Wesleyan in the News - April 2025
This month, in partnership with more than 500 other university presidents and educational leaders, President Michael S. Roth ’78 signed a letter published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities speaking out against government overreach and political interference in higher education.
The New York Times spoke to Roth following the letter's release. “This administration is very ready to exact retribution on its foes,” Roth said. “I asked a lot of people to sign, and many people said: ‘I can’t sign. I’m afraid.’”
CNN’s “Amanpour” with Christiane Amanpour interviewed Roth on April 19 about the Trump administration’s actions. Roth said the administration’s behavior is “anti-American, anti-education and undermines our freedom.”
During an appearance on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Roth said the administration is using antisemitism as a “cloak” to get universities to express loyalty to the president. “We have to call it out, because it really has nothing to do with stopping antisemitism,” Roth said.
The Washington Post published a story on organizations beginning to stand up to the administration on April 19. Roth told The Washington Post, “when people want more power, this is what they do. It’s really not about how to teach molecular biology or how to run a hospital…They want people to bend the knee and to say, ‘Yes, leader, you do know how to run things.’”
Roth joined The Nation’s “Start Making Sense” podcast to talk about attacks on higher education and the mounting resistance to them. “The only way we stop this from happening is through collective action of not just colleges and universities, but lots of other people who have vested interest in the freedoms of civil society, saying that this is not the kind of government we want to have,” Roth said.
He also appeared on Crooked’s “Assembly Required with Stacy Abrams” podcast to discuss the continued assault on academic freedom and federal funding of higher education.
Roth released a statement in support of Harvard University’s decision to resist the administration’s demands, which was quoted by USA TODAY in its coverage of Harvard’s efforts. “I applaud Harvard University standing up for the shared values of higher education," Roth said.
Roth appeared on Apple News In Conversation on April 17 to discuss how federal government actions endanger freedom of speech. “The idea that these students are serious threats to the foreign policy of the United States is absurd. And what's really a threat to the foreign policy of the United States is when people see how inconsistent and how lawless the government's been acting.”
The New Yorker interviewed Roth for a piece on his long-standing and persistent defense of free speech, academic freedom, and the right to protest. "I think my job as a leader of the university is to speak up for the values that we claim to believe in, especially when they’re at odds with people with enormous power,” Roth said.
Roth will receive the PEN/Benenson Courage Award for his unwavering commitment to defending academic freedom. He will receive the award at the PEN America Gala, hosted by comedian Amber Ruffin, on May 15 in New York City.
Roth penned an opinion essay for The New York Times on antisemitism and the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine student protestors. Specifically, Roth argued that the Trump administration’s "anti-antisemitism" is cover for other agendas that have little to do with Jewish people. Invoking the conquering of Judea by Rome, Roth warned, “The enemy of our enemy was not our friend. There’s a lesson there, if we can heed it.”
The New York Times also highlighted Roth in another article as a supporter of Harvard’s decision to resist the Trump administration’s education and free speech policies. Roth expressed his optimism about the snowball of resistance against Trump, comparing the situation to “when a bully is stopped in his tracks.”
Roth wrote a piece for U.S. News and World Report calling college presidents to stand up against campus deportations and speak out against the Trump administration’s fear-mongering tactics. “While we still enjoy freedom of speech, those of us who are leaders in civil society must not stay silent in the face of efforts to spread fear and demand obedience,” Roth concluded.
NBC News quoted Roth in a story on the reaction from members of Harvard University's community following the institution's decision to reject Trump's demands. Roth applauded the decision. “Federal funding for universities must not depend on a loyalty oath,” Roth said.
The Economist quoted Roth in an article about universities “losing” the “battle” against the Trump administration. On some universities’ decision to drop their DEI programs, Roth said, “This is the Vichy moment. It’s a classic collaborationist dilemma. You can have preserved your school but you live in a sea of authoritarianism.”
