For many years Harvard University has enjoyed a most impressive reputation. Many people have always viewed HU as among the finest and most prestigious educational institutions in the world. Many people still do. According to Wikipedia HU students, alumni, faculty, and researchers include eight US presidents, 24 heads of state, 31 heads of government, 188 living billionaires, ten Academy Award winners, and 110 Olympic medalists, including 46 gold. Additionally, they comprise a plethora of Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, Rhodes Scholars, Pulitzer Prize winners and prominent members of government.
Furthermore, the Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked Harvard first in each of its annual rankings of the world’s colleges and universities; the Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings, which was published from 2004 to 2009, ranked Harvard first in the world in each of its annual rankings; it has been ranked first in the world each year since 2011 by its successor, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings; and according to annual polls conducted by The Princeton Review, Harvard is consistently among the top two most commonly named “dream” colleges in the United States for both students and their parents.
However, recent events tell me that HU has been reading its own press clippings, so to speak. In my opinion HU thinks it is above not only the law but also above common decency. Read on, and I will explain.
HU is a private university located in Cambridge, MA. It was founded on October 28, 1636, and it is the oldest university in the US. It was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard. By the latter part of the 19th century, it had become a favorite among the Boston elite. In the opinion of many both it and its students had developed a snobby or bumptious attitude, which exists unfettered to this day.
By the early 1920s the percentage of Jewish students at HU had grown to 20%. The university’s president at the time thought that was excessive. Accordingly, he sought (unsuccessfully) to limit the admission of Jewish students to 15% of the undergraduate population. He also refused to require desegregation of the university’s freshman dorms. He stated that, “we owe to the colored man the same opportunities for education that we do to the white man, but we do not owe to him to force him and the white man into social relations that are not, or may not be, mutually congenial.” A certain antisemitic and anti-Black culture was being established, which has only intensified since then.
For many years this sentiment was mostly covert, but in the last few years it has exploded into the open. In January 2024, Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, was forced to resign in the wake of allegations of antisemitism after having served only six months. Gay was succeeded by Alan Garber, who has done nothing to rectify the campus culture. In fact, it can be argued that it has deteriorated further during his short tenure.
Now the HU Administration has developed a brazenness that is astounding. It has resisted reining in antisemitic/anti-Israel “protesters.” It has hardened its stance even in the face of losing substantial amounts of federal money and being subjected to other penalties and ridicule.
For instance, HU normally receives some $8 billion per year from the federal government most of which is earmarked for research and affiliated hospitals. The Trump Administration has already frozen $2.2 billion in grants, canceled a $60 million contract for further aid, and threatened to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, which would be a huge blow. Regardless of these financial penalties, HU is stubbornly adhering to its policies. According to the NY Post it views these protests as a “civil right for the school [and the protesters] instead of a violation of Jewish students’ civil rights. Moreover, the school’s attorneys have reiterated HU “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
Conclusion
This high-profile obstinance only reinforces the public’s perception of elitism and antisemitism as exhibited by HU, Columbia and various other colleges in the Ivy League and elsewhere in recent years. As I said antisemitism has been festering covertly at the nation’s colleges for many years. The Biden Administration’s laissez-faire attitude and the October 7, 2023 terror attacks against Israel have brought it out in the open by giving “cover” to these radicals.
Unlike most schools HU has the financial resources to reject any federal assistance, at least for a time. It possesses an endowment estimated at $53 billion, by far the largest of any university. So, for now it can afford to stand on principle.
In the meantime, this is just another example of the far left being on the wrong side of every issue. Its TDS has forced it to oppose any policy espoused by Trump. This group has taken control of the Dem Party thereby making it the Party that favors open borders, criminals over law-abiding citizens, the rights of illegals over US citizens, government waste fraud and abuse, antisemitism, anti-working man, trans rights, and many other highly unpopular issues.
The latest iteration of this involves Maryland Dem Senator Chris Van Hollen. He ignored the horrific murder of Rachel Morin, a Maryland constituent. He didn’t even bother to make a condolence call to the family. Now, he feels compelled to free the murderer from the El Salvador prison in which he is being incarcerated. He has taken the highly unusual step of traveling to El Salvador to make a personal appeal for his release. This publicity stunt makes him look like a publicity-seeking buffoon and only serves to buttress his and his Party’s negative image. Good luck with that. Keep it up Dems.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 