Welcome to a special edition of the Daily Article Podcast for Friday, December 8th,

2023.

I am Chris Elkins, narrating today's special article written by Denison Forum co-founder and CEO,

Dr. Jim Denison.

Quote, the universities have been to the nation as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.

End quote.

This ominous sentiment was expressed not in response to the ongoing uproar over anti-Semitism

on college campuses, but by Thomas Hobbes in his 1668 book, Behemoth. He was speaking of Oxford and Cambridge, but we might

wonder if the philosopher was also a prophet. The leaders of Harvard, MIT, and Penn recently

appeared before Congress to face questions regarding anti-Semitism at their universities in the wake of Hamas' October 7th invasion of Israel.

In response to their testimony, a U.S. House of Representatives Committee opened an investigation yesterday

into the university's learning environments and disciplinary policies.

What caused such an uproar?

In their opening remarks and throughout the

hearing, the three presidents said they were appalled by anti-Semitism and are taking action

against it on their campuses. When asked if they supported the right of Israel to exist, all three

answered yes without equivocation. However, they refused to state that they would discipline

students calling for the genocide of Jews. Instead, the New York Times reports that they, quote,

tried to give lawyerly responses to a tricky question involving free speech, which supporters of

academic freedom said were legally correct, end quote.

While they subsequently issued clarifications, their evasive answers have been met with incredulity,

anger, and calls for the presidents to resign. White House spokesman Andrew Bates responded,

...