During a portion of an interview with Bloomberg set to air on Friday’s broadcast of “Wall Street Week” that was released on Tuesday, Harvard Professor and former Harvard President Larry Summers stated that the school needs many reforms, including on antisemitism, student discipline, and intellectual diversity and “the government should recognize that and keep the regular flow of funding going when Harvard does move on reform.” But there has to be a process that follows the way prior administrations have handled these issues.
Summers said, “I think Harvard should carry through on a whole set of reform[s] with respect to antisemitism, with respect to discipline of students, with respect to widening of perspective, with respect to ensuring compliance with the Supreme Court affirmative action admissions…order. I think there is substantial need for Harvard to reform, and I think the government should recognize that and keep the regular flow of funding going when Harvard does move on reform. I think there’s a risk on both sides. I want to make sure that Harvard does carry through with necessary reform, but, gosh, we can’t have the government ordering universities around in violation of all the processes that are prescribed by law.”
He added that he wants to see a precedent set “whether that precedent is set by a court or whether that precedent is set by the government backing off and moving to address its concerns, as previous administrations have, in a lawful way, through communication, negotiation, prior notice, due process. The precedent can be set in multiple different ways.” And that the Harvard issue also pertains to whether the government can target its enemies.
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