Harvard must continue to resist the demands of the Trump government. Paying the ‘ransom’ of $ 500 million that the president demands can again get a federal subsidy for the university would create a wrong precedent.
That said Claudine Gay, former top director of Harvard, on Wednesday at a lecture in Amsterdam. The American government, she said, is busy “destroying” universities as a sanctuary for knowledge.
Gay, who had to resign under political pressure at the beginning of 2024 as Harvard’s chairman, was a speaker at the opening of the Academic Year of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS).
Read also
Read also: Right -wing activists cheer about the departure of ‘Woke’ director of Harvard
Harvard has been at war with the Trump government for months. The university went to court in April to challenge the freezing of two billion in federal support. Trump blames the famous university a left-wing course and laxity when acting against ‘anti-Semitic’, pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Recently, reports are circulating that a deal is on hands between university and government.
Fiddling
Gay believes that the university should go through, she said after her lecture. The towering amount that Trump demands is “random” and would “not solve anything.” Gay (1970) was the first black top director of Harvard and resigned after a campaign against her by Republican politicians and activists, who, among other things, accused her of mistakes in her scientific work.
She called the current situation on the campus “disturbing” and “disorienting.” Harvard has met Trump on a number of points, among other things by giving offices for diversity and inclusion a different name and taking the Middle East studies upheld. Gays successor Alan Garber said that, apart from the requirements of Tump, he would also like a “greater variety of views” at the university.
Read also
Also read: The agreement with Columbia University is primarily a victory for the Trump government
In her lecture on the harmful influence of philanthropic donors at American universities, Gay, as a professor, mentioned Harvard, did not mention Trump, and did not refer to her resignation either. She underlined that universities should not be blamed for ‘alleged left -wing excesses’. That distracts from the main thing: the attack of the US government on free science.
Private donors
Gay argued that American universities let themselves be taken hostage by rich private donors who want to influence the exchange rate of the institution. She herself became the victim of this: rich donors of Harvard objected during her period to the in their eyes left-wing course and anti-Israeli attitude of the university.
That academic power of donors, unprecedented in the Netherlands, is a trend. After the Second World War, the US government invested heavily in higher education, since the 1980s that support has been declining. That made universities increasingly dependent on private donors. Harvard’s ability consists largely of such donations.
According to Gay, American universities can be taken hostage by rich private donors who want to influence the price of the institution
That way they made themselves vulnerable, Gay said. Donors act as ‘shareholders’, who want to influence decisions about the course of the organization. Managing goes along with that to keep the givers satisfied.
They use their influence on a number of ways, says Gay. Sometimes they threaten to withdraw their money in public, as happened after pro-Palestinian protests on American campuses. They also exert informal influence on decisions about, for example, personnel policy. They count on the university to protect their reputation and that of their organizations.
Clear limit
Gay believes that university drivers are going too much in that. Universities are in danger of being lost as institutions “accountability to the truth instead of the person who pays the bill.” They should revise the relationship with donors, become more transparent about the wishes or conditions associated with donations and have to draw a clear boundary between boards and donations. They should refuse donations that infringe the academic freedom.
Before her arrival, Gay, who carefully chose her words, had announced that he would not want to give interviews; also a request from NRC was rejected.