“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
After the abysmal testimony of three university presidents who failed to condemn antisemitism and cries for genocide on their campuses, just about everything has been said about their failings except possibly those iconic words of social philosopher Eric Hoffer.
Our Ivy League and much lauded, elite colleges and universities have become a racket.
The clueless and cruel display of antisemitism and discrimination from the women presidents of Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania before a Congressional hearing has ripped off the shiny, thin outward veneer to expose the rot that is below the surface at these institutions.
They used to be one of America’s greatest strengths, but they have become petri dishes for fomenting anti-American sentiment since at least the 1960’s and now they have gone all in to endorse hatred and discrimination against practicing Christians, Asians, and Jews of any ilk.
The fact that these women refused to condemn calls for Jewish genocide on their campuses laid bare for all the world to see the bigotry that has taken hold and created an environment turning out each year new graduates: good little, duly indoctrinated, identity Marxists. They must keep feeding the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) beast that controls their every word.
After all, colleges receive millions of dollars from the federal government and state governments to fund these DEI programs. The over-priced, leveraged tuitions keeping students in bondage for decades aren’t enough for them. One ray of hope is that a few states like Florida and Oklahoma have wisely chosen to defund DEI.
DEI, described as “a conceptual framework that promotes the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially populations that have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination because of their background, identity, disability, etc.”
But not Jews, of course.
But a special and more lethal form of spite is reserved for Jewish students. In the early 1900’s, when Jewish applications to Ivy league universities was soaring, administrators at these elite institutions moved to quell what they called “the Jewish problem” — “unofficially defined as too many Jews on campus — by implementing measures to restrict Jewish enrollment.” In fact, this led to the admissions process still utilized today elevating the selective college application process to guarantee a certain make-up of students on campus. The desire for geographical diversity, legacy preferences, and now, of course, the color of one’s skin.
These administrators discriminate every day and put their thumb on the scales based not on some admirable desire for diversity.
Remember the 2017 bribery and cheating scandal involving Hollywood celebrities like Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman who were bribing university administrators to admit their in-no-way-exceptional kids.
According to the unsealed court documents, these rich parents were bribing college entrance exam officials, coaches, and administrators to get their kids into colleges. There were accounts set up to conceal the bribery payments and further the fraudulently obtained exam scores, grades, awards, and athletic activities.
Add to that scandal the absurd legacy preferences at elite universities. In the affirmative action case that was decided over the summer that ended racial preferences, the favoritism granted to children of affluent alumni and donors was unearthed. Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard exposed its commitment to “equity” in admissions was anything but. These “legacy” students received slightly greater admissions advantage than blacks, nearly twice as much as Hispanics and low-income students. Note that this case was brought due to the clear discrimination against Asian students who were othered by taking away social points. God help you if your child shares my upbringing from a low-income, Appalachian family. The accent alone loses social points much less the dearth of legacy.
So apparently, it’s not about increasing minority, black, and brown populations; it’s all about the green. Money talks.
Finally, finally, big donors are now pulling back from some of their donations to these cesspools of hate because these universities refuse to condemn antisemitism or do anything to stop it. Businessmen Ron Lauder, Jon Huntsman, venture capitalists David Magerman and Jonathon Jacobson are all pulling their funding from these woke universities. Ross Stevens of Stone Ridge Asset Management pulled his $100 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania. One hundred million? Can’t these rich people find a worthier cause? Harvard has an endowment of $50.9 billion, UPenn’s is $21 billion. That’s with a “B.”
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics in 1980, “US colleges and universities received $4.2 billion in private donations from alumni, corporations, foundations, nonprofit groups and religious organizations.” Last year, private donations exploded to $59.5 billion.
Then there are countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and other Gulf states pouring billions into these universities primarily to fund Islamic studies. Could this be from where the chant “from the river to the sea” came? Bloomberg reports Harvard has received $1 billion from China; UPenn receives cash along with land grants and contracts. China has also poured billions into its Confucius institutes to further its culture and communist ideals.
A Department of Education report indicates that American universities and colleges have received $21 billion in funds from foreign entities this year alone, and “more than 50% of this has come from authoritarian and antidemocratic Middle East governments.”
What are these countries getting in return? Kids who hate their own country and think terrorists who rape women and torture children should be lauded.
These universities are not about diversity nor equity nor even education. They are transactionalists, and it is about the dollars they can bilk from anyone, including students and their parents, to further their racket. Since 2004 tuition for private colleges has increased 132%, and for in-state public schools, it has increased 158%.
Parents need to seriously rethink their goal of sending their children to these indoctrination factories and spend their hard-earned dollars more wisely on institutions that reflect their values and will not turn their children into haters of America and Jews.
Penny Nance is the President and CEO of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy organization for women. She is a recognized national authority on cultural, children’s and women’s issues.
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