The intellectual elite's institutional rot

Institutional rot. That’s the verdict recorded in recent days on the performance of leading institutions by observers not known for pessimistic temperaments or alarmist analysis.

One occasion for such judgments was the testimony of three presidents of eminent universities — Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania — before a House committee on Dec. 6. In response to questions from Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a Harvard graduate, all three said calls for genocide of Jews might violate university rules, depending on “context.”