We Cannot Sacrifice Our Values

Harvard's Memorial Hall, April 2025. 

        There are times when choosing pragmatism is beneficial. And there are times when that choice, while providing some immediate benefits, will not only become one of the most pernicious decisions we will ever make, but will force us to reject our values in full.

Over the last month, as a quiet submission to America’s presently extortive government, Harvard has gutted its diversity programs in full, removed all online commitments to equity and inclusion, and reassigned members of important offices (for example, those for minority and LGBTQ students). 

This decision comes just months after the current administration attempted to predicate Harvard’s ability to exist on the non-existence of its DEI programs, to which Harvard publicly voiced its unadulterated dissent. Harvard, recognizing the moral depravity of the current administration’s demands, chose instead to stick with its values. Instead of cowering in fear and disrupting the lives of a majority of its students in the process, Harvard chose to stand up for them, for itself, for American higher education, for scientific and technological progress, and for academic freedom. While Harvard has since been battered by dozens of federal investigations, a seven-fold tax hike, $3 billion in illegally revoked federal funding, several attempts to expel international students (including almost all of my friends) from our country, and a jab at our accreditation, Harvard has stood strong, and the student body has stood united.

But, the last few weeks have shown us that Harvard, as with its spineless affiliates at Columbia and major American corporations, has instead sacrificed its values to restore the flow of federal money. By shutting down programs critical to the health and safety of a majority of our students, Harvard has chosen prolonging its prestige over protecting its students. And, of course, these capitulations do not guarantee the restoration of federal funding, the elimination of federal investigations, or the safety of our international cohort, as we already have seen with peer universities like Columbia and the University of Virginia. 

Harvard and other universities’ DEI programs are not perfect. Not only are they quite unpopular among the American public, but they are also not extensive enough to be truly inclusive. However, both of these realities signal that our DEI programs should instead open their arms to the American public while expanding to include new, presently excluded groups. This means expanding ideological and geographic diversity initiatives, both of which Harvard is already doing. But gutting DEI programs for LGBTQ and minority students signals the same exclusivity that led this administration and the American public to turn on it. By opening doors to some while closing doors to others, we sacrifice the very objective of our institution: To educate—and make education accessible to—the world. 

The repercussions of this decision will follow us for decades. For minority and LGBTQ students, this will spell the loss of critical institutional support, less guardrails against discrimination, higher rates of violence and mental health issues, and regression to a new, even more intolerant world. When, as graduates, we look back to our university, we will look with dismay at the hypocrisy of our institution’s simultaneous progression and regression. And we will know that, if Harvard ultimately decides to placate an administration hellbent on destroying us, it will have set a pernicious precedent for global higher education: As with the law firms and the corporations, it will have recommended other universities to take the easy way out, even if it means sacrificing all of their values and giving up their integrity in the process.

Authoritarian regimes win by forcing people and institutions to cower, by using the levers of government to scare, silence and exhaust even their loudest dissidents.  Over the last three months, the current administration has slammed us with investigation after investigation, cut after cut to wipe us—presently our Great Nation’s loudest voice against authoritarianism—off the map. We are capable of weathering this storm, but we cannot do so without fighting for love, for empathy, for inclusion. If we do not fight now, we may never be able to fight again. Tread carefully, Harvard—and most importantly, do not let this regime tread on you.