On Monday afternoon, Harvard President Alan M. Garber became the first college president of a major institution to let T**** know that he and the university were not the ones to play with.
“No government – regardless of which party is in power – should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote in a letter released to the public.
The bold response to the bullying tactics from the current administration came after the latter sent a letter to the storied institution outlining dramatic, biased, authoritarian and ridiculous changes they wanted the university to make to its educational, admissions process, hiring policies, practices and beliefs.
President Garber made it clear that the T**** administration wants to administer intellectual regulation through the guise of fighting antisemitism.
In his public response, President Garber encouraged people to read the letter’s demands to “gain a fuller understanding of the unprecedented demands being made by the federal government to control the Harvard community.”
To that notion, Garber made his thoughts clear.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”
His stance immediately brought cheers from those supporting democracy, equality and freedom.
It also brought the vindictive, spiteful and punitive hand of this administration’s hand down on Harvard by announcing that it had frozen over $2.3 billion in funding meant for the school.
But with an endowment of over $53 billion, Harvard won’t be threatened and made it clear that T**** can take his demands and stick them you know where.
It’s a decision that should be celebrated by all who are fighting for justice and equal rights and for those who believe in our constitution and freedom of speech.
Harvard’s decision should also act as a beacon by which other institutions rally around to fight back against the funding threats they’re facing. It’s what Columbia should have done instead of agreeing to be monitored by a federal overseer in an attempt to restore the $400 million in grants that were snatched away from the university.
