A Democrat senator has endorsed a widely circulating proposal that his Republican colleague become the next president of Harvard University to spare the college from falling deeper into progressivism.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) responded to a recently published opinion article that advocates for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to take over leadership of the Ivy League school in Boston, Massachusetts, by saying he would “co-sign” onto the idea. The article—titled “Harvard is in an almighty mess. Let Mitt Romney clean it up”—was published on April 16 by The Washington Post.
Fetterman, a Harvard graduate himself, took to X to share his support of the idea. In an April 22 post, the Democrat senator said that Romney “doesn’t need a paycheck” but that his alma mater “and its academic peers needs [sic] to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy.”
He added that Romney’s leadership at the university is critical in the aftermath of “this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia,” referring to the recent massive protests against Israel at the other Ivy League school that landed more than a hundred students in jail.
As an alumnus of Harvard, and after this mad season of antisemitism at Columbia, I co-sign.
This former Governor of Massachusetts doesn't need a paycheck, but Harvard and its academic peers needs to recalibrate from far-left orthodoxy. pic.twitter.com/eaT0F5VaiR
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 22, 2024
The article praised by Fetterman argues that Romney’s “unique bridge-building character” would be instrumental in dismantling the university’s “age of toxic polarization.” According to David Rosen, reliable leadership is much needed at Harvard following the “disastrous congressional testimony of then-President Claudine Gay.”
Romney, a 1975 graduate of the school, was further described as “an eloquent and experienced administrator” and one who “has consistently demonstrated his political independence in defense of what is right, rather than what is expedient.” Rosen also noted that the president of Harvard should be someone who is “the flag-bearer of our values.”
The call for Romney to become the Ivy League school’s president comes three months after Gay’s resignation as she faced plagiarism charges and accusations that she was not properly responding to antisemitic problems on her campus. The latter issue came up in the months after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, sparking an ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Alan Garber, a former provost at the university, is currently serving as interim president, a role which he began at the beginning of the new year. Romney is currently serving in Congress but announced in September 2023 that he would not seek another term in office.
