Taking its chances in the market, Mr. Arnn believes, would make an “honest institution” of Harvard. A third of Harvard’s operating budget comes from “this one donor, and it’s the plurality of your support. And the donor is your government. It has the power of law, and it controls you.” In Mr. Arnn’s ideal world, the government is “actually supposed to be controlled by the society.” He laments that the government, “Republican and Democrat, tends to look at students like they’re factors of production.” Officials and the colleges they control “think they’re managing the future by managing what young people learn.”

 

Harvard and the View From Hillsdale

The small college doesn’t take federal money. Its president, Larry Arnn, argues higher education would be far better if no one did.

By 

Tunku Varadarajan

April 18, 2025 2:01 pm ET