The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Harvard, You’re Entitled to Nothing

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk. Business. Recently, Donald Trump has escalated his struggle with Harvard University. Harvard had not really followed the letter of the law, according to the 2002 Supreme Court ruling. I think there's no question that there is a climate of anti-Semitism. Recently, two Harvard students who assaulted a Jewish student, one of whom was kind of rewarded with a $65,000 honorarium through the auspices of the law school. Another one was given an honorific title at a graduation of the Divinity School of Marshall.

Starting point is 00:01:03 There was a lot of cause for Donald Trump suggests, I don't need this. The country doesn't need this. They've got $53 billion. They're private. They're not public institutions. But, you know, if they ask us and they want money, then we have to look at why we would give it to them. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. Recently, Donald Trump has escalated his struggle with Harvard University.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Remember what the issues were. Harvard had not really followed the letter of the law, according to the 2002 Supreme Court ruling, which it and the University of North Carolina had lost. In other words, they were by court order to stop giving preference in admissions, in high, hiring and promotion and retention on the basis of race, gender, etc., what we would call DEI. Harvard has been skirting that, and I think the data is pretty clear how they have and no question that they've been doing it.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Second, they have also been getting a lot of money from foreign governments not always fully accounted for, that is reported to the Department of Education, specifically communist China and gutter over the years. You can make the argument that there is separate, there has been in the past, graduations, dorms that have a racial basis, almost a segregation element to them. You can make the argument that they don't fully honor the First Amendment when you have guest speakers, sometimes when they want to give a presentation at a formal lecture or even informal class students, while they may be officially discouraged from it, they are a lot of. allowed de facto to shout the speaker down or to protest. I think there's no question that there is a climate of anti-Semitism throughout Harvard. Recently, two Harvard students who assaulted a Jewish student, one of whom was kind of rewarded with a $65,000 honorarium through the auspices of the law school.

Starting point is 00:03:27 Another one was given an honorific title at a graduation of the Divinity School, a Marshall. That sent the wrong message. What I'm getting at is there was a lot of cause for Donald Trump to suggest, I don't need this. The country doesn't need this. But in his bill of complaints that were contingent on Harvard making compromises, he also got into elements of instruction, curriculum, hiring. And he said, why are you hiring people from only one point of view, which I think is indisputable, very few conservatives, or one particular take on the American history, i.e. negative. That prompted the Council on Higher Education and other venues that have published it to solicit letters from people who would be called Center Wright, some of my colleagues at Hoover. And they objected to what Donald Trump's add-ons were.

Starting point is 00:04:27 And I think that's reflected in a Wall Street Journal column by Jason Riley. Essentially, they're saying we understand when Harvard's clearly violating laws are charging too much for individual research grants, 60% overhead. But now you're entering in the inner domain of the Harvard complex, and you're trying to micromanage, and that's wrong. I'm not a constitutional lawyer, but I don't know whether my colleagues and friends on the right have characterized it the way in which the argument is coming from the Trump administration. They are saying this is analogous to immigration. When somebody is a guest and applies to come here in a visa, that's an invitation. And we don't have to give reasons why we don't want a particular person to come the United States. What the federal government does with its money vis-a-vis private education is kind of like an invitation.

Starting point is 00:05:29 They invite us to give them money, and sometimes we don't want to do it. Maybe we say we don't like Harvard, we like Fresno State, and we don't have to give you a reason at all. Because it's not a requirement, it's a privilege. Some colleges like Hillsdale don't take any money. They don't want us to give them money. And so I think the argument from the administration that maybe our right-wing friends are missing is not that the Trump administration doesn't have a right to go in and micromanage. They're just saying, I don't really want to give Harvard any money.

Starting point is 00:06:11 They've got $53 billion. They're private. They're not public institutions. But, you know, if they ask us and they want money, then we have to look at why we would give it to them. And it's kind of like Mr. Smith coming from Korea or Mr. Jones coming from Sweden. We look at them and we don't really think they add to the American. So we don't have an invitation. It's kind of like foreign aid.

Starting point is 00:06:38 Maybe Denmark wants foreign aid. Maybe Ghanem wants foreign aid. And we look at it and then we're under no. we can say, well, Denmark, you have to give us Greenland if we want before we give you four and eight. We're under no requirement to explain every decision we make for an optional gift. So we were to apply that logic. I think that's what the Trump administration is doing. Harvard, here's some money.

Starting point is 00:07:05 We don't really care if you want it or not. But if you do want it, we would suggest that you broaden your curriculum. You give both points of view and just try to hire more. conservatives to balance out. And if you don't want to do that, don't worry about it. We'll just give the money to trade school. This is as simple as that. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

Starting point is 00:07:49 You know,

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Harvard, You’re Entitled to Nothing

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