The Government Cannot Fix Universities
Letter To The Editor

by Daniel Pipes
Wall Street Journal (png)
December 22, 2023

Slight differences from the published version.

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. .