Maura Healey says president targeting universities hurts US \u2018competitiveness\u2019 and affects research and hospitals<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Massachusetts<\/a> governor Maura Healey said on Sunday that Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s attacks on Harvard University<\/a> and other schools are having detrimental ripple effects, with the shutdown of research labs and cuts to hospitals linked to colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During an interview on CBS\u2019s Face the Nation, the Democratic governor said that the effects on Harvard are damaging \u201cAmerican competitiveness\u201d, since a number of researchers are leaving the US for opportunities in other countries. After decades of investment in science and innovation, she said: \u201cintellectual assets are being given away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past week, the US president cut off billions of dollars to Harvard<\/a> in federal funds, after the university refused to concede<\/a> to a number of the administration\u2019s demands. Trump also called for its tax-exempt status to be revoked<\/a>, a potentially illegal move, against the world-famous college in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the moves against colleges, Healey said: \u201cIt\u2019s bad for patients, it\u2019s bad for science, and it\u2019s really bad for American competitiveness. There\u2019s no way a state can make up for the cuts from federal funding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She added: \u201cI was in a hospital recently, Boston Children\u2019s, where some of the sickest kids in the country receive care. Cuts to Boston Children\u2019s and other hospitals are a direct result of Donald Trump\u2019s actions, as these are part of a teaching hospital system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese cuts to universities have significant ripple effects, resulting in layoffs of scientists and doctors, and clinical trials for cancer treatments have been shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs governor, I want Massachusetts<\/a> and America to soar. What Donald Trump is doing is essentially inviting other countries, like China, to take our scientists and researchers. This is terrible, especially considering what he has done to the economy. I am working hard every day to lower costs in my state, cut taxes, and build more housing, while Donald Trump is making life more expensive and harder for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Trump took office, his administration has deployed an \u201cantisemitism taskforce\u201d to demand various policy changes at different universities around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columbia University, one of the first institutions targeted by the taskforce, quickly caved to the Trump administration\u2019s demands<\/a> to restore $400m in federal funding<\/a>. Some of the measures that Columbia conceded to included banning face masks on campus, empowering security officers to arrest people, and placing control of the Middle Eastern department under a new senior vice-provost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Columbia University president Lee Bollinger said on Sunday that the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on academic institutions represent a significant attack on first amendment rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a kind of weaponization of the government\u2019s power,\u201d Bolinger said on CNN, adding that it \u201cseems like a campaign of intimidation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a kind of weaponization of the government\u2019s power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, the federal government sent Harvard two separate letters with specific demands. After the university publicly rejected those demands, the administration quickly froze nearly $2.3bn in federal funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The conflict between the administration and the elite university took a strange turn on Friday, with the New York Times reporting that an 11 April letter from the administration with additional demands \u2013 which escalated the showdown \u2013 was \u201cunauthorized\u201d. The university disputed that the letter was \u201cunauthorized,\u201d claiming the federal government has \u201cdoubled down\u201d on its offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n