President Gay & Her DEI May Destroy Harvard

The controversy surrounding US universities, Harvard in particular, is not a minor campus squabble. It is a test of whether a great university still understands free speech, equal treatment, due process, and intellectual courage.

Harvard’s governing board chose to stand by President Claudine Gay after her disastrous congressional testimony and after widespread criticism of the university’s response to the October 7 massacre in Israel. In my judgment, that was not a vote of confidence. It was a vote for business as usual.

A university cannot claim to defend free expression only when it likes the expression.

That is the central problem at US universities. The issue is not whether every offensive or foolish statement deserves applause. Of course not. The issue is whether the rules apply equally to everybody, including Jews.

Harvard’s Board Doubled Down

I predicted that Harvard’s corporation would refuse to acknowledge its mistake. It is the same board that selected President Gay despite an alarming record involving free speech, due process, and civil liberties.

Instead of taking criticism seriously, the board acted as though objections from alumni, faculty members, and civil libertarians were somehow illegitimate. But who funds, supports, teaches at, and gives legitimacy to a university if not its alumni, its faculty, and its larger community?

Some Harvard critics happen to be wealthy. So what? Their arguments should stand or fall on the merits, not on their bank accounts. Ignore the donor’s money if you wish. But read the argument. Answer the argument. Debate the argument.

Do not dismiss people because they are donors. Address whether they are right.

When the leadership of US universities like Harvard holds meetings, makes major decisions, and refuses to confront the substance of its critics’ concerns, it sends a terrible message. It says the institution is accountable only to itself.

The Real Issue Is Not Plagiarism

The plagiarism allegations received enormous attention. Having examined them, I would not call President Gay’s work plagiarism in the usual sense. I would call it sloppy scholarship. Quoting another person’s wording without clear quotation marks, even with a citation, is poor academic practice. But it is different from stealing another person’s work and passing it off as one’s own.

Still, that was never the biggest issue. The much more serious issue was honesty about Harvard’s commitment to free expression.

President Gay defended her refusal to condemn student groups that blamed Israel for the rapes, murders, burnings, and beheadings committed on October 7 by saying Harvard embraces free expression. But US universities, like Harvard, have not consistently embraced free expression during their tenure as dean or president.

Free speech cannot be a selective privilege. It must be a principle.

Harvard has disciplined applicants over ugly comments made when they were teenagers. It has treated certain controversial statements as intolerable microaggressions. It has allowed lectures to be canceled because someone might feel offended by an argument about sex, race, or gender.

So why should calls that can be understood as advocating genocide against Jews receive special patience and protection? That is not equal treatment. That is a double standard.

The Lawrence Summers Lesson

The case of former Harvard President Lawrence Summers tells the story. Summers discussed whether biological differences could possibly contribute to differences in representation between men and women in fields such as mathematics and physics. One can disagree with his speculation. One can think it was wrong. But it was plainly a subject for debate.

Instead, the response was outrage, punishment, and the end of his presidency.

Imagine the contrast. A university president can face ruin for raising a debatable question about gender differences. Yet student groups can blame Israel for an atrocity against Israelis, and the university leadership invokes a commitment to free expression.

That is free speech for me, but not for thee.

Institutions such as Harvard must decide what they are. Are they places where uncomfortable ideas are tested? Or are they places where approved ideas are protected from challenge while disfavored groups are told to be quiet?

DEI, Intersectionality & the Hierarchy of Victimhood

President Gay has strongly supported diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. I believe the modern DEI framework often produces the opposite of what its words promise.

It reduces complicated human beings to categories of oppressor and oppressed. Jews are often placed automatically in the oppressor category. Palestinians, Black people, gay people, and other groups are placed in the oppressed category. Once those labels are assigned, the rules become uneven.

The alleged oppressor has fewer rights. The designated oppressed person has more rights. This is not diversity. It is a hierarchy of victimhood.

And it helps explain why Antisemitism has become so easy to rationalize at many elite campuses. If Jews are assumed to be powerful, privileged, and permanently on the wrong side of history, their fear can be dismissed. Their safety becomes less important. Their civil rights become negotiable.

No student should be excluded from inclusion.

That is especially troubling because Jewish history is full of discrimination, persecution, expulsion, and murder. A framework that ignores history while assigning Jews to the category of permanent oppressors is not fair. It is intellectually lazy.

Safe Spaces Must Apply to Everyone

The idea of “safety” has also been abused. A student should not be entitled to silence an opposing idea simply because the idea makes that student uncomfortable. Feeling offended is not the same as being threatened.

