Former Harvard President Larry Summers has called the Trump administration’s actions on Harvard University and their high percentage of foreign students “a prescription for failure.”
Speaking to Politico in a lengthy interview on Friday, Summers applauded the university’s legal actions saying such bold maneuvers will inspire others. “Courage and capitulation are both contagious,” he said adding, “I am glad Harvard chose courage, because if Harvard, with all its good fortune, can’t resist authoritarian steps, who can?”
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security blocked Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students, in the latest salvo between the federal government and the esteemed institution. Then on Friday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against the HHS over its pausing of Harvard’s access to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program following a lawsuit by the university. Nearly 30% of Harvard’s study body currently comes from other countries. “Closing yourself off from any group, and especially the 97% of the world’s population that lives outside the United States is a prescription for failure,” Summers lamented.
Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary for the Clinton administration said the Trump administration would find their case has no merits in the courts, taking the complete opposite view from another esteemed Harvard faculty, Alan Dershowitz, who claimed it is Harvard that has no legal standing.
“I’m certainly someone who has been critical of Harvard on antisemitism, on excessive identity politics, on lack of political diversity, on the need to more vigorously support American national security. But the merits of this case are overwhelming, and Harvard needs to point them out as vigorously as it can, both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion,” Summers said.
The president of Harvard from 2001-2006 warned that the “heavy handed” approach by the administration to battle antisemitism will result set the movement back. “My fear is that the adoption of heavy handed [tactics by the] Trump administration on antisemitism, identity politics and ideological diversity will actually set the cause back, because those who want to resist necessary reform will be able to wrap themselves up in the issue of resisting President [Donald] Trump and not deal with the underlying substance.”
Summers concluded by saying the actions of Trump will ultimately give leverage to its primary adversary. “There’s no question that we are giving a strategic gift to China, that we are strengthening the competitive position of universities in other English-speaking countries, whether it’s Britain or Canada or Australia or New Zealand. … I believe we can come out of this very difficult period in a positive way,” he added.
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