Hundreds protested at Columbia University, the first university to have been targeted by Trump, while hundreds more from NYU and other campuses in the New York City region gathered in Foley Square at the headquarters of ICE to speak out against these attacks. To loud cheers from the crowd, Professor Zach Samalin from NYU powerfully called out NO! to abducting of international students, to the transphobia and xenophobia coming from the administration, attacks on science, and much more. He denounced the vicious attacks on student activists who had fought against the genocide in Gaza. And he called out YES! to a free university, and to a scientific education that confronts the environmental catastrophe we are facing.

Five hundred people protested at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, where one faculty member denounced the cutting of millions of dollars in research funds and accompanying stop-work orders: “Why would this administration try to destroy scientific technology in the United States? Because science and technology represent truth and the truth is very dangerous to this administration. … We are very dangerous to them and they fear us. So we can’t be scared.” 

At Duke University in North Carolina, where draconian measures had been applied to suppress pro-Palestinian demonstrations, 100 protesters put aside their fear and came out, calling on Duke to follow Harvard University’s example and stand up against the current assaults from the Trump administration. Chants went up saying: “Duke, Duke, choose a side, fascism or DEI” and “Say it loud, say it clear, international students are welcome here.” And one history professor said, “You do not need a PhD in history to remember the basic lesson from your high school history textbooks: that appeasement never works… If Duke and other prominent institutions of higher education do not stand up to this bullying now, it will only get worse.”

At Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, which had already caved in to Trump’s demands, students and faculty rallied and called out the capitulation. 

At UC Berkeley, 500 students, faculty and community members marched around the campus and filled Sproul Plaza for a rally. One student captured on Democracy Now! spoke about the stakes of this fight: the right to keep fighting and the right to resist against this regime and called for people to show up and fight like never before.

Speakers included Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, who spoke about the national emergency which is directly upon us and drew parallels to the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964. Hailing Harvard’s stand in opposition to the “Trump regime’s” demands, he challenged UC Berkeley to maintain its own integrity and say NO when the regime comes to attack Berkeley and other public universities. 

Other campuses where protests took place include Yale, Stanford, UCLA, University of Houston, University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Indiana University and many, many others. 

A defiant message was delivered on this day from thousands of students and faculty from around the country that they will not stand silent while the Trump fascists terrorize international students and attempt to turn universities into fascist institutions. This was an important beginning, which needs to rapidly spread and escalate.