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On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed a targeting college accreditors — the latest in a series of actions aimed at higher education. On April 24, 2025, ���챬�� President Danielle R. Holley spoke to WGBH about how colleges and universities are fighting back against government overreach. 

This interview took place after the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a public statement, “,” which was signed by more than 200 college and university presidents, including President Holley. 

Holley said that standing up against government overstepping is critical for higher education, but it also comes with fear. 

“All of these universities, especially the universities like Harvard, Brown and Columbia, have a lot on the line,” she said. “We’re talking billions of dollars and research that affects everything from women's health to questions of nuclear energy and climate change. So there is a tremendous amount on the line. So I understand the fear of many higher ed leaders, but it also was necessary for us to draw a clear boundary with the government and say there are lots of areas of what we do at the university that should not be overseen. We engage in compliance around Title VI, the Americans with Disabilities Act [and] lots of laws, but that doesn’t give the government the ability to reach into the most private areas of university governance.”

She also said that ���챬�� has already been targeted by the administration. “This government is attacking women in higher education,” she said. “For example, we were a sub-awardee for a National Institutes of Health award, and the letter to us from the government [canceling the grant] said, ‘studying gender is nonscientific and has no benefits to society.’ So by definition, places like Mount Holyoke that value supporting women and people who are marginalized on the basis of their gender were always going to be under attack by the government. There’s no reason to hide, because [if we do], we would be abandoning our mission, our values and our vision for the College.”

She continued, “[The administration is] trying to convince people that [college] degrees are not good, and ultimately, attacks on knowledge are attacks on democracy, and we need to recognize them as that.”

President Holley also disagreed with the administration that these steps are necessary to combat antisemitism on college and university campuses. 

“I thought the president of Harvard made a very good point, which is that the government has yet to prove that [the university] violated the Civil Rights Act through engaging in antisemitism on their campuses,” she said. “Antisemitism is incredibly serious, and we need to take it very seriously on our campuses. But that doesn't give the government the ability to come inside our private universities and begin to be an administrator because they claim to be combating antisemitism. They have not made any findings that would suggest that they have that power — that they have that authority — and I think they do not.”

You can watch the segment on , or listen to it as a podcast via , or .