In a recent viral video, Fareed Zakaria, a host on CNN, expressed his concerns about the transformation of America's elite educational institutions.
He claimed that these schools, once renowned for their excellence, have deviated from their primary mission, becoming platforms for promoting political ideologies.
Zakaria's comments, which have garnered over 23 million views online, highlight a growing disillusionment with higher education in the United States. He noted, "People sense the transformation," and added that this "souring on higher education makes America an outlier among all advanced nations."
According to Zakaria, the ideological extremism that has infiltrated top-tier American universities has led to a shift in public perception. These institutions, he argued, are "no longer seen as bastions of excellence but partisan outfits, which means they will keep getting buffeted by these political storms as they emerge."
Zakaria urged these universities to abandon their political pursuits and refocus on their core strengths. He said, "They should abandon this long misadventure into politics, retrain their gaze on their core strengths, and rebuild their reputations as centers of research and learning."
The CNN anchor also criticized the universities' focus on diversity and inclusion at the expense of academic excellence. He told his audience, "American universities have been neglecting a core focus on excellence in order to pursue a variety of agendas, many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion."
Zakaria also discussed the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, a policy that allowed universities to consider race in college admissions. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 opinion, ruled that using race as a factor in admissions violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Despite the ruling, Zakaria noted that some elite universities continue to use racial quotas.
Zakaria also addressed the lack of political diversity at universities, which he believes affects their ability to analyze many issues. He pointed to the prevalence of "safe spaces, trigger warnings" and "microaggressions" on college campuses.
In response to allegations of rising antisemitism at American universities, Zakaria asked, "The Jewish groups would wonder, why do safe spaces, microaggressions and hate speech not apply to us?" He questioned why universities that suppress free speech to make some groups feel safe do not extend the same protections to Jewish and Asian students.
Zakaria concluded by criticizing universities for their inability to uphold the principle of free expression. He said, "Having gone so far down the ideological path, these universities and these presidents could not make the case clearly that at the center of a university is the free expression of ideas, and that while harassment and intimidation would not be tolerated, offensive speech would and should be protected."
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