One of the lingering controversies over here in Hungary is the actions Prime Minister Viktor Orban took several years ago to kick Central European University (CEU) out of the country. CEU was founded by George Soros in the early 1990s. As The Atlantic described it, “Soros had conceived the school during the dying days of communism to train a generation of technocrats who would write new constitutions, privatize state enterprises, and lead the post-Soviet world into a cosmopolitan future. The university, he declared, would ‘become a prototype of an open society.'”
In other words, Soros intended it to become another leftist university, with very little “openness” to truly diverse views. Which in due course it became. As such it became a partisan political organization inside the country.
Hungary passed a law in 2016 that imposed new conditions for accreditation that CEU wasn’t able to meet, so it moved to Vienna. To which sensible people said, “Good riddance—don’t let the the door hit you on the way out.”
Naturally all correct-thinking leftists declared that this was a “war on intellect,” just as the same braying wokesters are decrying the long overdue moves by red state legislatures to rein in our out of control leftist public universities in America. (By the way: Faster, please.)
All of this is preface for asking: is it time to shut down Harvard University? It is beyond dispute that Harvard is an adjunct of the Democratic Party, with something like 95 percent of faculty political contributions going to Democrats, and almost no political diversity among its faculty. But in the last 48 hours Harvard has exposed itself as a nest of rabid anti-Semites, with 57 student groups (so far) taking the side of Hamas against Israel, and blaming Israel for the violence in the region.
Of course, Harvard is a private institution, and can’t be shut down by legislative act, though Congress could certainly impose a tax on Harvard’s enormous endowment. But here’s a better idea: the next Republican president, on day one, should simply halt all federal funds for Harvard, and declare it ineligible to participate in government-backed student loans, on grounds that it is a partisan organization not deserving of its tax exempt status, and that it promotes anti-Semitic hate speech.
Let George Soros make up the shortfall. After all, he pledged nearly $1 billion to help CEU relocate to Vienna. He could easily help relocate Harvard to a more congenial location, like Venezuela. Or Gaza.
Chaser—Yes, we should close down the other ivies while we’re at it. They seem to be reverting to their anti-Semitic practices of the 1920s and 1930s anyway:
Anyone think this is just a coincidence?
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