There is a problem in higher education, and that problem was evident in Harvard Yard when tents were set up, students were harassed, classes were disrupted, and students were prevented from getting to class because of their religion. Harvard did not merely do a very poor job of addressing the problem, but was flagrantly hypocritical in that it would never have tolerated any of it had the target been black students or transgender students rather than Jewish students.

Harvard had a problem. It still does. And yet, it’s still Harvard, the premier university of America and third best engineering school on Mass Ave. It needs to deal with its problem, as well as penumbras which have prevented diversity of thought, ideas and beliefs from thriving in a setting theoretically dedicated to scholarly inquiry. Harvard was, and still remains, intolerant of heretics.

Something must be done.

While freezing federal grants is, at least superficially, within the power of the Department of Education in order to obtain compliance with Titles VI and IX, the government has chosen to craft conditions upon which its money will flow, which would make Harvard University a subject of the federal government, a vassal state with the government overseeing its hiring, admission and curriculum. Harvard has refused to agree to this, and has the endowment necessary to survive without government funds, at least until the Trump administration is gone.

This is something.

Having rejected the government’s demand for submission, a new, and potentially ruinous, option may be on the table. The IRS has been instructed to eliminate Harvard’s tax exempt status.

“Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. “Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

It is unlawful, per 26 USC § 7217, for the president to try to influence the IRS to audit or investigate anyone.

It shall be unlawful for any applicable person to request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.

The claim is that Harvard’s tax exempt status was under investigation well before Trump twitted, and that this “truth” has nothing to do with whatever the IRS is up to. The IRS, of course, has had its leadership replaced with Trump loyalists. Whether it was investigating Harvard before or not, there is a likelihood that Trump’s will would carry some weight with his toadies.

While losing about $2.2 billion in federal funding, including monies spent for such woke adventures as curing tuberculosis, losing tax exempt status would be far more severe a challenge to overcome.

Not only does Harvard’s tax-exempt status allow it to forgo paying income and property taxes, but it also means that donations to the university are tax deductible. That helps attract huge donations from ultrawealthy Americans.

As of June 2024, Harvard’s endowment stood at $53.2 billion. That is a lot of money to anyone other than Elon Musk. It raises some fair questions. Why is a university sitting on such a huge endowment getting federal funds when it can afford to do any scholarly activity it wants with its own money? Remember, funds that go to Harvard aren’t going to other universities without Harvard-sized endowments. What is the point of such a large endowment if not to fund its educational activities? Harvard’s investments seem more like a hedge fund than a university, growing its endowment for its own sake rather than for education’s sake.

This must be done.

But the putative basis for the government’s action is, primarily, that Harvard has violated Title VI with regard to protecting students from anti-Semitism, and secondarily to eliminate DEI or woke ideology. It is not to strip Harvard of its prerogative as an institute of higher education to control its hiring, firing, admissions and curriculum.

It’s one thing to freeze federal grants unless and until Harvard addresses any failings that are proven when the Department of Education sues it for violating Title VI. It’s another entirely to condition restoration of federal funding on the government seizing control of essentially all functions of a university to reimagine it in Trump’s ideal of the public interest, which is unlikely to comport with what the public considers its interest.

[Homeland Security Secretary Kristi] Noem also wrote a letter to university officials requesting “detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by the end of the month, according to the agency statement. Without a response, the university could lose the “privilege of enrolling foreign students,” the statement said.

To be fair, community colleges manage quite well without foreign students. Harvard, as the premier university in the United States, and possibly the world, might not do as well. But should universities be ratting out their foreign students to Noem?

Harvard boldly responded to Trump’s overtures with “bite me,” which did not please the petty president. So ever harsher weapons must be deployed to bring Harvard to its knees. But eliminating its tax exempt status to beat it into Trumpian submission goes way over the line and is shockingly unjustifiable.  Then again, as goes Harvard, so goes the rest of academia, and Trump most assuredly wants to tell the rest of academia what it can, and cannot, do.