Harvard's Hands-Off Philosophy Puts It in Hot Water With Trump Administration

on May 6, 2025

SAN DIEGO -- Harvard University stands accused of not defending a group of students on the margins.

You don't say! I could write a book on that subject. Oh wait, I did. In 1993, just a few years after graduation, I wrote a memoir about being a Mexican American student at America's oldest university.

In the fall of 1985, I was one of just 35 Mexican Americans in a class of 1,600 freshmen. Over the next four years, I saw virtually every aspect of my Harvard experience through that lens. I missed some things. But I also saw a lot that my classmates missed.

It's with those memories, and from that vantage point, that I consider the allegation that Harvard officials ignored an outbreak of antisemitism on its campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists -- and thus allowed it to fester.

In a letter, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem accused Harvard of creating a "hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to (its) failure to condemn antisemitism."

When Harvard rejected unreasonable demands by the Department of Education that would have surrendered control over everything from hiring to admissions to the curriculum, the school lost billions in federal funds. Harvard officials then sued the administration for threatening academic freedom and the right to free expression.

Media outlets have done stories on the tug of war between Donald Trump and John Harvard. In some of those stories, many of the folks on "Team Harvard" said this power grab by the Trump administration threatened higher education in America.

To which White House spokesman Harrison Fields responded: "The real threat to higher education comes when places like Harvard let their students' civil rights get trampled... President Trump is standing up for every student denied an education or safe campus because left-wing universities fail to protect their civil rights."

The Trump administration is working hard to advance the narrative that the reason why Harvard is in hot water is because it failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment.

Don't believe it. This is just another falsehood from an administration that is incapable of telling the truth. The real reason that Harvard is in Trump's crosshairs is that the institution is -- through its faculty, alumni and administrators -- the epicenter for much of the criticism aimed at the White House. Also, Harvard epitomizes the elitism that Trump is simultaneously enamored with and intimidated by. With all his accomplishments, the billionaire real estate mogul is still the insecure young man from Queens who was -- in the 1970s -- looked down on by the blue bloods and big shots in Manhattan, many of whom probably went to Ivy League colleges including Harvard.

Now the Mad King is determined to punish those who won't bend the knee.

"We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!" Trump posted recently on Truth Social.

My relationship with my alma mater -- which was forged during my years as an undergraduate and fortified when I went back for graduate school -- hasn't been smooth and easy.

In fact, during what would have been my senior year, we separated. I took a leave of absence to enroll as a visiting student at Fresno State, my hometown university, where I loaded up on Chicano-Latino studies precisely because Harvard didn't offer anything like that. Then I returned so that I could finish my requirements and graduate.

At Harvard, I didn't belong to a Finals Club, or write for the Harvard Crimson or row on the Charles River every morning as part of the crew team. Rather, I spent my college years on the margins.

Still, I love the place. And I respect it. I appreciate that Harvard didn't coddle me, or hold my hand. As an undergraduate, it came through loud and clear that the operating philosophy of the university was "sink or swim."

Here's one of the biggest lessons I learned at Harvard: Protecting the alienated and defending the vulnerable is not its strong suit.

There's a saying that Harvard officially greets you twice: once when you arrive in Harvard Yard for the first time, and again on commencement morning if you survive. In between, you're pretty much on your own.

In that respect, the most prestigious university in America works not unlike that little thing we all go through called "life."

Don't get me wrong. Harvard administrators screwed up. They should have protected Jewish students who were under attack by fellow students. The shame of it is, I'm not sure they know how to do that.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.