Universities need major reforms after years of continued chaos on campus

“The hostages are back.”

This simple statement, made by President Donald Trump in his October 13 speech in Jerusalem, is more than just a statement of fact. It is a historic – and much-needed – reprieve from the war that has been tearing apart the Middle East for more than two years, beginning with the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas and continuing with Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Now that a ceasefire has thankfully been reached, and Israelis and Palestinians can focus on recovery and reconstruction, one would hope that life would return to normal on American college campuses as well, after several years of violent demonstrations, illegal encampments and widespread chaos.

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But unfortunately that doesn’t have to be the case.

At George Washington University, for example, Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Hamas group, recently organized a protest not to applaud an end to hostilities, but to highlight further grievances against the Jewish state and promise more disruption to campus life. The same was true at many other colleges and universities across the country on the second anniversary of October 7. And unfortunately, too many teachers and administrators are still doing too little to restore order and ensure that their campuses provide a welcoming and nurturing environment for all.

This ongoing, intolerable situation explains why Trump has made our universities one of his administration’s top priorities. Most recently, for example, Columbia University, which was accused by the Trump administration of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to protect its Jewish students, settled with the federal government for $200 million.

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It doesn’t take a former university president who has just completed 45 years in office to realize that these actions reflect a very serious problem in the way universities conduct their affairs. And since we are only halfway through the fall semester, there is still plenty of time to make decisions and commit to correcting what needs to be corrected. Three measures in particular beckon.

First, we must pause and ask ourselves a simple, yet profound question: What is the mission of American universities? If the answer is simply to train a smaller cadre of globally privileged young men and women to fill an increasingly small number of well-paid positions in companies and organizations, we should not be too surprised if our universities continue to lose trust, respect, influence and candidates. Fortunately, there is a better answer, one that has guided our best institutions from the beginning: America’s universities were founded to educate and challenge young Americans to be proud, committed, informed, and industrious citizens of this great nation.

It is a mission that has not changed much, if at all, in a quarter of a millennium, and we would do well to reaffirm it. There are currently 1.1 million foreign students at American universities, most of whom pay full tuition. But universities must meet the needs of American students as well as their foreign-born peers, while expanding their efforts to welcome populations that have not traditionally been fortunate enough to receive an excellent academic education. And most importantly, they must also provide a curriculum rich in history, civics and other subjects, preparing the next generation for its eventual place at the helm.

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Second, academia urgently needs to abandon its addiction to inflamed ideological beliefs. If we are truly interested in diversity – and we should be, because every research we have suggests that diversity leads to greater and more meaningful achievements – we must remember that diversity is also diversity from an intellectual point of view.

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Unless our campuses become arenas for the free and unfettered exchange of ideas, unless they enable young men and women to encounter a wide range of worldviews and beliefs, they will be little more than airless partisan political bastions desperate to reaffirm their own dogma, however errant.

This ongoing, intolerable situation explains why Trump has made our universities one of his administration’s top priorities.

And finally, and most urgently, universities that have demonstrated their ability to stand up for academic freedom must now feel equally comfortable fighting for academic accountability. The images we have seen from some of our most celebrated schools over the past two years are appalling: deans berating and mocking students for standing up to bigotry, or university employees held hostage by playing “revolutionaries.”

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None of the above can be tolerated on any American campus one moment longer, which means that every college and university must now convene its wisest and most dedicated officials and ask whether its processes and procedures do in fact provide adequate protections, and whether the university is prepared to meet its academic responsibilities.

Of course, none of these steps are easy. They are all essential. As anyone who is really involved in education will tell you: it is precisely in moments of great crisis that great opportunities usually arise. Ours is within reach. Let’s not waste it.