Colleges must give up federal funding to achieve true intellectual freedom

Oskar Ghate & Sam Weaver

And a private university like Harvard could choose to ignore the administration’s demands — but that means forfeiting federal research funding, which puts it at an unfair disadvantage when competing for students, faculty and donors with universities that continue to receive massive federal payouts. 

If Harvard and other private universities truly seek freedom, therefore, they should demand that federal research funding be phased out altogether.

Harvard should argue that since all federal funding comes with some government strings attached, it infringes on intellectual freedom. Instead, Harvard is demanding more government funding and objecting only to the specific nature of the strings or to the way they are currently being pulled.


Fast Lane Literacy by sedso