, Columnist
What’s Bad for Harvard Is Good for America
The nation’s elite universities are an unaccountable oligopoly, and the signaling they convey is overvalued.
That’s one way to get in.
Photographer: Mel Musto/Bloomberg
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Regardless of your perspective, Harvard looks bad right now — and that’s good for America.
The resignation of Claudine Gay as president has brought the university unwanted attention for lacking both academic standards and moral clarity. She made mistakes, but in many ways Harvard set her up to fail. Like all of America’s top universities, Harvard has taken on an unhealthy role in the US economy and society. America’s best universities need to return to their original mission: producing academic excellence, not just signaling it.