The United States is home to the best collection of research universities in the world. Those universities have contributed tremendously to America's prosperity, health, and security. They are magnets for outstanding talent from throughout the country and around the world. The Trump administration's recent attack on Columbia University puts all of that at risk, presenting the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned. The rise of the American research university in the 20th century depended on many factors, including two crucial turning points. The first, at the start of the century, was the development of strong principles of academic freedom that allowed people and ideas to be judged by scholarly standards, not according to the whims or interests of powerful trustees, donors, or political officials. Stanford's dismissal in 1900 of Edward Ross'an economics professor who had incited controversy with his remarks...
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