The Trump administration’s fights with Harvard and Columbia are eye-openers for other universities who are trying to decipher how to handle the president and his desire to exert control over their policies.

While President Trump promised to battle with higher education on the campaign trail, colleges were not expecting a full-fledged war with his administration seeking to destroy individual institutions.

Preparations are underway for financially tight situations, and strength-in-numbers approaches are under consideration as colleges glean lessons from Harvard’s resistance and Columbia’s compliance to Trump's demands.

“I think the major lesson here is just to stand up [...] use all the tools in the toolbox to really push back,” said Jared Bass, senior vice president for Education Policy at the Center for American Progress.

One obvious message to schools is that the Trump administration is not messing around.

Unprecedented steps have been taken, including Trump attempting to

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