The only way to fix American higher education is from outside the system. The moral rot within universities is too deep and expansive for any minor reforms to make an impact. Universities have failed students and now need a shock to their system to redeem themselves.
That is why I submitted 33 Title VI complaints through the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against universities that failed to protect Jewish students from campus antisemitism in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack. Filed between November 2023 and January 2024 and containing evidence of antisemitism reported by Campus Reform, these complaints resulted in 14 investigations at colleges like Boston University, Princeton University, Northwestern University and Johns Hopkins University.
The biggest problem during the fall 2023 semester was that universities chose not to enforce existing anti-discrimination policies after antisemitic protests broke out. Administrators were too weak to stand up against leftist professors and their brainwashed students who falsely insisted that calls to “globalize the intifada” and wipe Jews off the face of Israel were examples of political speech.
Make no mistake. These chants and acts of intimidation were antisemitic actions against Jews. My efforts were part of a national wave of Title VI complaints documenting universities failing to respond to incidents of national origin discrimination against Jewish students. This wave is significant because it catalyzed a domino effect of reforms throughout 2024 that have made campuses safer for all students.
Another two investigations resulted in resolutions between the Department of Education and Brown University and Temple University. Both resolutions require the universities to overhaul anti-discrimination trainings so the institutions are better equipped to respond to antisemitism.
These updates are not just welcome news, they are completely necessary. I doubt university presidents and administrators would have made these changes if they hadn’t been called out for losing control of their campuses. Outside pressure on universities is needed because college administrations proved they lack the moral clarity to stand up against violence and ensure all students’ safety regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion.
I saw that timidity firsthand when I attended the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearings. The presidents from Columbia University, Rutgers University, Northwestern University and the University of California Los Angeles testified about their failings to combat antisemitism on their campuses. The testimonies made it painfully clear that higher education officials were out of touch with reality. They naively thought they could allow radical students and professors to indulge in activist curriculum without those ideologies perverting higher education as a place for open-minded learning. They were extremely wrong.
Higher education must depoliticize its campuses and lecture halls to restore civility and learning. Luckily, momentum is going against the far left as we head into 2025. Since the summer, schools like Yale University and Dartmouth College have endorsed institutional neutrality policies that forbid administrations from commenting on political issues that do not directly involve their campuses.
Institutional neutrality policies are the direct result of outside pressure on schools afraid of losing federal funding or being subject to further investigations. Students, parents, concerned citizens and activists must keep pressure on the universities and submit Title VI complaints when they see institutions failing to protect students from antisemitism because we still cannot trust university administrations to do the right thing on their own terms.
Universities are crucial institutions in Western societies because they teach civic responsibility, tolerance and new uncomfortable truths to the next generation of leaders. University presidents must do their jobs and remember their place in our national society. Their institutions exist to teach students, not to indoctrinate and let them run wild.
Zachary Marschall is editor in chief of the Leadership Institute’s Campus Reform and an adjunct, assistant professor at the University of Kentucky.
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