I’m not a constitutional attorney nor do I play one on TV but I’m not a fan of government overreach and I’m not a big proponent of the Trump administration’s blunderbuss gun approach it’s taken in a number of areas like tariffs, immigration and American higher education. But I will say this; American colleges and universities, especially the elite ones, without the government’s pressure, would have done little if nothing to staunch the antisemitism and DEI’ism on their campuses.
Without the cut off of Federal taxpayer money, places like Harvard, Columbia, MIT and others, would have done little to protect their Jewish students who have been persecuted by the pro-Hamas, anti-US anarchists. Left to their own devices, these colleges would have continued to allow their DEI departments to paint their Jewish students with the broad brush of white privilege, undeserving of protection from the anti-Jewish mob.
The categorization of Jews as colonizers, racists and baby killers has been tolerated and perpetuated on some campuses that are now under enormous pressure by Trump. His tactics: withhold their federal research money and reduce their importance. Tax their endowments and weaken them financially. And this past week, try to severely limit the number of foreign students they can admit.
The critics say Trump is trampling on fundamental American freedoms. Trump is trying to destroy the creme de la creme of our institutions of higher learning. Trump is tearing down the pillars of our open and free society. To which I will say, those colleges and universities have done a pretty, pretty good job of destroying themselves.
Let’s not forget, Harvard’s own massive study found that 26 percent of its Jewish students interviewed said they felt physically unsafe on campus. Forty-four percent said they felt mentally unsafe.
The Harvard study revealed, substantial numbers of Jewish students feel that since October 7th, they have lived in an increasingly hostile atmosphere in their residences, classes, organizations, and clubs, as well as in the public spaces of Harvard Yard and the Science Center Plaza.
It found that antisemitism on the Cambridge campus has been going on for years, even before 10/7.
The study found that anti-Israel and anti-Jewish expressions are tolerated in a way that hostile rhetoric towards other groups would not be, and that Harvard’s DEI department did not take antisemitism seriously.
According to one student interviewed by the committee, hearing the ‘river-to-the-sea’ chants on campus is troubling. I approached an administrator about this, said an undergrad, and their response was that these words could have multiple meanings. If I were part of the LGBTQ community and complained about offensive language, no one would tell me I was wrong to be upset because the language could be interpreted in multiple ways. The same would be true if I were Black and someone used offensive language around me. Why am I being told what is and isn’t antisemitism by an administrator?
Do you believe these colleges and universities would have opened themselves to other-than-progressive points of view on their own? If you do, I have a lovely bridge to sell you that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn.
A desperately needed course correction was long overdue, and places like Harvard and Columbia negligently, stupidly, recklessly left it up to Donald Trump to effectuate.
They had to power to reform, but they did not. Instead, they ignored the hate as it was being incubated and coddled it when it burst wide open on their campuses and beyond. It is real and it is spectacularly dangerous, as we’ve witnessed in the past couple of weeks at commencement ceremonies that were infected with hatred of Jews, Israel and America.
Trump is certainly not an education reformer in shining armor. I don’t trust his motives and I dislike some of his methods. But, change on our campuses was surely not going to come from within. Antisemitism, anti-Israelism and anti-Americanism has been embedded too deeply, for too many years.
Harvard, Columbia and their ilk are reaping the whirlwind they themselves sowed. Blame Trump if you want, but the fault, my dear college administrators and university presidents, is not in your stars, but in yourselves.
How’s that for context?