Harvard complains about a drop in donations after October 7th

“Disappointing” is the word Harvard University President Alan Garber uses to describe the decline in financial contributions the school has seen this year. His comments during an interview with the Crimson last week preview the release later this month of the university's 2024 financial report, which is expected to show a collapse in funding due to Harvard's faint-heartedness in the wake of the war against Israel.

Mr. Garber may be disappointed, but he can hardly be surprised. In the words of six Jewish students who sued the school, Harvard has become “a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment” over the past year. The university is fighting these Jewish students in federal court for failing to protect them from the “severe and pervasive” anti-Semitic discrimination that exploded on campus after Oct. 7.

The university claims it has taken “tangible steps” to combat anti-Semitism and that Jewish students’ “dissatisfaction with the strategy and speed” of the school’s efforts “does not constitute a legally cognizable claim.” The motion to dismiss was rejected by a district judge, who ruled that Harvard had failed to respond to anti-Semitism on campus. “In other words,” the judge wrote, “the facts presented demonstrate that Harvard has failed its Jewish students.”

This lawsuit was filed just a week after then-Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned over criticism of her handling of anti-Semitism at Cambridge. Their problems began on the evening of October 7, when about 30 student groups issued a letter calling Israel “fully responsible” for the attack. It took Ms. Gay two days to issue a statement in which she did not condemn Hamas or the letter. It took another day for her to denounce Hamas's “terrorist atrocities.”

“Disgusting” and “disillusioned” were the words a former Harvard president, Secretary Summers, used to describe how he felt about the school’s botched response. Ms. Gay became even more conflicted when she and a handful of other university presidents were asked to testify about anti-Semitism during a House committee hearing. When asked by Congress whether calling for genocide against the Jews violated Harvard University rules, she did not answer “yes.”

Ms. Gay's disastrous testimony prompted a coalition of 72 members of Congress to issue a letter calling for her firing. Prominent Harvard graduates, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, made similar statements. Billionaires Ken Griffin and Len Blavatnik have stopped their long-standing donations to the university. In January, Ms. Gay resigned and Mr. Garber became the interim successor. He was appointed president in August.

So what was Mr. Garber's great achievement in eradicating anti-Semitism? Harvard, he told donors in June, would increase the number of hot kosher meals offered daily from one to three. “The few remaining Jewish students in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” says our writer Ira Stoll, “will now be better fed while their professors and classmates continue to falsely accuse Israel of genocide and apartheid.”

Not to mention, Harvard still faces at least three federal civil lawsuits, a civil rights investigation by the Department of Education, and an investigation by the House Education and Workforce Committee, which announced last week that Harvard had violated a single disciplinary action taken against a student last week Year accused of committing anti-Semitic acts on campus. Perhaps President Garber considers these discoveries equally “disappointing.”

We don't doubt that the drop in donations hurts. Harvard reports that support from both past and current donors accounted for 45 percent of the university's revenue in fiscal year 2023 and is used to cover such essential expenses as financial aid and faculty salaries. However, it could be the incentive the Harvard government needs to make serious reforms. “The only hope for change at Harvard,” Mr. Ackman muses of X, “is a financial crisis.”