Should Universities Accept Government Funding?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is federal funding of universities. Harvard University is currently in a stand-off situation with the federal government about protection of Jewish students on its campus. Victor Davis Hanson explained the situation as follows. 

Harvard University has rejected various demands of a presidential commission on antisemitism.

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-19 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.

Individuals lauding Harvard’s rejection of federal demands include former President Barack Obama. They claim that the Trump administration is threatening academic freedom. Hanson wants to know what academic freedoms about which they are talking.

… The freedom to discriminate and segregate by race in hiring, admissions, dorms, and graduations?

The freedom of 500 Harvard students to crash the classes of others, shut down traffic, and harass students on the basis of their religion or views on Israel?

Harvard is fighting the federal government even as “its classrooms are still being disrupted” and “Jewish students remain fearful.” Would Obama be defending Harvard if “African-American students at Harvard were harassed on campus by masked disrupters? Or black studies classes were crashed by students wearing scarves over their faces as they vented their hatred?” Would Obama be pressing the government “to force Harvard to honor federal civil rights protections?’

Harvard has a choice, the same choice that other universities have. Harvard can use its “largely untaxed endowment of over $50.2 billion” rather than accept money – a currently suspended amount of $2.2 billion of taxpayer money.

As explained by Hanson, the federal government is not attempting to tell Harvard how to run its university. The government is simply saying: if you want to receive federal money, you “must comply with existing laws and executive orders.”

Other universities avoid government control by rejecting any government funds. Hillsdale College is one such university. Other universities rejecting all government funding are schools like Brigham Young University and other BYU campuses in Idaho and Hawaii. If Harvard desires to be free of government controls, it should pay its own way.