By Major (Retired) Montgomery J. Granger
During a recent Congressional hearing, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik questioned three elite university presidents on their schools’ safety and security policies with regard to antisemitism. Though none would clearly affirm support for Jewish students on their campuses, only one, University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill has been removed from her position (although she still remains on staff at the school).
Sally Kornbluth, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on the other hand, has received support from the MIT executive board, which released a statement saying, “[We] chose Sally to be our president for her excellent academic leadership, her judgment, her integrity, her moral compass, and her ability to unite our community around MIT’s core values.”
Similarly, Harvard president, Claudine Gay’s employers have stood by her, stating, “As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.”
However, billionaire hedge fund manager and educational philanthropist, Bill Ackman has demanded all three be fired, writing in a post on X, “The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership…They must all resign in disgrace.”
Stefanik’s questioning came on the heels of a rash of aggressive antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses throughout the country, some of which have resulted in direct threats to Jewish students and those who oppose overt calls for genocide. These protests have notably included chants of “From the river to the sea,” a popular Palestinian war cry, calling for Jews to be exterminated from the Jordan River on the eastern border of Israel to the Mediterranean Sea on the west.
When asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct or regulations on bullying or harrassment, all three presidents hedged their answers on the grounds of free speech. Rep. Stefanik provided them multiple opportunities to amend or correct their responses but none would give a straight answer to what seems to be an easy, common-sense question about protecting students and maintaining safety and security on campus.
Just as the President of the United States is responsible for the defense of the country against “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” university and school administrators are expected to maintain a safe and healthy environment on campus. For without that, how can effective teaching and learning take place?
Leadership is influence. If the influence from the leader is negative, the leader needs to go, especially when the leader is ambivalent, smug, or spiteful, as these three all were during their exchange with an elected representative of the American people.
If this is the best they have to offer, they need to move on, and these educational corporations need to look a little harder for correctly principled leaders who understand and appreciate their primary responsibility.
Amid this controversy, every college campus in American should be reviewing its campus health and safety policies and procedures, and clarifying to all stakeholders what is acceptable and what is not.
Among the forbidden activities should be any threat to personal safety based on race, religion, skin color, national origin, political persuasion, etc. Without that, there can be no claim to academic or any other excellence, the hallmark of any legitimate institution of higher learning.
Neither terrorism, intimidation, threats, nor any other form of harassment has any place on an American college campus, or anywhere for that matter. Allowing, appeasing, or encouraging such activity should cost one his job, no matter their background, status, or excuses.