DOUG SCHOEN: Trump vs Harvard conflict demands targeted reforms not blanket funding cuts

The ongoing fight between the Trump administration and Harvard University has – unfortunately – taken on a life of its own.

I say unfortunately, not because I believe the reforms President Donald Trump is demanding are wholly out of bounds – they are not, by any means.

Rather, I say this because, as an alum of both Harvard undergrad and law school – and a longtime donor – the rampant antisemitism on campus, as well as the university’s imperiousness, I cannot fault the White House for acting.

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Indeed, there is a legitimate argument to be made that Harvard must be reined in.

That being said, there are concerns unique to Harvard that separate it from other universities. These concerns range from its handling of antisemitism, its silencing of voices who do not conform to far-left orthodoxy, as well as who it has hired.

Notably, the concerns surrounding Harvard did not originate with its handling of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ October 7th attack on Israel.

It has long been the epicenter of Diversity, Education, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in the U.S., to the point where the Supreme Court was forced to strike down its admissions criteria for being unfair to Asian students in June 2023.

And yet, within just the past month, two serious incidents underscore how much further Harvard has to go in order to reform and redeem itself. First, the Harvard Law Review awarded a $65,000 grant to Ibraham Bharmal, after the Harvard Law School student was charged with assaulting an Israeli student, an incident caught on video.

In effect, Harvard not only tolerated Bharmal’s antisemitism, but rewarded it with a taxpayer-funded grant after he assaulted another student solely because of his nationality and Jewish identity.

Second, Harvard recently revoked the tenure of Francesca Gino, a professor of business administration – who ironically is “well known for studying honesty” as Pilar Arias noted – after a four-year long fight over Gino’s repeated falsification of data.

To be clear, this is not to say that I agree with every action Trump has taken against Harvard.

For example, blanket bans on accepting foreign students is excessive, but vetting their social media is inherently reasonable.

Universities routinely do this for American students; thus it stands to reason Harvard should have the same – or even stricter – policy for foreigners. To that end, Harvard professor Steven Pinker recently published a piece in the New York Times which does a tremendous job at capturing the issues Harvard must address and the best ways to do so.

Pinker, who makes his frustration towards the school’s handling of antisemitism, free speech, hiring practices, and more very clear, makes one more key point: while Harvard has its “serious ailments,” the reaction must also be calibrated.

In other words, while Harvard should not have unfettered access to billions of dollars of taxpayer money, there is a real risk that across-the-board cuts harm America’s scientific prowess without producing the – very necessary – reforms Trump is demanding.

There is ample opportunity for a more targeted approach that can force Harvard to make these necessary changes without destroying the school’s leadership in many vital fields.

For instance, grants to social sciences can be canceled without touching money that funds medical or scientific research into cancer or other diseases.

And while I agree with Pinker on that and other points he makes, perhaps the most important thing he points out is that the only thing thus far that has spurred Harvard to take any steps towards change has been Trump.

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As Pinker puts it, “The uncomfortable fact is that many of these reforms followed Mr. Trump’s inauguration and overlap with his demands.”

Of course, it should not take the President of the United States to bring American universities inline with their own codes of conduct.

Nor should it take the power of the White House to force Harvard to crackdown on the scourge of antisemitism and anti-American extremism that has overrun its campus.

And yet, this is where we now find ourselves.

It is my hope, as an alum, and as an American, that the Trump administration and Harvard come to a solution whereby the university realizes it cannot continue to permit – or reward – students who so blatantly violate the code of conduct, either of the university or of the United States.