Roth penned an article for TIME discussing the strategy of de-escalation versus appeasement that universities and other institutions have used in response to attacks on higher education. Roth argues in the piece that while de-escalation with Trump would be a desirable solution, it is currently difficult to achieve. The failure of de-escalation so far has led to appeasement, a far less effective and dangerous strategy. In conclusion, Roth stated, “many decision makers are afraid, and so they choose a path of appeasement with a White House bent on revenge and aggrandizing power, hoping it will work. It won’t.”
The Boston Globe featured Roth in an article discussing solidarity and collaboration between universities in the face of the Trump administration’s policies. Roth compares the administration’s policies to those of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Órban, again warning against appeasement.
Bloomberg spoke with Roth for a March 28 article on ‘disaster planning’ by university administrators. “The level of fear among my colleagues who are running institutions is something I’ve never seen before,” said Roth. “I think if we keep our heads down, we’re going to lose our freedoms.”
Bloomberg also quoted a Roth MSNBC appearance in a March 23 article on university leaders’ failure to protect free speech and academic independence. The piece singled Roth out as “one of the rare college leaders who appears unbowed.”
An article in The Guardian comparing the Trump administration’s policies with McCarthyism also singled out Roth as an outspoken critic of Trump. Again speaking on the strategy of appeasement, Roth labelled it “anticipatory obedience … a form of cowardice.”
Le Monde, a premier newspaper in France, interviewed Roth for a story on the Trump administration’s intimidation of American institutions.
Roth also appeared on the “Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast” podcast to discuss threats to higher education from the Trump administration and the arrest of pro-Palestinian protestor Mahmoud Khalil. “The only thing we could do is speak up about it and say this is not the America we want to live in,” Roth said.
Roth talked about the rising resistance in higher education to the administration’s actions on WGBH. “It just shows that as the Trump administration got more aggressive, the idea that simply keeping your head down might protect you—that idea has evaporated. And people were more ready to speak out when they had more company,” Roth said.
He also joined KJZZ Phoenix to talk about the role of free speech on campus and his concerns with federal fundings cuts. “I think for the government to intervene in a heavy-handed way, as we've seen recently, will undermine the capacity of that sector to produce the kinds of innovation, from which we've all benefited.”
Other Headlines
Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. ’15 announced that he is working on a movie about the Molina brothers, a trio of brothers from Vega Alta, Puerto Rico who became long-term catchers in Major League Baseball. Yadier Molina, the youngest and most successful of the three, won nine Gold Glove Awards, four Platinum Gloves, and two World Series championships in his 19-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, emerita, joined WNPR’s “The Colin McEnroe Show” for a conversation on the genre of movie musicals.
NBC Connecticut profiled Equipment Room Attendant Luke Whalen, who is on the autism spectrum, and his parents, Frank V. Sica Director of Athletics and Chair of Physical Education Michael Whalen and Director of Athletic Fundraising Karen Whalen, for their impact on the Wesleyan athletics community.
The Washington Post wrote a story about a joint study between Consumer Reports and Sebastian Zimmeck, assistant professor of computer science. The study suggests that compliance to data protection laws is under-enforced, warning that data sharing opt-outs offered to users are not guaranteed.
Professor of Technology, Law and Visual Culture and the founding Director of Wesleyan’s Center for the Study of Guns and Society Jennifer Tucker was interviewed by Salon for a piece on a recent executive order threatening to pull funding from the Smithsonian for content that promotes “divisive, race-centered ideology.” “It's really about an erasure that is a great mistake, that undermines the foundation of knowledge, discovery and education, and I would say democracy or people's history," Tucker said.
Tucker also wrote for The Conversation on the implications of the Trump administration’s attack on the Smithsonian. Tucker recounts the history of political attacks against the Smithsonian and criticizes Trump’s “focus on celebrities and major figures” in the reconstruction of history.
