Harvard Endowment Scandal: Going Yard
Harvard’s Hard Left Turn: Once a Beacon of Excellence, the University is Now a Taxpayer-Funded Activist Hub
NOTE: This piece first appeared on FLGulfNews.com.
By Greg Maresca
Harvard University, founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, considers itself the Cullinan Diamond of American academia. What was once a theological seminary to train Puritan ministers for the Massachusetts Bay Colony has been a willing hostage of the Left for the last three generations.
Then again, what hasn’t the Left taken over?
Harvard, a 389-year-old private university and our nation’s oldest, boasts an untaxed endowment exceeding that of most smaller countries’ annual gross domestic product, at nearly $53 billion. Why should American taxpayers give money to a university with such a colossal endowment? Such an endowment should eliminate any federally funded student loans and grants. Yet, Harvard still receives $2.2 billion in grant money and $60 million in federal subsidies annually.
The Trump administration froze this money due to campus antisemitic behavior. They also questioned Harvard’s quota admission policy, hiring practices, governance, jihadist intifada cheerleading, and their prejudiced DEI programs.
Harvard has since filed a lawsuit challenging the funding freeze.
Public and private universities and colleges are tax-exempt as defined by IRC Section 501(c)(3). Due to their educational mission, they are exempt from paying federal income tax. The Trump administration also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status. If this ever happened, donors would no longer get a tax break, which would diminish donations.
In addition, the administration has also discussed a 35% endowment tax for universities with substantial endowments, which would significantly impact Harvard. Such a revocation would occur after a detailed IRS audit, and any unfavorable decision would likely result in Harvard and the IRS being tied up in court for years.
News outlets have failed to report that several large Harvard donors withdrew their support before Trump took office.
The Harvard cash train doesn’t just collect along the Washington Beltway. Harvard readily accepts bundles of cash from countries hostile to America, like Russia, Venezuela, Qatar, and China. Such funding is anything but benevolent philanthropy – it is the price they pay for infiltration. It is a highly effective soft-power tactic to gain leverage, influence, and technological advantages. And folks wonder why many universities are out of sync with America.
Like other influential universities, Harvard doesn’t sell education, but their brand and access. This is not the Harvard of John Adams or John Kennedy. American higher education is now reaping what it has sown — a poisoned harvest of indifference and hostility to the nation it claims to educate.
The Left goes apoplectic over the salaries of corporate executives that provide employment, products, and services, yet are mum about the salaries paid to Harvard executives and professors who write more books than they teach. The majority of their faculty loathes America as they discriminate against conservatives, Jews, whites, and Asians.
Three percent of Harvard’s faculty claims to be conservative. The Left would be furious if Harvard were three percent leftists. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) rated Harvard last out of 251 colleges.
Tax dollars funding private universities that are havens for political extremism must end. Allow the market to sort things out, aided by their endowments. Funding for private enterprise, research, and scholarships will be available when a free market and competitive playing field are provided.
The funding freeze raised concerns about the impact on scientific research and student aid. Private industry should fund research and endowments for student aid. However, provided the government participates in research, a detailed and transparent analysis and accounting of how tax monies are spent should be provided, regardless of whether it is Harvard or Harrisburg.
The government has no obligation to fund research that is bloated with administrative and bureaucratic costs, which range from 30% to 60%, according to insidehighered.com. It is the worst combination of government inefficiency, academic bureaucracy, and politics. Some research includes studies on why older men tend to have larger ears as they age, and why playing the didgeridoo can help alleviate snoring and sleep apnea.
Not all research is bunk, but it has more than its fair share.
Harvard is free to do its thing, but tax dollars should not subsidize its imprudence.
Harvard should consider raising private capital, as Hillsdale College has done.
Those who take the government’s coin eventually do the government’s bidding.
No one tells Hillsdale College what to do.
Harvard and the rest of academia must join them.
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Beautifully written Greg, keep up the stellar work. The only way to right a wrong is to address it, acknowledge it and then and only then can real change for the better happen.
I long ago stopped giving to my alma mater, Penn, because its endowment is huge though smaller than Harvard’s.