![]() The most prominent universities in the country have long since abandoned the kind of education in the humanities that built what we mean when we say the word "civilization." The classic texts of the Western intellectual tradition have been tossed aside. The decline of contemporary higher education is a reality. Are they hypocritical? Or would it be more accurate to say that they believe in group hierarchies and are acting in accordance with the view that Jews, as "oppressors," don't deserve an identity-politics dividend that is owed to other groups? The contempt for intellectual competition and free debate so often shown by elite universities raises questions about their embrace of maximum toleration in the context of an upsurge in anti-Jewish hatred. Jason Willick, writing in The Washington Post, raised a question as pointed as Stefanik's: She cited the "well-being of the students." Wouldn't a "trigger warning" have sufficed to ensure the students' well-being? Harvard's president Gay, when serving as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, helped push out a colleague when he announced he would represent Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer accused, and later convicted, of sexual assault. What was most galling about the timid responses was the fact that many of today's leading universities are not known for tolerating divergent points of view. We all should want to help build a culture that celebrates free speech, but universities are in the business of teaching students, and one of the lessons should be that there are consequences to speech. Their unwillingness to speak clearly cannot really be attributed to concerns about protecting free speech. These women are all obviously accomplished and highly intelligent. The question was about students in the United States advocating the genocide of Jews. ![]() If Stefanik had asked about Israel's response to the terrorist attack on Oct. One wishes Stefanik had asked under what circumstances such a call would be acceptable. All three insisted that whether a call for genocide violated their university's codes would depend on the circumstances. Elise Stefanik's repeated questioning Dec. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, Harvard University president Claudine Gay, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth refused to give a "yes or no" answer to New York Republican Rep. The congressional testimony by three presidents of some of the nation's most prominent universities, in which all three failed to unequivocally say whether advocating the genocide of Jews violated their school's codes of conduct, has rightly generated plenty of controversy.
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