If Harvard were to comply with these demands from the Republican party (coincidentally arriving on White House letterhead) that would actually move them further from being apolitical.
> One of the demands [...] Is that a partisan political issue
That's called "cherry-picking", and not in the fun version-control way. There's a bunch more, and [0] ...
> The demands the Trump administration is placing on the university are internally contradictory. [...]
> Departments deemed lacking in viewpoint diversity [by the Trump administration] would be forced to hire and admit “a critical mass” of new faculty and students that would provide it. [...]
> Whether by design or accident, the imperative to screen for anti-Semitic beliefs and “ideological capture,” and to mandate viewpoint diversity, clearly contradict the dictates to reduce administrative activism and abolish the implementation of litmus tests in promotion and hiring.
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In other words, imagine: "You can not have target-minimums in hiring minorities... and you can only hire staff who know how to play golf."
> By August 2025, the University shall commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse.
and
> Discontinuation of DEI
> The University must immediately shutter all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices, committees, positions, and initiatives, under whatever name, and stop all DEI-based policies, including DEI-based disciplinary or speech control policies, under whatever name.
So, uh, we can't promote diversity but we have to promote viewpoint diversity, whatever that means? Is "viewpoint diversity" not DEI "under whatever name"?
I mean, the subtext is that DEI is supposed to promote racial equality so it's bad, but "viewpoint diversity" promotes ideological equality so it's good? Some kinds of equality are more equal than others?
Read broadly, the idea is absurd; does the biology department have to hire creationists to ensure "viewpoint diversity" among its faculty? Do we have to admit flat-earthers to the geology program to ensure "viewpoint diversity" in the student body? The "external party" here isn't even designated as being "independent" or "unbiased"; it's literally someone who the federal government gets to choose, and who will decide what viewpoints they want to include and which ones to not include.
> The "external party" here [is] literally someone who the federal government
Indeed, all those decades of certain people whining about "political correctness" when other people used their individual freedom to react with mean words have led us to the current day in 2025: Where Republicans are trying to insert USSR-style Political Commissars to punish people for opinions the government doesn't like.
I have never heard of DEI referring to diversity of viewpoints. Wikipedia for DEI defines diversity thusly: "Diversity refers to the presence of variety within the organizational workforce in characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture, class, veteran status, or religion."
I’m not really sure if Harvard should have tax exempt status given their resources. Of course Trump is doing it for the wrong reasons, but the school should be educating significantly more people.
Tax exemption has nothing to do with the amount of resources. It is based on what those resources are used for.
I also think there should be absolutely no expectation that Harvard educates or people. If you are worried about allowing enabling enough people to get an education, allow more schools to open. I don't see why it's the duty of any one pre-existing institution to pick up that slack, especially a private one.
If Harvard wanted to have 10 students, that's its prerogative and right
Because people want to make money and spend it. An investment firm can found and fund a university, but the owners don't get the money they put in back out.
Plus, why bother with a school? If you want to donate your money, there are far more fun tax exempt organizations to run participate in, like most Yacht clubs or fraternal associations.
