Would Thomas Jefferson Defund Harvard University?
Thomas Jefferson—author of the Declaration of Independence, our third president, and the founder of the University of Virginia—believed deeply in the power of education to serve a free society. For him, a university was not merely a place to learn facts—it was a training ground for citizens and leaders, guided by reason, liberty, and the pursuit of truth. If Jefferson were alive today and saw what Harvard has become, he would doubtless support efforts to hold the institution accountable—even efforts to cut its federal funding.
The recent move by the Trump administration to consider withholding billions in grants and contracts from Harvard is far from political theater. It speaks to a deeper question: What obligations do universities have when they receive public money? When students—especially Jewish students—report feeling unsafe or harassed, especially during heated protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict, it’s the right and duty of the public to demand that Harvard live up to its legal and moral responsibilities.
Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, schools that accept federal money must ensure a learning environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Harvard has failed in that duty; therefore, it’s fair to question whether taxpayer dollars should continue to flow to it. Jefferson, who warned that injustice undermines the moral foundation of a society, would not have taken such a failure lightly. Far from it.
But this debate is bigger than any one incident. It’s about what kind of culture our elite universities are fostering. Reports suggest that the ideological makeup of Harvard’s faculty leans overwhelmingly to the left—by some estimates, fewer than 2% of professors identify as conservative. That kind of intellectual monoculture doesn’t encourage the clash of ideas Jefferson saw as essential to learning. In fact, it stifles debate and hardens dogma, especially when combined with DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs that, by their very nature, seek to enforce ideological orthodoxy.
The Trump administration’s push to audit Harvard for “viewpoint diversity” and scrutinize its hiring and admissions policies are not light measures, but they’re grounded in the idea that a publicly supported university has a duty to remain open to competing views—not simply the ideological flavor of the month. Jefferson believed that exposing students to a wide range of perspectives is the indispensable educational means to equipping the American people to govern themselves.
Then, of course, there’s the money. Harvard’s endowment now stands at over $50 billion—larger than the GDP of some countries. Yet it still draws heavily on federal grants and contracts, particularly in areas like public health. That raises questions about priorities. Should taxpayers be footing the bill for an institution that arguably has the resources to fund itself, especially if that institution has abdicated its end of the civic bargain?
To be sure, this isn’t only about Harvard. Similar concerns have been raised at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard revealed troubling aspects of the school’s admissions practices, particularly how it treated Asian-American applicants. That decision, combined with ongoing anti-Israel/anti-America protests, has put elite universities under a spotlight that they have never faced before.
Critics of the administration’s stance label it censorship or authoritarian overreach. But that misses the point. This isn’t about punishing dissent. It’s about insisting that powerful institutions answer to the public—especially when they depend on public support. Jefferson wouldn’t have been interested in micromanaging Harvard, but he certainly would have insisted that it live up to the ideals it claims to promote.
In the final count, this is about restoring public trust. Universities are supposed to be places where truth is pursued honestly and openly, where all students are treated with dignity, and where different viewpoints can be debated without fear. If Harvard—and others like it—have drifted from, if not outright rejected, that mission, then it’s necessary and proper to demand reform.
Jefferson once wrote that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time.” That doesn’t just apply to governments. It applies to our institutions of learning too. Happily for our country, rather than such refreshment requiring spilling the “blood of patriots and tyrants,” we have a peaceful, constitutional means to restore our universities. If a presidential wake-up call is what it takes to bring them back in line with their founding purposes, Jefferson would heartily support it.
