On the Media – S2, Episode 3: “The Harvard Plan”

Date: November 14, 2025
Hosts: Brooke Gladstone, Michael Olinger, Ilya Merritz
Co-production: Boston Globe

Episode Overview

This episode, the final in a three-part miniseries, dissects the Trump administration's aggressive campaign to reshape American higher education through a new, conditional “compact.” It traces the history of government-university relations, contrasts the old vision of independent academic inquiry with today’s culture wars, and investigates how schools, administrators, and academics nationwide are resisting, adapting, or accommodating these political pressures. Central to the episode: the attack on the so-called “Vannevar Bush compact,” the origins and consequences of the Trump compact, and vivid on-the-ground reporting from campuses across the U.S.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Vannevar Bush Legacy and the Old “Compact”

• Historical Blueprint: Vannevar Bush, WWII-era scientific leader, laid out the model for U.S. science where taxpayer money supports independent, curiosity-driven university research (“Endless Frontier” report, 1945).
  • “Science funding must be long term and predictable…University researchers should have complete independence on how to do their work…” (Ilya Merritz, 05:16)
• Compact as Treaty: For 80 years, universities thrived under this arrangement – great science, global admiration, and a degree of insulation from politics.
  • “Academics, researchers, the leaders of industry organizations, college presidents, they all really view Vannevar Bush as the architect of the modern American university.” (Becky Milligan, 07:08)

2. The Trump Administration’s Assault on Universities

• Who Is Mae Mailman? The driving force: White House official Mae Mailman, a Harvard Law graduate, conservative activist, and Stephen Miller’s deputy. (08:10)
  • She targets universities’ “victim culture,” aiming to reverse what she sees as the glorification of minority/oppressed identities.
  • “If we’re setting them up for failure by glorifying minority status or oppressed status, then…we cannot be a great country.” (Mae Mailman, 10:05)
• Birth of the Trump Compact:
  • It imposes ideology-heavy criteria on university funding: enforcing biological sex definitions, tracking campus politics, capping international enrollment, scrapping affirmative action, and pledging support for Trump administration policies.
    • “The Trump compact comes with conditions like a commitment to the biological definition of sex, tracking and reporting on the political orientation of students and faculty...” (Ilya Merritz, 12:02)
• Reaction and Fractures:
  • Ivy League universities, especially Harvard, become flashpoints for lawsuits and funding threats; some public universities in “red” states see opportunity, others risk alienation.
  • “A few weeks ago… the Trump administration offered its own revised vision for universities' relationship with the government.” (Ilya Merritz, 11:49)

3. How Are Schools Responding?

• Resisters and Suers:
  • Many schools are fighting back through the courts—notably, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton and consortia like the AAU.
  • Lawsuits focus on defending “academic freedom” and shielding against government overreach cloaked in “viewpoint diversity” language.
    • “Eisgruber has stuck out his neck… the Trump administration's bureaucratic assault on Columbia amounted to… the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare…” (Ilya Merritz, 23:40)
• Seeking Solidarity:
  • Rutgers professors Boxer and Salas de la Cruz attempted a “NATO for universities” (the Big Ten Compact)—a mutual defense pact. Initial enthusiasm fizzled amid legal, bureaucratic, and political obstacles, but their message made it into Big Ten promotional PR.
    • “Suddenly, Boxer and his allies realized that creating NATO for universities would be a much bigger lift…” (Ilya Merritz, 19:35)
  • “If universities aren't going to formally band together to resist, Boxer figures they should at least tell their own story, a positive story…” (Ilya Merritz, 22:59)
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Universities like Mizzou and Vanderbilt look for an edge by courting government favor. Mizzou’s president lobbied at Mar-a-Lago for funding; Vanderbilt’s president views the compact as a conversation starter, not a blunt instrument.
    • “I went there to discuss that opportunity as well as continued advocacy for funded research from federal agencies.” (Moon Choi, 30:48)
  • As funding cuts hit, SEC schools fare better than Ivies; some see less harm in aligning with administration priorities.

4. Case Studies & On-the-Ground Reporting

• Missouri’s Nuclear Bet:
  • Despite sector-wide cuts, University of Missouri (Mizzou) pushes for a second nuclear reactor, leveraging policy attention on regional equity and securing bipartisan support as national security.
  • “Literally what we produce in the reactor today is in patients next week… hospitals around the world.” (Uriah Orland and Becky Milligan, 27:01–28:15)
• New College of Florida:
  • A small liberal-arts college was “remade” via government intervention—new board, cultural overhaul, sharp decline in rankings and increased costs, but compliance with the new ideological demands.
    • “New College is really a case study for how a state used the power of the government to dictate a college campus's operations and trajectory.” (Becky Milligan, 35:02)
• Columbia, Princeton, Harvard:
  • Prestigious universities are suing, negotiating, and bracing for more draconian cuts.

