The ousting of presidents of two prestigious universities in the past month has been a cause for celebration among conservatives, who believe the ousting could be a springboard to the changes they have long wanted in higher education.
Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania (Pen) President Liz Magill lost their positions after their controversial testimony to Congress in early December, with Gay also facing serious plagiarism charges.
Republicans say their departures are just the beginning of needed school reforms.
“This is just among the first steps on a very long road toward restoring or returning to the true and original purpose of higher education, which is the pursuit of truth,” said Jay Green, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.
Conservatives welcomed the departure, which came after the two, as well as MIT’s Sally Kornbluth, faced questions about campus anti-Semitism before the Education and Workforce Commission.
“Two down. One more to go,” posted Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.), a committee member. “Responsibility is coming.”
“The long-awaited forced resignations of former presidents Claudine Gay and Liz Magill are just the beginning of the tectonic fallout from their historic morally bankrupt testimony to my questions,” Stefanik added in a statement to The Hill, referring to a formal investigation into the schools that the panel announced.
“The investigation will look at all aspects of a fundamentally broken and corrupt system of higher education — anti-Semitism on campus, taxpayer-funded aid, foreign aid, DEI, accreditation, academic integrity and governance,” she said, using an acronym for diversity, equity and programs. inclusion (DEI).
In the hearings on anti-Semitism and colleges, Republicans pursued legislation that would impose more restrictions on universities, including a bill that would reduce from $250,000 to $50,000 the amount of money received from foreign governments that would have to be disclosed to the Department of Education. as well as adding further contingencies as to what would constitute a foreign gift.
Republicans also said they would cut taxpayer funding to universities they believe are not doing enough to fight anti-Semitism, including grants and research funding given to private institutions like Harvard.
But their biggest target recently has been DEI programs, making the argument that they have done more harm than good to students.
“One of the ways I believe colleges and universities encourage anti-Semitic speech and behavior is through their DEI offices,” Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) said during a hearing.
Stephanie Hall, acting senior director of higher education policy at the Center for American Progress, said she finds it “really troubling” that a congressional committee is trying to investigate DEI at universities.
Hall said the Department of Education can handle complaints of civil rights violations in schools and the panel should instead “focus on keeping the government open, keeping federal funds flowing to institutions so they can operate at a level that ensures that the needs of your students are met met.
But the goals of House Republicans are in line with those who have long argued that higher education is headed in the wrong direction under progressive leadership.
Green said he hoped “additional people will have to be removed, both university leaders and their subordinates, because they are also important players in this. It’s not just at the top, but it’s kind of in these institutions.”
He also specifically called for the elimination of DEI efforts on campus and disciplines such as gender studies, another popular GOP target.
Similar efforts were in motion long before the Penn and Harvard shakeups.
In Texas, a law banning diversity programs at public universities went into effect in the new year. And last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also signed a bill to stop funding DEI programs at state universities.
“I think the momentum was already there. However, I think the results of the hearing, the move by several of these presidents to resign after that hearing, that has increased the momentum to target DEI even more,” Hall said.
A tracker by The Chronicle of Higher Education last year found that 40 bills had been introduced in states across the country to try to limit DEI programs, diversity statements and mandated diversity training in schools.
Opponents argue that efforts to oust the presidents are politically motivated and fuel distrust among all of higher education.
“What we saw the president face at Harvard is something that the institution can probably withstand and overcome because they are Harvard… [But] it’s alarming what can happen in higher education in terms of targeting other scholars, other institutional leaders,” Hall said.
“We have a vocal minority that is only using bad faith attacks, using the phrase DEI, to attack academic freedom and really hijack higher education and undermine public support for it,” she added.
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