Posted on 10/28/2023 11:02:07 AM PDT by golux
In Short:
Harvard's failure to unequivocally condemn the terrorist group signals a broader moral crisis in elite American universities. But this could also be the opportunity to make bold decisions to prevent their total descent into irrelevance.
(...)We are in a moment of reckoning. If American universities lack the ability to oppose terrorism, how can they fulfill their mission as the epicenter of democracy? Hamas’ horrific acts must be a breaking point, separating actual progressive ideas from the lies masquerading as radical leftism. Journalist Alexander Nazaryan described it precisely: “The reason you’re seeing paralysis from so many elite figures and institutions right now is because they never thought they would have to apply their social justice precepts to Jews. Faced with that prospect, they simply don’t know what to do.”
But what administrators struggle to see, the American public clearly identifies, as — trust in higher education is at an all-time low. Only 36% of respondents in a recent Gallup poll expressed confidence in higher education (a decline of 20 points over the last eight years). Gallup researcher Zach Hrynowski noted that while there is a steeper decline on the right, it’s crucial to recognize that trust amongst other groups is “eroding as well.”
The inability of Harvard’s leadership to unequivocally condemn Hamas angered its donors, and estimates suggest they might lose up to half a billion dollars just from those who have spoken out in the past week. But this crisis could be the wake-up call they need to return to their historic role, to be beacons of knowledge and truth for the challenges of democracy in a changing world. This must include how they talk about Israel, for without Israel there will be no democracy in the Middle East — not now and not in the future.
A recent Harvard-Harris poll found that most Americans (84%) support Israel in this conflict, but 48% of people ages 18-24 support Hamas. Not everybody subscribes to this moral incompetence, however. Most young students are just confused and afraid to speak out publicly. In the past week, dozens of students, including those from Arab countries, reached out to me expressing support. Most of them understand very well the true cruel nature of Hamas.
The tactics used over the recent decades to combat antisemitism and anti-Israel on campus have largely failed to move the needle. If we continue to try to “put out fires” in attempting to sway some college students with trips to Israel, we will forever be stuck in this rat race of defending the idea that Jews have a right to live in peace. This isn’t so much a reflection on our community institutions but rather the powerful undercurrents that no student initiative can single-handedly overcome. This is a moment for strategic rather than reactionary thinking. A better statement from university leaders could’ve been nice, but that’s yesterday’s battle. We need to focus on institutional change.
Instead of fighting progressives on campus, we need to resist the lure of prestige and invest in academic institutions that have proven that they actually have a moral spine. Instead of acting as bystanders as Reform and Conservative seminaries shrink, we need to invest in creating relevant elite Jewish leadership programs across the Diaspora and rebuild our leadership pipeline. Instead of demanding statements, we need to demand curricula educating on antisemitism. After four months at Harvard Kennedy School, I’ve been to lectures on almost every type of inequality and oppression — except that directed at Jews. Instead of waiting for universities to change, we should consider developing more Jewish alternatives to higher education that will be open to Jews and non-Jews alike and attract the best minds worldwide(....)
Good Luck.
As an alumnus, I say that Harvard MUST get rid of its new president, Claudine Gay!! They must also dissociate itself from the “leadership” of Penny Pritzker!
This is about a lot more than just Israel!
More war, more death.
I propose that we do to Hamas supporting college students EXACTLY what Hamas does to Jews. Period. Let’s see how the little illiterate turds like it...before they assume room temp.
Democrat s holes are disarmed and make good targets. There will not be an invasion in my neck of the woods.
Defund the universities.
Severely curtail exchange student programs of students from Arab Muslim countries as well as China.
Or eliminate these programs altogether.
It'll take a while. Harvard's current endowment is over $53 billion. While I wouldn't discourage philanthropists from attempting to use the power of the purse here (having taken all three of the universities in my will, out), that becomes more difficult when ideologues have stolen the entire purse for themselves, and consider their institutions ground gained in a decades-long military campaign often dubbed the Long March Through The Institutions. That gain isn't to be reasoned away, it was gained by force, patience, connivance, and misdirection, and is likely only to be surrendered the same way. What passed in the 70's, for example, as an antiwar bias turned out to be prowar against existing society; what passed as anti-authoritarian turns out to be militantly pro-authoritarian in favor of the new orthodoxy. The masks have come off because they hold the ground.
