I was one of a few conservative professors at Harvard — here’s where the school went wrong

Source: New York Post
by Harvey C Mansfield

“The Ivory Tower was an image, medieval like the university itself, of an institution made of a valuable material and grounded in society but towering above it. In this view, any university in America depends on America for its survival but does its best to rise above its politics. Politics is argument, for example about welfare policies. As an Ivory Tower, the university tries to define the bigger, more abstract question of what is welfare. Policies are about society; abstract definitions come from the Ivory Tower. In abandoning the Ivory Tower Harvard was denying its independence.” 904/19/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/04/19/opinion/how-harvard-has-made-itself-vulnerable/