"Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality — people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position."

Said David Wolpe, a prominent rabbi, who resigned from a Harvard's anti-Semitism committee, which was formed after the October 7 attack

Quoted in "Universities Face Congressional Inquiry and Angry Donors Over Handling of Antisemitism/Congress has opened an investigation into Harvard, M.I.T. and University of Pennsylvania, a $100 million gift was withdrawn, and demands have grown for the universities’ presidents to resign" (NYT).

"Rabbi Wolpe praised [Harvard University president Claudine] Gay as a 'kind and thoughtful person,' in a social media post, and said most students were not prosecuting an ideological agenda. But he said that antisemitism was so entrenched that he did not think he could make the kind of difference he had hoped for."

The implication is that Harvard does not function as a university at all. Students are not learning and understanding and working out ideas with other students — experiencing sophisticated and deep education. They are herded — "the problem is a simple herd mentality" — and they are somehow drained of the capacity to resist social pressure to manifest belief in shallow material — "slogans" — that they don't filter through their own brains but merely adopt as a strategy in the foolish, childish pursuit of being liked.

I'm just quoting and paraphrasing the rabbi, who is, presumably, observing the culture at Harvard first hand. Perhaps he is wrong. But Gay and all the others in authority at Harvard should be working continually to ensure that his description of Harvard is not what Harvard is or should ever become.