Tucker and Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought Peter Rutland co-authored a piece in The Conversation on the Trump administration’s “National Garden of American Heroes,” a garden of 250 statues of famous Americans at a to-be-determined location.
Andrews Professor of Economics Richard Grossman spoke to Bankrate for a piece explaining stagflation. Grossman recalls the ‘Volcker shock’ of the late-1970s, when the Federal Reserve tried to curb inflation with a set of monetary policies that “worked, [...] but not without pain.”
Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics Abigail Hornstein spoke to the CTInsider on the current swings in the stock market. Hornstein attributed the swings to uncertain expectations on the part of investors, who find not only Trump’s economic, but China’s retaliatory response, surprising.
In an article on the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (TLC) legal victory against New York City and securing drivers’ right to challenge license suspensions following arrests, AMNY quoted famed lawyer Dan Ackman ’85, who had been working on the settlement since 2006.
Robyn Autry, associate professor of sociology and faculty director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life wrote an article for MSNBC on President Trump’s March 27 executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” threatening to pull funding from the Smithsonian for its ‘divisive, race-centered ideology.’ Autry discussed the executive order in the context of Trump’s repeated attempts to reframe American history for the sake of his and his party’s agenda. “This is not just about representations [of history],” emphasized Autry. “It’s about knowledge itself and the use of the knowledge to justify inequality.”
John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, Rob Rosenthal called for university presidents to stand up to the Trump administration’s intimidation of higher education in a piece for The Hechinger Report. “College presidents cannot be silent as individual schools are attacked,” Rosenthal said. “They need to speak out as a group against each and every incursion.”
Professor of Environmental Science Michael Singer was mentioned in a story from The Guardian on how different animal species use plants with medicinal properties to try to treat ailments. For example, some apes swallow leaves to try to flush out intestinal worms and caterpillars change their diets to remove parasitic flies, The Guardian said.
Katherine Kuenzli, chair of art and art history, spoke with The Art Newspaper for a story on Trump’s targeting of universities and cuts to the Department of Education. “People are curious, and history was made by many different people from many different countries so this process of uncovering the roles and contributions of a diverse number of people is ongoing and simply will not stop. So we continue, and weather the storm,” Kuenzli said.
Shapiro-Silverberg University Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism and Shapiro Writing Center Director Merve Emre’s LitHub, and New York Review of Books-sponsored podcast series The Critic and Her Publics, returned for the fifth episode of its second season with guest Fergus McIntosh. He and Emre discuss the importance of facticity in every aspect of a magazine, from the articles and reviews to the fiction, the poetry, and even the cover art.
The Hartford Courant reported on the upcoming 2025 Connecticut River Valley Environmental Summit, scheduled to take place on April 5 at Wesleyan. The event, hosted by the Connecticut River Museum, brings together experts from across sectors to discuss the challenges facing the Connecticut River watershed.
Sebastian Zimmeck, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Fellow in Applied Computational Data Analysis, spoke to Hacker Noon about the often unhelpful broadness of software privacy policies. “There is often a discrepancy between the policy writer, the business decision-makers making the call which ad networks to include, [and] the software engineers implementing the code,” said Zimmeck on a possible reason behind the vagueness of privacy policy wording.
Dia Fortenberry, assistant athletic director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Engagement, appeared on WNPR’s “Where We Live” to discuss her experience observing Ramadan in the climate of continuous attacks on DEI. Fortenberry notes the importance of setting clear boundaries as a way of ensuring respect from non-Muslims while allowing for curiosity. She also discusses the sense of pride and togetherness fostered by the Muslim community on campus, from undergraduates to graduate students to faculty members.
Digital content strategist and finance educator Kara Pérez ’11 appeared on Lemonada’s “The Dough” podcast to discuss her book Money For Change: How to Reduce Waste, Build Wealth, and Create a Better Future For All. Pérez first examines her upbringing and the changes in her relationship with money and moves on to discuss how personal finance can contribute to sustainability.
