa office; fortunately, we have this well-documented in our book Academic Xenophobia.

On X (formerly Twitter) this week someone posted that at Wits University, the majority of staff are now Zimbabwean; thousands of “reads” were recorded despite this blatant lie. The intention is clear: damn the truth and awaken anti-academic sentiment among South Africans who find our universities to be hospitable places for ideas and talent from anywhere in the world.

You see, anti-academic sentiment does not need to be stirred by a right-wing autocrat or a racial populist or a virulent nationalist at the head of government. It simply needs a passive and placid civil society that does not pay attention to these little erosions of our academic freedom and the routine attacks on the people and property of our universities until it is too late.

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