Trump's war on higher ed doesn't end at Columbia. Take a look at Iowa. | Opinion

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The customer before me had a swastika tattooed in the center of his bald forehead. As a waitress, I knew refusing him service could get me in trouble. But as a Jew, I was terrified.

Across the country, American Jews have been grappling with an unprecedented surge of antisemitism — fueled by increasingly brazen white nationalists on the far right and, on the left, hateful rhetoric seeping into protests against the Netanyahu government’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.

The spotlight for so much of this drama in recent months has focused on elite East Coast universities — Columbia in particular, and most recently, Tufts — where the Trump administration is using genuine fears of antisemitism as a pretext to push its own agenda: slashing funding, gutting diversity programs, deporting immigrants, silencing those they disagree with and destroying the foundations of our education system. 

The impact, however, isn’t limited to the Ivies and other East Coast campuses. At my school, the University of Iowa, the administration’s actions are having real consequences, too, making campuses more hostile for the very students they claim to protect. 

Living as a Jew in conservative Iowa, I had experienced casual bigotry while working as a waitress: the offhand slurs from customers and coworkers, the Holocaust jokes at my expense, and the hateful graffiti I had to scrub off tables.

But the neo-Nazi turned out to be my limit. Since the restaurant was on campus, I filed a complaint with the university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office. That office is now shuttered, thanks to Trump.

Since the new administration returned to the White House, there has been a widespread sense of fear on campus among both staff and students. 

I have personally seen professors unwilling to post lecture slides for students to review outside of class, even on subjects like the Holocaust, out of fear of retaliation from the university. Some urge students to frontload courses now before they vanish from the catalog. Across campuses, students carry proof of visa or citizenship status, bracing for the next crackdown.

It’s real dystopian stuff. 

Administrators at campuses like mine have been eager to fall in line with the GOP’s agenda to gut vital resources and programs for marginalized students. Before Trump took office and as campaign season kicked in, Iowa’s three major public universities eliminated departments and positions related to their respective DEI offices. 

Announcing the cuts, Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen made her administration’s priorities disturbingly clear: “A young man, young white man, from rural Iowa, could come and be in a learning community and find the place where they could belong.”

Her words speak volumes about whose sense of belonging truly matters in this new era of higher education. This is especially alarming considering that many young white men from rural Iowa have never met a Jewish person before and could benefit from efforts to dispel cruel stereotypes and baseless preconceptions about my community.

The cuts continue. In March, the University’s Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity was also shuttered under the president's executive order. Pressure from Republican lawmakers put the newly introduced Jewish Studies Certificate at risk, as the Iowa Board of Regents proposed merging ethnic studies programs into a single entity — reducing diverse identities into one bureaucratic afterthought.

As I approach graduation, my concern isn’t just for myself but for the students — Jewish and non-Jewish — who will come after me. They will inherit a campus shaped by a government eager to distort and exploit their identity and a compliant, subservient university administration. I shudder to think what will happen the next time a Jewish student or any student who experiences discrimination at Iowa needs the type of support, resources, and trusted staff extended to me when I turned to them.

This reality has a painful history. My own Jewish family’s story of success in this country is rooted in the very pillars of immigration, education, and democracy that Trump seeks to erode. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Change starts with politicians, university officials and the media giving Jewish students a voice rather than letting the administration define our experiences. It requires Americans to think critically about Trump’s tactics and start paying attention to the campuses like mine, where antisemitism persists but goes unheard. And it demands everyone who has a stake in higher education — students, parents, professors and beyond — to hold Trump, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Board of Regents accountable for policies that harm Jewish and all marginalized students.

Our struggles aren’t just headlines or political props; they’re real, and it’s time that leaders stop using them to advance their own agenda.