Full disclosure, I am graduating from Harvard this week. It’s a great milestone and was pretty difficult for me academically. It wasn’t as hard as my four years in the Marines, but what is? However, it was a great academic challenge and I am glad it is over. Like the thousands of soon-to-be graduates and our families who are descending on Cambridge this week, I was looking forward to the ceremony, the celebrations, the pictures and the feeling of accomplishment.
However, it seems like Big Government in Washington likes to keep throwing curveballs at my soon-to-be alma mater.
Harvard’s veteran alumni had to recently launch a fundraising campaign so that Harvard veteran graduates could have a ceremony and receive a graduation stole. Why? Because one of the many assaults on Harvard by President Trump included forcing the cancellation of affinity celebrations. So the school pulled funding for all celebrations, and the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization had to raise funds so that veterans like myself could be honored.
Trump’s assault on DEI and “wokeness” and his campaign to fight antisemitism has only focused on one school and seems to hurt students that have nothing to do with his agenda. We live in a world where we like to pretend that the negative things we hear about a place we have never been to be true. You have people genuinely scared to go into cities because the news tells them it’s a warzone, people who think rural areas are populated only by racists, and saddest of all, people who think that anyone slightly different from them is the enemy.
I struggle to come to terms with this as a veteran. My experience at Harvard has been amazing and completely at odds with the panic that Trump and his MAGA supporters are trying to sell Americans.
Like most students, we agree that the protests over the treatment of people in Gaza went overboard. The university did struggle with containing and punishing those who broke the rules, and the donors spoke. What I have not seen — in any way, shape or form — is the repeated or egregious antisemitism that Trump continues to harp on.
What I do see are students that just want to get an education and are pushing themselves to accomplish a goal they set for themselves. I have met plenty of conservatives at Harvard and not just fellow veterans. The international students that Trump now wants to ban come here not to “overthrow America” but to do cancer research, study government, learn about religion and pursue a host of academic goals.
It is confusing that Trump has singled out Harvard. Like Regina George said in “Mean Girls,” Harvard has to be asking, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” to an administration that seems to think antisemitism only happened in Cambridge, Mass. Trump has been suspiciously quiet on just about every other non-Ivy League school. I am also an alumnus of Ohio State. Ohio State had plenty of protests against Israel and yet, life goes on for the Buckeyes.
You can say the same for Texas, USC, Michigan and hundreds of other schools in the U.S. But the obsession with Harvard would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. Yes, the school has a huge endowment and yes, it is among the most prestigious schools in the world. But Harvard is also a benchmark that every other school aspires to be, which is why they also pursue research and invest heavily in bringing in students from all over the world.
The U.S. benefits from international students. While other countries suffer a brain drain, the United States wins by having a brain gain. We bring the best from around the world and place them with our best and produce amazing results. Trump’s continued assault on a university threatens that advantage not just for Harvard, but every other top-notch school. Big Ten schools, University of California schools, Texas giants such as the University of Texas, Rice and Texas A&M, and every other major institution now have to draw back and stop pursuing excellence. The reason? Fear of the President Trump.
And they have to be wondering, are they next? They could be, but for now they get to sit on the sidelines as Trump’s fixation with Harvard once again heads to the court. Forcing kids who did nothing wrong to transfer has to be about as low as one can act, but here we are.
At some point, we have to wonder how a school with a Jewish population of 10 percent and with a Jewish president is somehow Hamas-lite to the White House. One can’t help but wonder if there is a personal reason for Trump's antics. Because as a veteran, I am still astonished that Harvard is somehow now being associated with the worst of America when it is just full of hard-working students like me.
Jos Joseph is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, Calif.
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