Harvard donor Ken Griffin’s backing of DeSantis stirs predictable … – The Boston Globe

The uproar over Harvard Universitys acceptance of a $300 million donation, with naming rights attached, by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin was, alas, predictable (Harvard donors support for DeSantis angers students, Page A1, April 13). Griffin also supported right-wing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a donation. (Interestingly, as Globe reporter Hilary Burns reports, Griffin contributed as well to President Bidens inaugural committee and to the Obama Foundation.) This contretemps is part and parcel of a national phenomenon in which alumni, students, faculty members, and ordinary citizens have howled when colleges have accepted donations, with naming rights, from hard-right conservatives or those who donated to ultraconservative or otherwise so-called politically incorrect candidates or causes. Nor is the problem limited to academia.

There are two problems with this movement. First, this intolerance of the views of others ill becomes those connected to higher education. Universities are supposed to be dedicated to the search for truth (Harvards motto, after all, is Veritas). It is contrary to this mission for one faction to announce that it has discovered the only truth and that dissent will not be tolerated. Second, history teaches that politics and culture are cyclical. What is politically incorrect today might be the reigning ethos tomorrow. As the philosopher George Santayana warned: Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

Harvey Silverglate

Cambridge

The writer is a civil liberties and criminal defense lawyer and author.

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Harvard donor Ken Griffin's backing of DeSantis stirs predictable ... - The Boston Globe