My darling Priscilla-Isaac Jones-Fragnitz: I write with a heavy heart from the front lines of Barker Center, where we plan to make a stand to the last man — er, human being of no particular gender — in this war for Harvard’s independence and federal-funding firehose. The dastardly enemy has us besieged on all fronts now, ruthlessly cutting off our sustenance and leaving us to contend with only the endowment that outstrips the sovereign wealth of most countries. Those who demand we comply with conditions for subsidies have now cut them off, and now threaten to strip us of our tax-exemption defenses in an upcoming battle. We looked to allies overseas for relief, but the Department of Homeland Security has now blockaded our shores.
I fear that soon we will be forced to protect the Jews, and — Heaven and all angels forfend — hire and offer admission on merit. Please pray that we may yet survive this test to make you — zou, sorry — proud of Harvard and our (zour?) heritage as America’s last bastion of sneering elitists.
[If it helps, play this soundtrack while reading the above — Ed]
Just how long can the elitists hold out on the front lines of Harvard? Kristi Noem threatened a gut punch to their financial model today as the fight escalated between the school and the Trump administration:
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, the latest broadside from the Trump administration against the Ivy League school.
Noem ordered the university to submit records on what she says is “illegal and violent activities” from international students by April 30, or Harvard would suffer the “immediate loss of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification,” according to a DHS press release released late Wednesday. The certification program is what allows institutions to enroll foreign students.
Noem also announced the canceling of two department grants worth over $2.7 million to the university, “declaring it unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.”
“Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security,” Noem said in the press release.
In the meantime, Harvard’s still sticking with its “independence” defense while demanding access to billions in federal funding:
Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement DHS’ letter — along with the other recent retaliatory measures the Trump administration has taken against the university — “follows on the heels of our statement that Harvard will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
So … Harvard will adopt the Hillsdale College model and refuse all federal funding? That’s actual independence, after all — and even that didn’t prevent the Left from attempting to force Hillsdale to comply with its interpretations of civil-rights laws and regulations. The lawsuit later got dismissed with prejudice, but the message was clear that the Left would not respect independence even without the strings attached to federal funding.
Did Harvard ever speak up in defense of Hillsdale’s independence? Did the geniuses at Harvard Law ever offer a single amicus brief in defense of Bob Jones University’s tax exemption when that case came to the Supreme Court in 1982-3? Hugh Hewitt wondered the same thing yesterday, and said that Harvard commits the same kinds of violations that BJU did to prompt IRS action:
The IRS would face a significant court fight over the tax exemption. Harvard has fewer options with DHS determinations on student visas, and much less moral ground on which to object after months of doing nothing to stop anti-Semitic intimidation campaigns on its campus. Some estimates of the cost for losing tax-exempt status ran into the hundreds of millions a year, but the loss of foreign tuition would put a very significant dent into their finances as well. Elite schools like Harvard recruit heavily from overseas, because foreign students usually pay the full freight rather than look for discounts. Harvard’s recent announcement that it would not charge tuition for US students makes its foreign income and grant streams even more critical to its continued operations.
So who will blink in this game of Academia Chicken? Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz writes this morning to say that Harvard has already blinked, but is trying to cave as quietly as possible. They have hired attorneys to represent Harvard who appear closer to their bete noire than to Academia:
But at the same time, Harvard has retained lawyers — Ballard Partners — who are close to Trump and his administration and have a history of arranging complex agreements. …
For all of Garber’s maneuvering, he surely realizes that he is unlikely to emerge victorious from a long drawn-out courtroom confrontation with Trump. He also must know that the Trump administration would benefit politically from a courtroom fight with Harvard, regardless of the legal outcome which is anything but certain. So, instead, Harvard has sent a more subtle message to the Trump administration by retaining lawyers that he can work with.
Dershowitz wants Harvard to cut a deal, mainly because Harvard is desperately in need of real reform and freedom from the grip of radical-Left fanatics:
Well, reforming our corrupted academic elitist class and fighting antisemitic bigotry is not wrong. That is why I support a negotiated compromise. In fact, it is essential.
The truth is that many of the government’s demands are quite reasonable and necessary.
Harvard does have a serious lack of intellectual, ideological, and political diversity. It is largely a left-wing institution where many points of view are effectively muzzled, largely by self-censorship and peer pressure.
Ironically, a consent decree might accelerate that process by prompting the departure of the radical Leftist carbuncles who currently are untouchable due to tenure. Dershowitz is no conservative, but he sees the faculty’s rehabilitation as “nearly impossible and utterly impractical.” At the very least, the school needs to broaden its approach to hiring by embracing viewpoint diversity rather than skin-tone diversity, even if that could take years to bear real fruit in terms of campus debate and behavior.
In the meantime, don’t expect the Trump administration to back down. This is a winning issue for them, and Harvard may not connect well enough outside its progressive-elite bubble to comprehend just how disgusted Americans are with Academia in general and Harvard in particular — especially after the October 7 Hamas massacres. If they want federal funding, Harvard’s leadership had better start listening more and talking less.
