The way college presidents have responded to the vicious pro-Hamas protests has been disgusting. At least quite a few former supporters of schools like Harvard, Penn, and Columbia have decided not to squander any more money on them.
In this excellent City Journal article, Howard Husock looks back at the way Boston University president John Silber responded to similar protests and demands by students in 1986.
For one thing, he explained to them that their divestment demands were pointless. Evidently, many students believe that if a university sells some shares it owns in a company they regard as bad, that this somehow hurts the company. Silber told them that they were mistaken.
Of equal significance, Silber refused to put up with disruptive encampments on university grounds.
When trustees need to find a new college president, they’d do well to read up on John Silber and rule out candidates who don’t have the backbone for the job.