There is currently a two-pronged attack on higher education, research, and scholarship in the United States. Activists inside universities have hijacked many administrative functions, and significant reform is needed to ensure free speech, open inquiry, and the integrity of scholarship. But the Trump administration has used this fact to launch what may be a more dangerous direct attack on university scientific and research infrastructures across the nation. We can't afford to lose either war if we are to protect the country's scientific integrity and productivity.
Harvard University epitomizes the quandary we now find ourselves in. Over the last decade, it succumbed to much of the modern culture war in ways that have threatened faculty and students, and even prospective students. Students and researchers have alleged that Harvard has discriminated against Asian applicants, rigorously policed speech, and punished faculty whose research results didn't match preconceived notions about racism or who stated that there are only two sexes, while allowing antisemitic conduct. In addition, the university promoted staff based on identity rather than academic accomplishments, including those known to have plagiarized academic work, while discriminating against talented students and scholars on the grounds of their race or sex.
Harvard is by no means unique. Bloated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) bureaucracies have taken root at academic institutions around the country. The University of California at Berkeley biology department, for example, in 2019, disqualified 76 percent of the applicants for a faculty position based solely on their DEI statements—before examining their research.