But real threats are different. Speech that directly threatens violence or incites imminent violence does not receive automatic constitutional protection. The legal line can be difficult, but the principle is not.

People should be free to support a two-state solution. They should be free to advocate for Palestinian rights. They should be free to criticize Israeli policies. But calls to cleanse Jews from Palestine, destroy Jews, or commit violence against Jews are something else entirely.

At US universities, safety cannot be reserved for politically favored groups. Jewish students deserve the same concern, dignity, and protection as every other student.

Where’s the Diversity of Ideas?

Harvard celebrates diversity, yet its faculty is overwhelmingly liberal or liberal-leaning, with only a tiny conservative minority. Where is the diversity of political thought? Where is the serious effort to bring together people who profoundly disagree?

I have spent decades at Harvard. I have taught thousands of students there. I know what a university can be when it welcomes argument, debate, and disagreement. I also know how quickly an institution can lose its way when it starts teaching students what to think rather than how to think.

The job of a university is not to produce ideological conformity. It is to produce better thinkers.

The crisis facing US universities is therefore bigger than one president. It is bigger than one congressional hearing. It is about a governing culture that punishes dissent, protects favored dogmas, and then congratulates itself for courage.

What Harvard Should Do Next

I do not want Harvard stripped of funding that supports medicine, science, and valuable research. The point is not to destroy Harvard. The point is to save it from its own worst instincts.

Here is what genuine reform would look like:

• Apply speech rules equally, regardless of the speaker’s religion, race, politics, or identity.
• Protect debate on controversial questions instead of labeling disagreement as harm.
• Reject ideological litmus tests in hiring, admissions, and campus life.
• Confront Antisemitism clearly, especially when it disguises itself as fashionable political rhetoric.
• Listen to critics on the merits, including alumni, faculty, students, and civil libertarians.

Former Harvard students and graduates without large fortunes can still make a difference. Write. Organize. Contact professional associations. Challenge administrators. Demand open debate. A university is not just its board. It belongs morally to the people who have learned, taught, worked, and sacrificed for it.

A Warning For Higher Education

The leadership failure at Harvard should worry every American. Harvard is not just another school. It sets standards, shapes future leaders, and influences the culture of higher education.

When Harvard treats free speech as a slogan rather than a rule, other institutions notice. When Harvard applies protection unevenly, other institutions copy it. And when Harvard refuses to learn from a crisis, the problem spreads.

Equal treatment is not optional. It is the beginning of justice.

This was a bad day for Harvard and for higher education. But a bad day does not have to become a permanent condition. Harvard can still choose intellectual honesty over institutional arrogance. It can still embrace free expression for everybody. And it can still become the kind of university it claims to be.

I Never Witnessed Anything Like This: Rep. Stefanik

Rabbi Resigns from Harvard Following University President’s Remarks

There are new developments following the recent congressional testimony. Three university presidents responded to Antisemitism on campus.

Rabbi David Wolpe is a Rabbinic Fellow for the Anti-Defamation League. He joins to tell us more about why he resigned from his position at Harvard.

Harvard President Claudine Gay apologized today for her remarks on Capitol Hill.

Rabbi David shares his reaction to the exchange with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik.

He believes there’s an ideology at the root. It’s why prominent universities have responded this way to threats against Jewish students.

The rabbi’s resignation announcement mentioned an evil ideology gripping many students and faculty.

He may still serve the student community at Harvard, or he may remove himself completely. Harvard officials have reached out to him since his resignation.

Harvard Alum Kevin Kiley

Excoriates Claudine Gay
Lists ’10 Principles To Reform Higher Ed

Harvard Alums Angered About School’s Response to Antisemitism on Campus

Harvard is under pressure from a critical network of donors and alumni volunteers. It stems from concerns about the school’s handling of Antisemitism on campus.

Bloomberg News higher education finance reporter Janet Lorin looks at potential costs. Harvard is one of the nation’s richest universities. Janet speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

Harvard President Attends Menorah Lighting
After Antisemitism Backlash

Harvard student Shabbos Kestenbaum reacts to university President Claudine Gay suddenly attending a campus menorah lighting after she previously declined on ‘The Big Money Show.’

Harvard Sees Major Drop in Applications After ‘Disastrous’ Hearing

Harvard graduate student Shabbos Kestenbaum joins ‘Fox & Friends‘ to discuss the rise in Antisemitism on college campuses and the backlash after President Claudine Gay‘s testimony before Congress.