Every revolution requires student passion, and the less critical those students are, the better for the revolutionaries. What passes as educational turns out to be anti-educational, the most visible signs being the outrageous cheapening of academic credentials, especially in the liberal arts, and the relentless attempts to degrade the STEM curricula as well. The donors supporting much of this haven't been private at all, they've been the public taxpayers even in nominally private institutions, and believe me, none of the recipients of this largesse has the slightest inclination either to acknowledge this or to inquire as to the intentions of the frequently critical involuntary sources whom they consider their inferiors.
What is the purpose of a “university education” if not to provide society with a more civilized person who better understands the world around them and acts in an ethical and civil manner?
A university education use to mean something, especially if it was from a college of arts and sciences. However, when degrees began to digress to the woke fad of the year, like certain minority studies, gender based studies, etc. The concept of a university educated person began to loose its historic meaning.
I can understand why college loans to support such educations are not worth the money any longer.
Don’t forgive and don’t forget.
“Instead of waiting for universities to change, we should consider developing more Jewish alternatives to higher education that will be open to Jews and non-Jews alike and attract the best minds worldwide(....) “
This is a much more sensible option than mourning the decline and decay of the Ivy League.
The elite universities are gatekeepers for entry into America’s elite institutions.
When this Regime collapses, those institutions will as well, and the graduates who filled those institutions will also be out.
Jews did that in the mid to late 19th century. Thinking - Brandeis, Baruch College and there are others.
Well, they need to do it again. Because the institutions you named, and others are now part of the problem of pro-Hamas Leftism.
Private schools’ obsessions about race (Exeter, for instance, setting a 50% “people of color” target for admissions before reviewing a simple applicant,) will also have an effect on academia at all levels. In many cases this because the white kids admitted will already be legacies, who traditionally underperform others.
That is to say, frankly, that the students going to the big schools are decreasingly chosen on intelligence and performance factors.
In the secondary school world, schools like McCallie in Tennessee, which is a diverse but decidedly not-Woke institution, are now welcoming some of the brightest kids in the country... Kids whose families eschew race-based admissions policies and kids of “inferior” (white, asian) races.
This is the first time we have seen people, when talking about high-performing students, talk about “Choate, Exeter, Harvard-Westlake, McCallie...”
It will be interesting to see how desirable Harvard grads are in 5 years.
“. Private schools’ obsessions about race (Exeter, for instance, setting a 50% “people of color” target for admissions before reviewing a simple applicant,) will also have an effect on academia at all levels. In many cases this because the white kids admitted will already be legacies, who traditionally underperform others. “
This is the same tactics as the Ivy League.
In both cases I see it as the Elite trying to help their offspring by reducing the competition.
The Ivy League is THE gatekeeper to Regime institutions. If you get rid of the scholastic merit applicants, and replace them with intellectually deficient minorities, you reduce the competition for the legacies for position in Regime institutions.
Good for McCAllie to raise their standards. But they are going to find that their kids are excluded from the Ivy League - and thus the Regime leadership pipeline.
I’ve said for 10 years that were I a hiring manager, I’d consider no one with a non-STEM Ivy League degree. And I’d think twice about a STEM grad from there.
Not all Ivy kids are left wingers. I’m on the right and went to Yale. William F. Buckley and many other prominent conservatives were forged somewhat in these leftist cauldrons.
McCallie is, in fact, now and has for some time been feeding the “best” colleges... They are on the map now of the top prep schools, in part, because nobody can ignore the performance of their students. It is a brilliant strategy: “shoot for the stars academically and don’t be racist.”
The Ivies are dropping academic assessments so they can better screen for political factors.
That’s just a reality.
It’s strange how racist the racist screamers are.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds among the “liberals”.
Yes, this is true. It is also true that the Ivies are not the schools they were: they are largely indoctrination centers, and not worth the money.
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