By Steve Levy
President Trump is telling Harvard University “enough is enough” when it comes to its lax treatment of those perpetrating antisemitism on its campus. The president has gone so far as to deny visas to any foreign students at Harvard.
While Trump’s across-the-board ban is excessive, he is to be applauded for focusing attention on how elite colleges are playing a dangerous game of propping up antisemites and allowing their campuses to be comprised of a student population where over one in four are foreigners.
As to antisemitism, it is truly outrageous that most elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia have turned a blind eye to their campus radicals who have shut down buildings, taken over campus property and prohibited the free movement of Jewish students.
Substitute the victims here from Jews to any other minority group (Muslims, gays or Blacks) and the liberal establishment would be losing its mind. Biden‘s Justice Department would’ve come down with all its weapons to find those who were blocking the free movement of black students. But when it comes to the Jewish students, these university presidents are looking the other way. Why aren’t these radicals expelled?
It’s primarily because the administrators know their faculty and student population is flooded with radical leftists who buy into Marxist critical race theory (CRT) that sees white Israelis as being oppressors and brown Palestinians as being the oppressed.
CRT preaches that, if you fit into the category of the oppressor class, any violence or actions taken against you by the so-called “oppressed” class are justified.
How did this poisonous philosophy come to dominate these schools that once prided themselves on allowing liberal open dialogue?
Well, follow the money. Various foreign countries, from China to Qatar, have found that they could spread their influence by buying off college administrators. We’re not talking about illegal bribes in the administrators’ pockets, but rather by showering the universities with millions of dollars. In return, they get a disproportionately high number of students from their countries gaining admission into the universities, and. more importantly, prod the administration to establish courses that reek of anti-Americanism and antisemitism taught by the most radical Marxist professors on the planet.
Thus, they are spawning an entire generation that hates its own country and supports illiberal terrorists, such as Hamas, as much as a liberal, tolerant democracy such as Israel.
How ironic that many on the gay left who are supporting Hamas seem to overlook the fact that if they were holding their partner’s hand in Gaza, they would be severely beaten and possibly killed.
The money from these countries has also led to an extraordinarily high number of foreign students populating our campuses. I’ve written extensively on this dating back almost a decade. I thought it outrageous that Stony Brook University had over 3,800 of its seats reserved for foreigners. This is a state university we are talking about, where taxpayer dollars are being used to provide high-quality, low-cost education for the kid next door.
Why should Chinese nationals sent from Communist China take a seat that can go to a Chinese-American from Flushing?
Why should a resident of India take a spot from an Indian-American from Setauket?
Why should a Black youngster from Central Islip, a Hispanic from Brentwood or a low-income white student from Mastic be denied a coveted opening in the state universities in favor of foreigners?
The answer again is to follow the money. These foreign students pay out-of-state tuition rates that are far greater than what a New York State resident would pay. State universities should not be doing this.
In my past articles, I distinguished between a state and private university. Harvard has the right to have as many foreign students as they want. But that doesn’t mean that we should think it’s OK. President Trump’s order banning all foreign students is a bridge too far, but it’s good he’s highlighting the issue.
The Trump administration is claiming it is a response to Harvard refusing to cooperate with them in ending antisemitism on campus. (Harvard was ranked as the most intolerant of all American campuses by an independent study.)
We think taking away their funding is the better way to go.
Additionally, legislation should be passed denying hostile countries, such as Qatar and China, from funding our colleges in any way. They should no longer be able to control administrators who prop up these antisemitic, anti-American courses simply so that these colleges can reap in more money.
So kudos to Trump, for focusing the spotlight on this cancer within our elite universities. But he should also be careful to ensure that the measures he takes are not unconstitutional, thereby ceding these elites the moral high ground.
As to our state universities, where is the state legislator who will introduce the bill to have much tighter limits on how many of our limited state university seats can go to individuals who live outside of our country? That’s not why we pay our taxes in New York.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com