NUREMBERG, Germany — Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College for half a century, has seen many crises shake American colleges. But none has stripped schools of their leaders and their students like the present moment.

The second Trump administration has gone to war against elite universities, claiming to root out antisemitism and left-wing indoctrination. In a bid to ideologically reshape academia, the White House has severed billions of dollars in federal funding, attempted to block the enrollment of international students and pushed out college presidents.

University of Virginia President James E. Ryan resigned in June under pressure from the Justice Department over the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, reflecting how the government’s premise of combating antisemitism has turned into a broader onslaught. In March, Columbia University’s interim president Katrina Armstrong stepped down after only seven months in office, amid the school’s concessions to Trump for allegedly tolerating antisemitism.

Before Trump’s return to power, turmoil over the way that schools handled pro-Palestinian protests toppled Armstrong’s predecessor, Minouche Shafik, along with presidents at the University of Pennslvania, Harvard and Cornell. Since he was sworn in, students who participated in those protests have faced government retaliation including high-profile arrests and detention, while hundreds more have had their visas revoked as part of Trump’s vast crackdown on immigrants.

Brown, Columbia and Penn recently cut deals with the Trump administration to free research funding by agreeing to steps like renewing partnerships with Israeli academics, codifying an Israel-related definition of antisemitism and excluding transgender people from athletic programs. Harvard is still embroiled in negotiations, but has already dismantled diversity offices, cut ties with a Palestinian university and adopted ties with Israeli ones, according to the Crimson.

In Botstein’s view, the government’s demands of these schools do the opposite of fighting antisemitism.

“I actually think the government is........

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