Harvard University Should Emulate Hillsdale College and Cut Ties With the Government
Given the censorious conduct of colleges and universities in recent years, it takes a lot to get free speech advocates to treat them as aggrieved parties. But the Trump administration has accomplished that by using the power of the state to coerce changes in campus political climates, disciplinary procedures, and hiring practices. Harvard University is digging in its heels and suing the federal government in response. But if institutions of higher learning really want to assert their independence, they should emulate a school with a lower profile and fewer resources that won its freedom by cutting ties with the government decades ago: They should follow the example of Hillsdale College.
A Growing List of Demands
What began as an investigation into poor treatment of Jewish students at Harvard and other universities, especially during pro-Palestinian protests after the Hamas terrorist organization’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, quickly turned into a laundry list of demands. In two letters, the Trump administration dictated terms to Harvard on which further federal funding is conditioned.
The first letter, dated April 3, 2025, demanded “oversight and accountability for biased programs that fuel antisemitism”; stricter enforcement of campus disciplinary policies; merit-based admissions and hiring to replace preferential treatment based on racial and other identitarian criteria; and an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs which have become controversial for fanning the flames of inter-group hostility. The second letter, which the Trump administration claims was unauthorized, went into further detail, and added “viewpoint diversity in admissions and hiring” as a criteria for receiving money from the federal government.
Many of the ideas in the letters are very good. Elite schools do have an antisemitism problem, and many have replaced a commitment to merit with identitarian obsessions embodied in DEI. As environments for exploring and debating ideas, the most prestigious colleges and universities in the United States are miserable. In September 2023, The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) gave Harvard the “worst score ever“—zero out of a possible 100—in its college free speech rankings. These schools could use big changes.
“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!,” President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social.
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