Harvard rejects White House demands

admmda
Fri, 18 Apr 2025 22:10:35 +0000

Publisher:

The truth, in my view, is that some of the federal government’s demands are reasonable in this time of unreasonableness.

I’d disagree that any of them are flat out reasonable, but some are way more unreasonable than others.

However, setting a precedent for the government to dictate internal governance, or giving the government oversight over hiring and admissions would be a point of no return. And most likely a violation of Harvard’s first amendment rights.

The demands to Columbia were nowhere near as onerous which is probably why they felt more comfortable to negotiate. The optics were worse than they anticipated though, in Columbia’s case. And in Harvard’s case the optics have been pretty great.