Sandoval joins university leaders in criticizing Trump funding freeze

Former Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval joined a nationwide coalition of academic leaders in a joint letter opposing President Donald Trump’s broad efforts to reshape academia through what the letter called “coercive use of public research funding.”

Sandoval, who led the Silver State from 2011 to 2019 and has served as president of University of Nevada, Reno, since October 2020, was one of the 523 signatories of a statement addressing the Trump administration’s executive orders, threats to Harvard University and other Ivy League institutions and plans to freeze grant funding.

The letter said the academic leaders are “open to constructive reform,” but called recent actions an “unprecedented government overrreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”

“Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation,” according to the four-paragraph statement. “Because of these freedoms, American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good.”

Chris Heavey, interim president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and DeRionne Pollard, president of Nevada State University, also joined the statement, titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement.”

Since taking office for his second term, Trump has used the executive branch’s financial and investigational powers — most often threatening to cancel research funding — to pressure higher education over what he says is a leniency toward anti-semitism on campuses and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives. He has also called on some high-profile universities, such as Harvard, to revamp their admissions and faculty recruitment to include more conservative viewpoints.

In an interview with the New York Times, Sandoval said he did not view the statement as political.

“I’m concerned about what we’ve seen and what we’re experiencing,” he said in a Sunday article.

Trump administration officials said they won’t be swayed “by worthless letters by overpaid blowhards,” according to a Monday statement from deputy press secretary Harrison Fields.

“The self-serving elites in academia rallying behind Harvard represent an echo chamber of out of touch liberals who would rather pad their pockets of the backs of hardworking Americans then protect the civil rights of students,” Fields said in an email. “These so-called leaders don’t even know what they’re objecting to and look foolish at best and hateful toward the hardworking young people they discriminate against, not to mention the non-collegiate taxpayers funding this endeavor.”

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.