5. The Architect Speaks: Mae Mailman Interview

• No Olive Branch:
  • Mailman stands firm: cuts and oversight are consequences of “indulgence” in victim culture and perceived anti-Semitism, not evidence of authoritarianism.
    • “So, like, okay, some less money, all right. Some transparency in admissions… This is the ultimate scary thing, is the Columbia deal. That’s it.” (Mae Mailman, 41:08)
  • “That Trump is a fascist or an authoritarian thing never strikes me as super thoughtful…” (Mae Mailman, 42:06)
• Reciprocity Dismissed:
  • She is unbothered by “what if a left-wing president does this?”—arguing “they would do it anyway.”
    • “If you do, then they do. Thing is just… not a relevant talking point anymore…” (Mae Mailman, 43:30)
  • Sees the compact as common-sense accountability: “It’s reminding schools of their obligations so that universities don’t feel like they are running into the unexpected.” (Mae Mailman, 43:43)
  • On demands for viewpoint diversity: “What type of authoritarian regime would be like, I want more debate. I want views explored, debated and challenged. Like fundamentally, what is being sought here is freedom and the lack of an orthodoxy…” (Mae Mailman, 50:49)

6. The Academic Perspective

• Claudine Gay’s Diagnosis:
  • Ousted Harvard president Claudine Gay, in rare public remarks, describes the pressure campaign as:
    • “Academia is not to blame. The agenda here is about destroying knowledge institutions because they are centers of independent thought and information. That’s what’s going on here. That is the story.” (Claudine Gay, 49:50)
  • Argues objections to campus “wokeness” are a misdirection for a “power grab.”

7. Fallout and The Future

• Institutional Unease:
  • Faculty at government agencies (e.g., NIH researcher Jenna Norton) are sidelined after speaking out; the administration frames it as rooting out “radical leftists.”
  • “Vannevar Bush imagined an equal partnership between the government and independent research universities…this year…the government…gave up some of that equality.” (Ilya Merritz, 53:23)
• Scientific Freedom at Risk:
  • The episode ends on a somber note: “Right now that kind of exuberance is in short supply in America’s research labs…” (Ilya Merritz, 54:51)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments with Timestamps

• “We are waiting on you, Harvard. When will you speak up? If you don’t speak up, who will?”
  – Ryan Enos, political science professor, urging Harvard toward moral leadership (01:52)
• “If you’re going to have a relationship with the federal government, you are dependent in ways that you have no idea. And to act like you are some independent entity is false. Like it is false.”
  – Mae Mailman (11:08)
• “The Trump compact comes with conditions like a commitment to the biological definition of sex, tracking and reporting on the political orientation of students and faculty…”
  – Ilya Merritz (12:02)
• “A NATO style alliance for higher education…the idea that an attack on one university should be considered an attack on all universities.”
  – Paul Boxer (17:21)
• “If you don’t immediately have evidence to the contrary…that’s going to become part of your belief system.”
  – Paul Boxer on the power of anti-university PR (22:42)
• “The greatest threat to American universities since the Red scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned.”
  – Christopher Eisgruber, Princeton President (23:40)
• “We made a conscious decision not to sign [solidarity statements].”
  – Moon Choi, Mizzou President, on strategic institutional self-interest (31:50)
• “New College is really a case study for how a state used the power of the government to dictate a college campus’s operations and trajectory.”
  – Becky Milligan (35:02)
• “That Trump is a fascist or an authoritarian thing never strikes me as super thoughtful…”
  – Mae Mailman (42:06)
• “What type of authoritarian regime would be like, I want more debate…what is being sought here is freedom and the lack of an orthodoxy…”
  – Mae Mailman (50:49)
• “The agenda here is about destroying knowledge institutions because they are centers of independent thought and information. That’s what’s going on here.”
  – Claudine Gay (49:50)
• “Vannevar Bush imagined an equal partnership between the government and independent research universities…this year…they gave up some of that equality.”
  – Ilya Merritz (53:23)

Important Segment Timestamps

• Background & Host Intros: 01:25 – 01:36
• Vannevar Bush & the Compact: 03:22 – 07:29
• Mae Mailman: Origins, Philosophy: 08:10 – 11:26
• Trump Compact and University Reactions: 11:44 – 13:41
• Big Ten Compact/NATO for Academia: 17:03 – 22:13
• Resistance & Legal Moves (Princeton, AAU): 23:13 – 25:39
• Mizzou’s Nuclear Gamble: 26:13 – 31:37
• New College of Florida as Test Case: 35:02 – 36:28
• Mae Mailman Interview: 39:15 – 51:12
• Claudine Gay’s Remarks & Closing Reflections: 48:05 – 52:43

Structure & Tone

The episode is deeply reported and unflinching, blending historical perspective, vivid reporting, and high-stakes present-day conflict. It showcases voices from across the spectrum—professors, activists, administrators, and architects of the Trump policy—without pulling its journalistic punches. The tone is urgent, skeptical, and sometimes pained, reflecting a moment of existential anxiety for American higher education.

For Listeners Who Want the Essentials

This episode centers on the forced reconfiguration of American universities’ independence by a politically-driven Trump administration, using research funding as leverage for ideological compliance. Old alliances and traditional university responses seem precarious; resistance is fragmented but ongoing. Some schools are fighting, others adapting, and a few (willingly or not) aligning with the government’s vision. The episode leaves listeners with the open question: Will the spirit of independent inquiry survive the new order?