[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S1021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Colleges and Universities

  Mr. President, on another matter, 3 days ago, a member of Harvard's 
anti-Semitism task force stepped down over concerns the university 
would not actually implement the group's recommendations. 
Unfortunately, if recent events are any indication, this professor's 
concerns about the unchecked wave of hate on campus are well-founded.
  A few weeks ago, multiple Harvard student groups circulated a 
blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon of Muhammad Ali and former Egyptian 
President Nasser being hanged by a hand bearing a Star of David with a 
dollar sign at its center. True to form, the university's response 
amounted to a sternly worded letter.
  Not to be outdone on this backslide into brutish hate, fliers were 
found on Columbia's campus depicting an Israeli flag in the shape of a 
skunk. A Columbia Law School student senate rejected a proposal from 
fellow students seeking to form a club to combat anti-Semitism.
  By now, it is also painfully clear that the moral failures of campus 
administrators go well beyond weak responses to student behavior. 
Rutgers recently hosted an event with a professor who described the 
events of October 7 as ``awesome scenes . . . witnessed by millions of 
jubilant Arabs.'' City University of New York tried to schedule a panel 
titled ``Globalize the Intifada.''
  As the glaring moral rot on college campuses invites scrutiny, even 
further evidence of decline has emerged. Not only are some of the 
Nation's most elite institutions breeding grounds for the world's 
oldest form of hate, they are also infested with academic misconduct.
  Last month, Harvard's chief diversity officer was found to have 
copied her husband's work extensively without citation, and perhaps 
even more shockingly, a top neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School 
was found to have falsified data in 21 different papers--profoundly 
unserious behavior at a university that professes world-leading 
academic caliber.
  So it is no surprise to see donors continue to vote with their 
checkbooks. Another prominent billionaire and longtime donor to Harvard 
announced last month that he would end his support. He said that until 
Harvard got back on the right track and focused on educating future 
leaders, he said, ``I'm not interested in supporting the institution.''
  For their part, American families are right to reconsider whether an 
Ivy League diploma is worth the cost--or, for that matter, the hate.
  Unfortunately, the Biden administration isn't making it any easier 
for students and parents to make informed decisions. Beginning with the 
failure to launch last fall, the Department of Education was slow to 
post the Free Application for Federal Student Aid online. Now, months 
behind schedule, prospective students and parents are stuck with 
incomplete information on the cost of attending college.
  But while the Department is slowing down and muddling the financial 
aid process, they are simultaneously speeding up their student loan 
socialism scheme rollout. It is almost as though the Biden 
administration wants more young people to incur excessive debt so that 
they can turn around and force taxpayers to foot an even larger bill to 
bail them out.
  Not only has the Supreme Court ruled President Biden's student loan 
socialism unconstitutional, the scheme is also profoundly bad policy, 
and it won't help American families struggling to afford college. 
Heaping billions of dollars of student loan debt on taxpayers will only 
drive up tuition prices at universities that are failing miserably at 
their most basic responsibilities.
  So perhaps--perhaps--it is time the government followed the lead of 
parents and business leaders and stopped providing taxpayer subsidies 
to institutions that have clearly lost their grip on reality.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Republican whip.