This interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin of Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy is one of the clearest, most sober-eyed assessments yet of what many in higher education are feeling but struggling to name: that we have crossed a threshold.
Randall Kennedy—long known for his intellectual independence and willingness to critique excesses within progressive politics—states plainly that he now fears for the freedom of American universities. His warning is especially powerful because it comes not from a reflexive institutional defender, but from someone who has repeatedly challenged DEI overreach, due-process failures, and moral absolutism often found on college campuses where any perceived moral failing is treated as disqualifying,
Here is one of my favorite, truly explanatory quotes from this piece:
"Why is it that the right wing is so upset at the universities? Because universities, more than any other place in American society, are actually open to groups who have been historically marginalized."
When Kennedy says the barking has turned into biting, he captures the reality that legal victories, however important, cannot undo the chilling effects of extortionate governance, coerced compliance, and the quiet normalization of fear.
What makes this exchange essential reading is its insistence on perspective. Kennedy refuses false equivalence: the excesses of campus politics, however real, are not morally or politically comparable to a federal government willing to take higher education “by the throat.” At the same time, he does not absolve universities of responsibility for earlier failures to defend academic freedom when it was inconvenient or unpopular to do so.
That combination—clear-eyed self-critique without capitulation—is precisely what has been missing from much public debate. Read alongside the longer arc of culture-war politics in education, this piece underscores a hard truth: institutional autonomy is not preserved by silence, euphemism, or quiet retreat. It is preserved only when faculty and leaders alike are willing to speak plainly, defend one another, and recognize that what is at stake is not a policy preference or a contested acronym, but the very conditions under which knowledge can be pursued at all—and to this, I might add, the viability of democracy itself.
-Angela Valenzuela
Randall Kennedy Is Afraid. He Thinks You Should Be Too.The Harvard law professor on federal extortion, DEI overreach, and why defeating Trump in court won’t be enough.
By Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin
January 2, 2026
Randall Kennedy doesn’t shy away from an argument. His classes at Harvard Law
Kennedy remains feisty, iconoclastic, and unpredictable. He’s a self-described progressive who’s willing to call out his own side. On questions of race, Kennedy has long considered himself an optimist. His optimism can put him at odds with activists who draw a straight line from 1619 to today. Where they see implacable racism, Kennedy tends to see progress, not perfection.
But he is the first to admit his optimism has been tested over the past decade. On the topic of the Trump administration and higher education, he is deeply unnerved. “Until recently, I never would have said that I fear for the freedom of universities in the United States,” he told us. “I fear for the freedom of the universities in the United States now.”
During an interview over Zoom from his office at the law school — where the walls are lined with blown-up covers of his many books, including Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word — Kennedy was characteristically frank and voluble as we discussed the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education; double standards around diversity, equity, and inclusion; George Floyd and the October 7 attacks; and whether academics are too self-critical. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Evan Goldstein: We last spoke in February, about a month into Donald Trump’s second term. Back then you said: “I have never felt so worried about the state of academia. Fear is palpable. There’s tremendous foreboding.” Are fear and worry still palpable?
Randall Kennedy: I still feel very fearful. Before, there was worry about what might happen. There was concern about the barking. Now there’s been biting. This administration has time and again shown that it cares little to nothing about the law. And it has succeeded. A bunch of institutions have felt compelled to enter into “deals” with the federal government. These universities say over and over again, “These deals do not compromise our autonomy, our independence, our academic freedom.” Of course that’s not true.
