On the eve of Dr. Joan Liu, she was scheduled to give a speech over the years at Nyu Langone Health, the hospital she belongs to at her alma mater, and she received a call that surprised her. Her presentation on the humanitarian crisis had been cancelled, a university official on the other end of the line said.
The reason is that her presentation, which she said she was told, could be perceived as anti-government and anti-Semitism.
To Dr. Li, a professor at McGill University in Montreal and a pediatric emergency physician at St. Justin's Hospital, Cancelled highlighted the fear among American university leaders who have disrupt the Trump administration amid the crackdown on higher education.
Dr. Liu had already traveled from Montreal to New York for his speech scheduled for March 19th. When she received the call, she said in an interview Monday. After she arrived, university officials expressed concern about the inclusion of a presentation on the reduction in USAID and a chart detailing the number of aid workers killed around the world, including Gaza, South Sudan and Sudan.
Officials who Dr. Liu rejected his name, Dr. Li, the international president of borderless doctors from 2013 to 2019, said the slide “could be perceived as anti-Semitism because in Gaza it referred to casualties of aid workers in Gaza.
Dr. Li offered to change the three slides that raised concerns, she said. However, three hours later, she was told that the speech would be cancelled.
The incident unfolds against the background of a massive order and policy decision from President Trump, who caused self-censorship at the agency, fearing government funds would be revoked. The president targets universities early in his second term, defending “American traditions and Western civilizations” and pushing for a vision of higher education that prepares people for the workforce while limiting protests and research.
By canceling the threat and funds of targeted executive orders, Trump has drawn concessions from elite universities, from law firms and other institutions he recognizes as his enemy.
The Trump administration has withdrawn hundreds of millions of dollars from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania with federal funds in recent weeks. On Monday, the administration considered a Harvard University contract of about $9 billion and multi-year grants, accusing him of not protecting Jewish students, and said it would “advocate a more divisive ideology than free investigation.”
And in late February, attorneys at Nyu Langone Health proposed that Dr. Liu was set up to give a speech, eliminating references to “diverse students” and removing the word “alienated” from the website and policy statement.
A spokesman for NYU Langone Health, a major hospital system in Manhattan, for related medical schools, did not answer questions about why Dr. Li's speech was cancelled last month.
In a statement, spokesman Steve Litteer said guest speakers are given clear guidelines. “According to our policy, we cannot host speakers that do not follow,” he said. “In this case, we fully compensated this guest for her trip and time.”
Dr. Li, who said she was invited to give a speech at NYU a year ago, described an official who gave up on her invitation and was emotionally apologised. She said the cancellation of her presentation reflects the climate of horror within American universities.
Dr. Liu said he sympathized with the teachers' struggle to maintain their funds, adding, “At the end of the day, it's their work, their education, their life, their research.” She said in an essay by Le Devoir, a Montreal French newspaper, she was talking about what happened to her, such as “telling people where we are going.” The university should remain a sanctuary of knowledge and places where students become exposed to different ways of thinking, she said.
Trump's pressure on universities has led to at least one professor leaving the country. Jason Stanley, a Yale professor, said in an interview with NPR that it was aired Tuesday as he left to get a job at the University of Toronto. Dr Stanley, a professor of philosophy, said the Trump administration follows the classic fascist playbook when targeting intellectuals, and concessions by elite universities set a dangerous precedent.
In an interview, Dr. Stanley said in an interview that the Trump administration is promoting anti-Semitism among the masses, in the name of possibly protecting Jews by cracking down on universities. “It would create popular rage against the Jews,” he said. “If universities want to fight anti-Semitism, they need to stand up and say, 'No, we are not a threat to American Jews. You are threatening American Jews.” ”
