On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Harvard Professor, author, American Enterprise Institute President Emeritus, and columnist for The Atlantic Arthur Brooks stated that the Trump administration’s actions on Harvard are “overreach” but “the toolkit was actually set during the Obama and Biden years.” And Harvard needs a lot of change.
Brooks stated that at Harvard, “it’s pretty chaotic, of course, because a lot of researchers that have nothing to do with any of the controversies are being affected by this. A lot of labs are getting shut down. A lot of researchers are getting laid off at this point. And that’s sort of the collateral damage to what’s happening. And then, of course, there [are] the students. … It’s creating a lot of big problems outside of the blast zone of what I think anybody’s intended to try to change.”
He added, “[N]one of the things that the President is bringing to bear or the administration is bringing to bear on Harvard is nothing new. During the Obama administration, they were doing exactly the same thing with Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, and they were bringing all of the DEI stuff and all of the what they were talking about then and talking about, they were threatening to cut off funds then, too. And so, this is — the toolkit was actually set during the Obama and Biden years.”
Brooks also pointed to past actions against Bob Jones University before Obama and stated, “So, there’s nothing new that’s actually going on here. What’s new is that it’s such pressure so quickly on one particular university.” And the Trump administration is actually following through “And the fact that the media is actually paying attention to it right now, the media wasn’t paying attention to it when the Obama administration was doing exactly the same thing.”
He added, “There’s a ton of reform that needs to get done. And the good news is we have a new President who’s dedicated to it. Alan Garber is a very, very good President. He’s a very reasonable and tough guy.” And that while he thinks change is needed, the Trump administration is engaging in “real overreach. And it’s actually affecting things that it shouldn’t be affecting”, including on foreign students and their social media accounts and that the prohibition on foreign students is even hitting science students, which has nothing to do with DEI or antisemitism.
Brooks further stated that both sides have been “hot” but they’ll eventually work out a deal, which will lead to improvements.
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