VDH: Will Harvard Go Full Hillsdale?
Harvard University has rejected various demands of a presidential commission on anti-Semitism.
The task force wants to persuade Harvard to ensure Jewish students on its campus are no longer harassed, or else lose its federal funding.
Harvard retorts that it won’t be bullied by Washington.
Among its other requirements, the Trump administration also warned Harvard to cease using race as a criterion in its admissions, hiring, and promotion, contrary to law.
And it also directed the campus to ban the use of masks that, in the post-COVID era of protests, have emboldened violent demonstrators with anonymity.
The administration’s order to stop race-based bias was in accordance with civil rights statutes, and a recent Supreme Court decision specifically banning affirmative action at Harvard and elsewhere.
No matter. Harvard claimed that the Trump administration infringed upon its First Amendment rights.
So, it has temporarily rejected the administration’s orders. At least for now, Harvard has lost its annual $2.2 billion grant of federal funds.
Former President Barack Obama, among others, lauded Harvard’s rejection of the demands of the administration’s anti-Semitism task force. He claimed the Trump administration’s efforts were ham-handed.
But what academic freedom are Harvard and Obama talking about? The freedom to discriminate and segregate by race in hiring, admissions, dorms, and graduations?
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Hillsdale does not take federal money, period—whether doled out by either a Democrat or Republican administration.
If Harvard cares for its principles, such as they are, more than your money, they’ll have to go Full Hillsdale.
