As the Trump administration keeps up the pressure on Harvard University, a new report says the college is looking at a $1 billion project that might create a center for conservative scholarship as a way to stave off the administration.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the concept has been in discussion for several years, and would cost between $500 million and $1 billion. The report cited a source it did not name.
A Harvard representative said it is keen to “promote and support viewpoint diversity.”
The concept batted about of a conservative-leaning institute “will ensure exposure to the broadest ranges of perspectives on issues, and will not be partisan, but rather will model the use of evidence-based, rigorous logic and a willingness to engage with opposing views,” the representative said.
Last year, a Harvard survey found only a third of Harvard’s graduating class was comfortable discussing topics on a campus that was aflame with anti-Israel protests after Hamas massacred Israeli civilians in October 2023. A 2023 student newspaper survey showed 3 percent of Harvard faculty labeled themselves as conservative.
The Journal report said that in discussions to resolve the multiple disputes between Harvard and the administration, decisions about admissions and faculty are the big sticking points.
The Journal report also suggested that, based on a source it did not name, the Trump administration is not likely to see the add-on of a conservative center as an adequate response to its concerns.
Trump’s administration would view the creation of a new institute as window-dressing and wouldn’t see it as a meaningful part of their negotiations, said a person familiar with the administration’s views.
Harvard, however, sees the center as a way to encourage open discussion of conservative ideas while preserving Harvard’s control, according to the Journal report. The Journal noted that such a program could be modeled after the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
While Harvard mulls its options, the Trump administration is stepping up its attacks on Harvard.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said it is hitting Harvard with administrative subpoenas concerning its programs for international students, according to a news release on the department’s website.
Since April, the department has been seeking information about criminal actions and other misconduct by international students.
“We tried to do things the easy way with Harvard. Now, through their refusal to cooperate, we have to do things the hard way,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Harvard, like other universities, has allowed foreign students to abuse their visa privileges and advocate for violence and terrorism on campus. If Harvard won’t defend the interests of its students, then we will,” she said.
Also this week, the Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights advised the New England Commission of Higher Education, which provide accreditation for Harvard, that the college “is in violation of federal antidiscrimination laws and therefore may fail to meet the standards for accreditation set by the Commission,” according to a news release posted on the website of the Department of Education.
“By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers. The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
“When an institution—no matter how prestigious—abandons its mission and fails to protect its students, it forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. “HHS and the Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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