Harvard should “embrace our western values that have built one of the greatest nations in the world” and ask students “to manifest these values throughout the rest of their life”, the billionaire hedge-fund manager and Harvard donor Ken Griffin recently told the FT. As to what exactly “western values” are, Mahatma Gandhi’s reputed dictum about western civilisation springs to mind: “I think it would be a good idea”. Never mind, though. Griffin expressed the view that a university should be a sort of tribe, whose members share the same ideals. The counterview is that a university ought to be a forum for ceaseless debate, with no final arbiter.
University protests about Israel and Gaza have probably peaked now, with American students going home after commencement ceremonies. But the question that underlies the recent campus turmoil will persist. Namely, should a university be a tribe or a forum?
The belief in a university as a tribe appears strongest in private American colleges. Each of them works to curate a unique brand, so that a “Harvard man” (as people used to call it) is instantly recognisable at any age. Alumni see themselves as tribal elders. They aim to pass on the tribe’s values to each new generation, which includes many of the alums’ own children, because tribal membership can be by birth.