‘Defund the rot’: Congress eyes elite universities’ endowments amid antisemitism probe
As the congressional investigation into antisemitism on college campuses ramps up, sources say it is expected to end in proposals to limit or defund universities and tax their endowments, On The Money has learned.
Given the broad support from the right that these measures are receiving, some in D.C. are confident all the chatter will result in at least moderate change.
“Cash is what these elite universities care about, including the billions they get from taxpayers, and unless they start fighting antisemitism and treating all their students equally, we’re going to defund them either by ending their student loan guarantees or by cutting off their grants,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told On The Money.
“In the meantime House Republicans are going to use whistleblowers and, if necessary, subpoena power, to investigate and expose the anti-American rot on college campuses.”
The calls for change come a week after a fiery hearing in which university presidents at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and MIT refused to condemn genocide against Jews.
Ultimately the pressure led to the ouster of then UPenn President Liz Magill last weekend.
Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican whose questioning of embattled Harvard president Claudine Gay at the House Education and Workforce Committee left the college leader’s career in crisis, has pushed to “defund,” as The Post reported.
“We must defund the rot in America’s higher education,” she said.
Of course, going after those school’s bloated endowments will face stiff resistance.
“I’m sure several members of Congress would like to have a bill to that effect, but it would never pass in both chambers,” Charles Myers said of legislation that would either restrict funding or put university endowments in the crosshairs.
A less draconian approach being floated is to make cash contingent on reining in antisemitism on campus.
These sources add that it’s not just Republican lawmakers agitating for change — some Democrats as well as those in the private sector are on board, too.
Former UPenn Board of Trustees member Vahan Gureghian — who resigned over Magill’s failure to properly condemn antisemitism following Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7 — said he too is demanding universities face some sort of accountability for their actions.
The billionaire charter school entrepreneur told On The Money, “It is high time that Congress and the Biden Administration stand up to this woke agenda by creating consequences for the pervasive liberal bias that is indoctrinating our students’ young minds.”
“The University of Pennsylvania received approximately $700 million in taxpayer money through NIH last year. That is to say nothing of the countless millions in federal student tuition aid paid to the university, much of which the Biden administration has been attempting to cancel or effectively give to Penn and other far-left so-called elite universities.”
On Thursday, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) introduced The Endowment Accountability Act that would push the income tax on these investment vehicles to 35% from 1.4%.
The higher tax rate would apply to any school with more than $10 billion in assets.
That includes Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Penn, Northwestern, Columbia, Washington University in St. Louis, Duke, and Vanderbilt — which combined have nearly $270 billion in endowment assets.
Harvard’s endowment alone is north of $50 billion.
On Tuesday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a similar idea to what Vance is calling for — a so-called “woke tax” that would levy a 6% tax on the endowments of 10 American universities including Harvard, MIT, and UPenn.
The move, he argued, would generate nearly $16 billion — enough cash to pay for our funding of the border wall and Israel.
The Post has reported that Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) is introducing a bill to make Harvard and other colleges face real financial consequences if they are found to have fostered antisemitism on campus in the wake of the October 7 terrorist massacres of Israelis by Hamas.
“There is a reckoning coming,” Stefanik told On The Money. “The Committee on Education and the Workforce is rightfully launching an investigation with subpoena power into Harvard, MIT, Penn and more who have blatantly failed to protect Jewish students on campus, many of whom have been harassed, threatened, and assaulted.”
