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 said that Harvard needs to make many changes including changes made to ensure they are in “compliance with the Supreme Court affirmative action admissions” ruling.
Summers said that the school needs a whole slate of reforms on antisemitism, how it disciplines students, intellectual diversity, and “with respect to ensuring compliance with the Supreme Court affirmative action admissions…order. I think there is substantial need for Harvard to reform,” and there is a dual risk where Harvard has to reform, but “we can’t have the government ordering universities around in violation of all the processes that are prescribed by law.”
He added that it would be best if the courts set a precedent or if the Trump administration handled its concerns with Harvard “through communication, negotiation, prior notice, due process” the way other administrations have dealt with issues like this in the past. And that he thinks the issue surrounding Harvard is also relevant to whether the administration can selectively go after its enemies in various other realms.
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