Higher Education Faces an Existential Crisis of Its Own Making
30th May 2025
In the immediate sense, the schools being defunded are in trouble financially, even Harvard. Half of Harvard’s research budget comes from the federal government. Even if it wins in litigation, the instability could cause researchers to go elsewhere. And maybe they should.
If I were an enterprising president of a mid-tier state school, I’d be doing my best to convince the administration that my institution is free from antisemitism, open to bringing more intellectual diversity to campus, and will wisely use the money.
The bigger problem for higher education is existential. For a long, long time Americans gave support to elite educational institutions, billions of taxpayer dollars, based on the idea that they were of invaluable contribution to the country. But do we need more over-credentialed people in this country who passed through the DEI crucible, or do we need more welders and shipbuilders?