Trump's scheduled summit at Carnegie Mellon meets backlash

Carrie McDonough was appalled upon learning that President Donald Trump would appear at a summit hosted by Carnegie Mellon University.

She immediately began formulating an open letter to the administration, condemning what she saw as a dangerous legitimization of the Trump administration’s values.

“Trump is a harmful person,” said McDonough, an assistant professor of chemistry.

On Monday, McDonough and other campus community members sat down with Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian with a list of requests to be addressed before Sen. Dave McCormick’s Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. The summit is scheduled to take place July 15 on CMU’s campus.

“The Trump administration has been responsible for terminating federal research grants, encouraging and engaging in the persecution of trans and gender nonconforming individuals, unjustly revoking visas of international students (including CMU students), and detaining both U.S. citizens and non-citizens without due process,” states McDonough’s letter, signed by 31 faculty and staff and 10 students and alumni.

The letter asked the university to move the summit off campus, remove itself as a host and allow for feedback at a town hall before July 15. It was unclear Tuesday whether the university would take any action.

Trump supporters on campus say the summit is an honor and great publicity for the university.

Carnegie Mellon officials directed questions specifically about the summit to McCormick’s office and referred a reporter to an online statement from Jahanian.

“Our region has long been a national center of energy production and infrastructure, and Pittsburgh has emerged as a global hub for AI, robotics and advanced technology,” Jahanian wrote on June 13. “Carnegie Mellon University sits at the heart of this ecosystem, with our world-class expertise shaping how the country is adapting to the opportunities and challenges of this new industrial era.”

‘Vulnerable population’

McDonough said the university’s decision to host the summit seems like a “wild idea” because of the large number of “very vulnerable” students on campus, specifically LGBTQIA+ and international students.

“You can’t host him and shake his hand and say you have (the university’s) values,” she said.

CMU had 2,522 international students enrolled during the summer and fall 2023 semesters.

In April, two CMU students received a message from the provost that said the federal government had terminated their student visas, which made them ineligible to continue studying in the United States. Soon after, a federal lawsuit on the issue was filed in Pittsburgh, and later that month the Trump administration decided to reinstate the the student visas and allow them to finish their degrees.

Lee Rodriguez, a fourth-year student and president of PRISM, a social and activist organization on campus for queer students, said he is concerned about the values the university appears to be representing by hosting the summit.

Rodriguez, who has friends who are international students, said he knows people are scared to be in the area during the summit.

“They don’t even want to be within a mile radius,” he said.

He said the community wants Carnegie Mellon leadership to “show safety” toward international students.

In a separate letter to Jahanian, James Herbsleb, a professor of software and societal systems, also expressed outrage.

“President Trump, speaking with CMU as his backdrop, will demean and embarrass the university,” Herbsleb wrote. “The politics of this particular meeting, however, given the current context, overwhelm any technical advances that may come out of it.”

McDonough said one of the requests was that the summit be relocated to a building off campus to protect students who are taking classes and/or living in student housing for the summer. However, she said, it seemed unlikely to change, despite Jahanian’s being protective of the university in the past.

“They were generally very understanding,” she said about the university’s leadership.

The petition

Students have created signage that reflects the political friction on campus. In a strong show of denunciation, The Fence, a longstanding tradition used as a student sounding board for the campus community, displayed painted black lettering last week that read “CMU Community Says: Stop The Summit” on one side and “No Trump” and a URL to an online petition for people to sign.

On Wednesday, students pitched a tent next to The Fence. Students also painted a new message that reads, “Protest The Summit,” along with “Protect Our Future” and “Come Talk To Us.” A canopy covering a picnic table was being used as an information desk about the summit and planned protest.

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The petition garnered 1,452 signatures by Monday’s end — comprised of roughly 600 students and 300 alumni, while the remaining names came from faculty and staff.

“Some (faculty) members were expressing concern that they couldn’t partake in certain actions, like a strike, or couldn’t sign on to letters, at least until it had enough signatures that they wouldn’t be a particular threat,” said River Sepinuck, the communications chair for CMU College Democrats.

In previous years, Carnegie Mellon hosted other politicians, including, more recently, former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.

In the June 13 letter addressed to the campus community, Jahanian pointed to the university’s prior hosting of political figures, stating, “We have a history of constructively engaging with the federal government and administrations across the political spectrum. We view these opportunities as consequential to elevating and advancing both Carnegie Mellon’s mission and impact, and we bring to those moments the full measure of our expertise, our values and our voice in service to the nation.”

Sepinuck said he believes the difference with hosting Trump is that the president’s actions have planted the seeds for a widespread outcry from the campus community.

“CMU has a very important role in developing technology in the future, and we are allowing the worst people to be a part of that process,” he said. “We’ve seen his attacks on education, on research, on financial aid, on health care, on immigrants, on democracy itself, and we feel like him being here on campus is, in a way, legitimizing those actions. I would just like to emphasize that it’s not normal. He’s not normal.”

‘A great honor’

Not everyone at Carnegie Mellon agrees with the publicly displayed messages.

“It was in the right of the students who decided to portray their feelings on The Fence to say that they don’t feel happy about him being on campus,” said Anthony Cacciato, president of Carnegie Mellon’s College Republicans. “But I don’t think that speaks for the large number of us who are excited to see this sort of attention that Carnegie Mellon is receiving as a leader in AI and innovation, to have the president come to our campus.”

Cacciato said emerging technologies are important, and the university’s establishing itself as a leader could lead to investments from the state and federal government.

“It really is a great honor to have the president of the United States come and recognize what an important hub of innovation, not only Carnegie Mellon is, but Pittsburgh,” he said.

Officials from McCormick’s office did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

The logistics

A letter from campus officials outlined a plan for possible disruptions caused by increased security and road closures.

“The university encourages employees whose duties do not require them to be on the main campus to work remotely on July 15,” the letter said. “Summer classes will take place as scheduled on July 15; however, the Provost’s Office has encouraged instructors to assess whether their class can be delivered remotely and consider shifting to that format. Instructors will communicate directly with students regarding class format.”

Tina Wang, a rising senior taking classes over the summer, said that while she believes Carnegie Mellon’s campus tends to be more liberal leaning, the campus community will benefit from having the summit on campus either way.

“I think, purely from an objective and nonpartisan point of view, having him here just to hear about his thoughts on things, or how he plans to address certain things, could be an educational experience, and you don’t necessarily have to agree with whatever he’s saying,” Wang said.