To the Editor:
What Sen. Dan Sullivan found - anti-Israel signs and symbols in the reading room of Harvard's premier library - is indeed shocking ("An Antisemitic Occupation of Harvard's Widener Library"). Bravo to him for pointing this out and condemning the university's "craven, morally bankrupt" leadership for allowing such antics.
 The reading room at Widener, June 6, 2022. © Daniel Pipes |
Mr. Sullivan, however, offers the wrong solution to this problem when he contends that "It is time for Congress to save these important and once-respected [universities] from themselves and their weak leaders." Harvard is a private institution. Government must not attempt to "save" it. That way lies state control over everything and ultimately totalitarianism.
True, the taxpayer funds students, research, and more at universities, but these monies must not be weaponized to force them to do the government's bidding. That way lies perdition.
Rather, the burden to save private institutions falls on private citizens. That means they either exert influence over existing ones or found new ones. Admittedly, this requires hard work but we must not succumb to the temptation of easy solutions.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes
Harvard AB '71, PhD '78
President, Middle East Forum
Philadelphia
Dec. 22, 2023 addendum: The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has written to Harvard to inquire into plagiarism allegations against Harvard's President Claudine Gay. Personally, I believe her plagiarism requires her expulsion from the university. But I am dead-set against the federal government butting its nose into this private matter.
Mar. 21, 2025 update: The U.S. government demanded that Columbia University's Middle East and related area studies be put into "receivership." Surprisingly, Columbia has agreed, as explained in this lengthy paragraph.
As indicated in the letter above, I have deep reservations about governments telling private institutions how to go about their business, but perhaps this temporary and limited shock to a degenerated institution will do some good.
