Latest news with #ideologicalDiversity
Fox News
2 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Vance compares Harvard to North Korea as he takes aim at school's ‘ideological diversity'
Vice President JD Vance accused Harvard University of having a lack of "ideological diversity," comparing the academic institution to North Korea amid the Trump administration's continuing battle against the school. Vance said Tuesday that he estimated, without evidence, that "probably" 95% of Harvard's faculty voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, and said that universities have become these "almost quasi-theocratic, or quasi-totalitarian societies." "Right. Very brilliant. Kamala Harris, of course," Vance said at the American Compass anniversary gala in Washington. "But if you ask yourself a foreign election, a foreign country's election, you say 80% of the people voted for one candidate, you would say, 'Oh, that's kind of weird, right? That's like, not a super healthy democracy.' If you said, 'Oh, 95% of people voted for one party's candidate,' you would say, 'That's North Korea, right… That is impossible in a true place of free exchange for that to happen.'" Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The Trump administration has been at odds with Harvard as it's pushed for the academic institution to install changes to its governance and admissions process in response to incidents of bias on campus targeting Jewish students since October 2023. But Harvard University President Alan M. Garber said in April that the Trump administration included additional requests for reform that go beyond addressing antisemitism on campus, and the institution would not comply because the demands were unconstitutional. Specifically, Garber said the new requests "direct governmental regulation of the 'intellectual conditions' at Harvard," including auditing viewpoints of students, faculty and staff members on campus, and eliminating all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices and initiatives at Harvard. "It makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner," Garber wrote in an April letter. "We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement." Since then, the Trump administration has warned it will pull all federal funding from the school, amounting to a total of $100 million in contracts. That's on top of the $3.2 billion in grants and contracts the administration has previously frozen.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Excruciating moment Harvard president is confronted with evidence of overwhelming liberal bias among professors
The President of Harvard University was left visibly uncomfortable after being confronted with the vast number of his staff who are liberal. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal's editor in chief Emma Tucker, Alan Garber was asked about findings that said the faculty at the school was largely liberal. Tucker cited a 2023 survey by The Harvard Crimson that found 77 percent of the faculty was liberal in her questioning. In response, he said: 'One thing I can tell you is it's nothing deliberate about our hiring policies or our tenure policies. 'I think there are certain fields with people with more liberal or left-wing points of view feel more welcome. 'It may be that we don't have as many conservatives as we should have. Part of it also may be that people don't feel comfortable speaking out when they disagree.' Garber also contended that the school has 'had some real problems that we should address'. He said that those included 'perceived lack of ideological diversity' among staff and students. It is the latest in an ongoing battle between the Trump Administration and the Ivy League school, with officials saying that they would now be cutting grants. Trump has been critical of universities that allowed pro-Palestinian demonstrations to run amok. Administration officials have also taken issue with what they consider to be lack of diversity - with too few conservatives on staff. A Education Department official said on Monday that the school would not be eligible for new grants. Research grants would be the ones impacted - not federal student aid, which funnels through universities before providing students with financial relief. Trump previously froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard and said he's looking into stripping the Ivy of its tax-exempt status. Harvard has refused to meet a series of demands issued by the administration, pushing back on the requests. Garber has previously said he won't bend to the government. The university sued last month to overturn the funding freeze, pushing back against the government's 'sweeping and intrusive demands.' The demands include that Harvard make broad government leadership changes, change its admissions policy and audit its faculty and student body. Harvard´s lawsuit said the funding freeze violated the school´s First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has an endowment of $53 billion, the largest in the country. Across the university, federal money accounted for 10.5% of revenue in 2023, not counting financial aid such as Pell grants and student loans. That accounts for more than half the $109 billion spent on research at universities, with most of the rest coming from college endowments, state and local governments and nonprofits. Others being pushed to make changes include Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, all of who have had their funds cut. As the administration continues to wage its war against the school, Kristi Noem also said last month that the school would lost its ability to enroll foreign students should it fail to comply with the demands. Noem also announced the termination of two DHS grants totaling over $2.7 million to Harvard. The former governor of South Dakota wrote a letter to Harvard demanding records on what she called the 'illegal and violent activities' of Harvard's foreign student visa holders by April 30.
Fox News
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Harvard president pressed on why Americans hate university, acknowledges 'real problems we should address'
Harvard University President Alan Garber was pressed on why Americans dislike the elite institution during an interview with The Wall Street Journal amid the university's back-and-forth with President Donald Trump. Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker pressed Garber on why "a lot of people in America really hate Harvard." Trump recently announced he would be freezing federal funds that go to the university, and Harvard responded by filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration. As Garber noted that there was a strong dislike for elite universities in general, he added, "But I will say that we've had some real problems that we should address. One of them is the perceived lack of ideological diversity, among our faculty and among our students." "I have to say that there's recent evidence that makes me think maybe this is overblown, even though I think it's a real problem. But the perception is out there that we are an almost uniformly left-wing institution," he said. JEWISH HARVARD STUDENTS SPEAK OUT AFTER UNIVERSITY SUES TRUMP ADMIN OVER FUNDING FREEZE Tucker then pressed Garber on why the faculty at Harvard skewed liberal, citing a study by The Harvard Crimson that found that over 77% of the faculty surveyed in 2023 identified as either "very liberal" or "liberal." "One thing I can tell you is it's nothing deliberate about our hiring policies or our tenure policies, and I think there are certain fields with people with more liberal or left-wing points of view feel more welcome. It may be that we don't have as many conservatives as we should have. Part of it also may be that people don't feel comfortable speaking out when they disagree," he said. He said that part of what Harvard faculty needed to do was "promote the idea that it doesn't matter what your personal views are, you need to teach in a way that is fair to multiple points of view." Garber said during an interview with "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt in late April that he had no choice but to fight the Trump administration. CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE "I would say at Harvard, we have a problem with antisemitism. We take it very seriously, and we are trying to address it. There's no doubt about the severity of that problem. We don't really see the relationship to research funding at Harvard and other universities. They are two different issues," Garber told NBC. Garber released a letter on April 29 apologizing for the university's failure to address both antisemitic and anti-Muslim/Arab tensions on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Harvard University also released reports from its presidential task forces on antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, as well as anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias. In a letter to the university, Garber expressed his gratitude for the teams' work and lamented the rise of bigotry and "sometimes violent clashes" occurring on campus. "The 2023-24 academic year was disappointing and painful," Garber's letter began. "I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community. The grave, extensive impact of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on our campus." Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
