Liberty University and Hillsdale College, bastions of Evangelical conservatism and Catholic conservatism, respectively, have each been in the news this past month for alleged failures to properly handle and report threats and sexual assaults on their campuses. While I sympathize with those who have suffered from institutional pressures not to report wrongdoing, I nonetheless have to wonder about the impetus for the media’s coverage and investigations.
For one, the Liberty story broken by the Washington Post two weeks ago came about from a tip from within the Biden administration’s Department of Education, which puts Liberty on the back foot as it works through the appeal process.
Susan Svrluga reports for the Washington Post:
Liberty failed to warn the campus community about gas leaks, bomb threats and people credibly accused of repeated acts of sexual violence — including a senior administrator and an athlete — according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. Two people familiar with the conclusions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the document, confirmed the findings.
This wasn’t gumshoe reporting in Lynchburg, Va. — it was a PDF sent to an agreeable and ideologically aligned news organization from a bureaucrat working on an ongoing investigation. The details are what one would expect: Liberty, which must abide by the Clery Act because it accepts federal loans and the G.I. Bill, failed to report everything that happened on its campus. Okay. In response, the Biden administration levied the largest fine ever issued ($37.5 million). For reference, Michigan State’s Larry Nasser rape brouhaha cost the public university $4.5 million. Something stinks.
Consider Hillsdale. A liberal arts school that seeks to keep the federal government at arm’s length, Hillsdale does not accept any federal funding or loans. Upon leaving the Navy, I looked to apply there and was told they’d love to have me but I’d pay the same as everyone else because my post-9/11 G.I. Bill couldn’t be used. Hillsdale sacrifices a lot to keep the feds out of its patch of southern Michigan. But a lawsuit from two girls who claim to have suffered not only sexual assault but also hostile reporting structure could result in federal investigators coming for all tax-exempt learning institutions.
Chris Quintana reports for USA Today:
Chen and Villarreal’s lawsuit, however, maintains that the school does get federal backing through its tax-exempt status as a religious institution. Their case could expand the scope of the federal government’s oversight of not just Hillsdale but others that have taken a similar stance, such as Grove City College in Pennsylvania or Pensacola Christian College in Florida.
In short: No matter how far you run, no matter whose money you turn away, the federal government is coming for your school and will make you toe the line. What’s worse, I have no illusions that these schools may have acted foolishly, ignorantly, or vindictively. But I’m also sure that their agents did no worse than their peers at any number of public institutions beloved of the Left.
I excuse no one. Liberty and Hillsdale have plenty of Dior baggage made out of skeletons in their closets, and no school, no matter how restrictive it is regarding dress and sex, can stop nature’s course and the messy results of those actions. There may be no heroes here, but the aggressor is a Biden White House that appears to be taking whole volumes from the Obama admin when it comes to lawfare and weaponizing the state’s programs and policies against its rivals.
Jonah Goldberg, a man who, after two audits, can appreciate intimately the baleful attention of the IRS, observed in 2014 regarding the Obama admin’s weaponization of the IRS against conservative groups:
In short, Lerner worked hard at denying her agency’s tactics on applications for nonprofit status from groups deemed to be hostile to the president’s agenda. According to IRS officials’ congressional testimony, agents were told to “be on the lookout” for groups that “criticized how the government is being run.” Lerner even joked to colleagues that she should get a job at Obama’s activist group Organizing for Action.
It is incumbent upon conservative organizations to do their utmost to abide by the law of God and Rome (the state). That granted, it would appear that the thin veil between activists and bureaucrats is disappearing in the Biden administration. Christian schools that uphold Christian values should prepare themselves for the worst when it comes to Biden’s Department of Education and the activists who inform its actions and judgments.