Elise Stefanik is a Harvard graduate who represents an upstate New York district in Congress. She took the lead in questioning three university presidents (Harvard, Penn, and MIT) in December 2023 about their responses to the vicious outbreak of antisemitism on their campuses following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel. The presidents’ responses were carefully crafted with legalistic evasions and showed that they didn’t really care about their Jewish students or anyone who disagreed with the narrative that Hamas is merely trying to right a historical wrong.
Now, Representative Stefanik has written a book, Poisoned Ivies, about that hearing and the entire collapse of standards in our higher education system. I review it for the Martin Center today.
One point that comes across loud and clear is that at many of our colleges and universities, there is a double standard when it comes to freedom of speech. When pro-Hamas mobs chant about the destruction of Israel and harass Jewish students, our education leaders shrug and say that they’re exercising their freedom of speech. But their campuses are eager to slap down students or faculty members who say anything that offends leftists.
In her analysis of the reasons why so many of our colleges now fall short of providing students a sound, balanced education, Stefanik points to the fact that many professors now feel free to use their classrooms as platforms for indoctrination.
There are some bright spots, however. Stefanik praises leaders like Dartmouth’s president Sian Leah Beilock who has resisted the politicization of her school, and also political leaders in several states, including Florida and North Carolina, who have pushed for the creation of programs devoted to liberal education, not indoctrination.
America desperately needs a counterattack against the left’s seizure of our education system, and we’re fortunate to have Elise Stefanik as one of its leaders.