Elite universities are facing a critical juncture as public backlash and new legislation challenge their finances, admissions policies, and ideological leanings
Over the last three decades, elite American universities have engaged in economic, political, social, and cultural practices that were often unethical, illegal—and suicidal.
They did so with impunity.
Apparently, confident administrators assumed that the brand of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and other elite universities was so precious to the nation’s elite movers and shakers that they could always do almost anything they wished.
By the 1970s, non-profit universities had dropped pretenses that they were apolitical and non-partisan.
Instead, they customarily violated the corpus of iconic civil rights legislation by weighing race, gender, and sexual orientation in biased admissions, hiring, and promotions.
Graduation ceremonies became overtly racially and ethnically segregated. The same was true for dorms and “theme houses.”
So-called “safe spaces,” in the spirit of the Jim Crow South, reserved areas of campus solely for particular races.
Affluent foreign students often openly protested on behalf of designated terrorist groups like Hamas.
First-Amendment-protected free speech all but vanished on elite campuses. Any guest speaker who dared to critique abortion on demand, Middle East orthodoxy, biological males dominating women’s sports, or diversity/equity/inclusion dogmas was likely to be shouted down, or on occasion roughed up.
