Fareed Zakaria criticized top American universities, stating on his CNN show that they are “no longer seen as bastions of excellence, but as partisan outfits.”
Last week, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and M.I.T. presidents faced intense criticism. This was in response to their answers during a hearing about the increasing antisemitism on college campuses.
Consequently, Zakaria took the topic head-on during his Sunday program on CNN.
“When one thinks of America’s greatest strengths, the kind of assistance the world looks at with admiration and envy, America’s elite universities would have been at the top of that list,” the anchor said. “But the American public had been losing faith in these universities for good reason.”
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Furthermore, Zakaria labeled the university president’s responses as “vague and indecisive.” This was about their stance on whether advocating for the genocide of Jews would breach their institutions’ codes of conduct.
Additionally, the CNN anchor delved deeper into the issue. He highlighted, “To comprehend their performance, we must grasp the significant shift at elite universities, moving from centers of excellence to institutions promoting political agendas.”
According to Zakaria, “American universities have been neglecting a core focus on excellence to pursue a variety of agendas, many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion,” which began with “the best of intentions.”
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“But those good intentions have morphed into a dogmatic ideology and turned these universities into places where the pervasive goals are political and social engineering, not academic merit,” the CNN anchor continued.
But, according to Zakaria, there’s a crucial oversight in emphasizing diversity on college campuses – political diversity.
“In the evolution of this diversity culture, we’ve witnessed the rise of concepts like safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions,” Zakaria noted. Yet, he questioned, “In this context, Jewish groups may rightfully wonder why safe spaces and microaggressions don’t apply to them.”
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Zakaria criticized the university presidents, saying, “They couldn’t convincingly argue that the core of the university is the free expression of ideas.” He emphasized that while harassment isn’t acceptable, offensive speech should be protected.
Zakaria continued, “What we witnessed in the House hearing is the inevitable outcome of decades of university politicization. Top U.S. colleges are no longer viewed as centers of excellence but as partisan entities, subject to political storms.”
Since the congress hearing, many, like Zakaria, have spoken out against the university presidents, calling for their resignation. So far, only UPenn’s president, Liz Magill, has resigned.
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