Cal Thomas: Universities built on sand

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, January 4th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next, WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas on this week’s resignation of Harvard’s president.

CAL THOMAS: On Tuesday, Harvard’s student newspaper reported that president Claudine Gay resigned “after fierce criticism of the University’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel and backlash from her disastrous congressional testimony spiraled into allegations of plagiarism….” Gay’s resignation does not solve the problem at America’s oldest college and other elite schools. She and many other university presidents are only a symptom of what’s wrong with our system of education, from bottom to top.

Ivy League schools were established on a foundation of biblical principles. Almost from its founding in 1636, Harvard’s motto has been “Veritas,” or Truth. The school’s founders knew that objective truth exists and where to find it. A proper education was thought to require attention to body, mind, and spirit. Today, the body is cared for at the gym, the mind has been poisoned by a secular progressive worldview, and the spirit is more likely to be sought in a bottle of beer than in anything holy.

Yale traveled the same path as Harvard. Founded in 1701, the New Haven school has as its motto “Lux et veritas,” or “light and truth.” It was believed by Yale’s founders that the essentials of proper learning should include the light of a liberal education (liberal meant something different then) and the truth could be found in New England’s religious tradition. 

Dartmouth, founded in 1769, had as its motto “Vox clamantis in deserto,” which means “a voice crying out in the wilderness.” It is a biblical reference to John the Baptist who introduced Jesus Christ to the world. Wikipedia explains “the university primarily trained congregationalist ministers during its early history before it gradually secularized.” 

These and many other once great universities have departed from their founding principles and what once defined a well-rounded education. For this and other reasons such as rising costs, college degrees are seemingly not worth what they once were. No wonder so many young people are pursuing other avenues, including trade schools.

Forbes magazine reported: “Undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes.” The magazine also said, “The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

American public universities have followed the path of these private schools. In too many instances, they indoctrinate young people in a secular progressive worldview that produces votes for Democrats. We don’t know how many students begin college as liberals, but the overall trend is clear. According to Pew Research Center, “In 2022, voters with a college degree or more education favored Democratic candidates while those with no college degree preferred Republicans.” This continues “a long-standing trend in polarization among American voters by education.”

Claudine Gay’s resignation at Harvard will make no difference without a fundamental restructuring of what is taught. The same goes for other institutions of “higher learning.”

I’m Cal Thomas.

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