they have the war chest to show for it. But it could never be taken for granted that they actually would. It's a remarkable act of doing what you were supposed to do all along, and resists the federal government's attempt to control the university.
That said, how long could that really go on? How long before Harvard goes through an internal regime change, replaced by people who'll be more than willing to align with Trump?
Well, this is exactly the point at which other universities will need to join Harvard to start forming a front that would make it harder for them (= Harvard) to snap back with Columbia. So the ball is now in the court of the rest of the Ivies, private colleges, large of small, and State universities (who are *state* universities, not federal).
We are a culture that values individual action over everything else. We mythologize the "rugged individual", the man who stands in front on the tanks, and all that stuff, which in the larger scheme of things, is just a blimp on the screen with 0 consequences. We are culturally conditioned to look at collective action as a bad thing, precisely because collective action is what gets results. If there is ever going to be a successful pushback against fascism, it will come from institutions pushing back as a front ... not by just one school, one law firm, one court standing up to power. And heck, nor will it come because a lot of people walked one weekend in a bunch of cities. We need volume, we need alignment and mutual support (even if it goes against the grain of the American upbringing), we need to look and feel like a front ... we need to make an anti-fascist front safe enough for the Democratic Party to join in (because you know how much they hate taking risks).
I hope other schools start joining Harvard before the day is over. Or else ... I'm afraid they'll buckle under the growing tsunami of American fascism.
I don't expect Law Firms to form alliances until and unless they are shamed into it by universities who are standing on principle since they (= law firms) are in the money making business and they are rivals of one another in a zero-sum game ... exactly the kind of set up Trump knows how to exploit.
He's moving to PBS and NPR now. Will the news media hold the line? Kinda doubt that for the same reason.