San Francisco Frontiers - College Values Debate Puts Harvard and Columbia Under Parental Scrutiny

A family discussion involving Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, has revived a wider argument about whether parents should financially support attendance at universities they believe conflict with their values. In a video from the couple’s YouTube travel series, they considered whether their teenage daughter Paloma should apply to Harvard University. Campos-Duffy said she worried that leaving their daughter at a school could undo the Catholic faith and principles the family had tried to instill.

The exchange drew criticism from commentators including Los Angeles Times writer Lorraine Ali and Meghan Hays, a former Biden administration official who spoke on CNN. Yet conservative author and columnist Karol Markowicz argued that such concerns are familiar to many parents across the political spectrum. She said families increasingly fear that students face ideological pressure on campus and may return home with views that create deep divisions.

Markowicz, who co-wrote the 2023 book “Stolen Youth” with Bethany Mandel, recalled parents telling the authors that relationships with their children deteriorated after college. She also described her own experience as a student in the late 1990s, when she believed repeating left-leaning ideas in some classes could improve grades. In one assignment, she wrote that the family was obsolete despite not believing the argument and received an A.

Now raising teenagers, Markowicz said her children may choose any university, but the family will not pay for certain institutions. She identified Columbia University, citing litigation by Jewish students seeking a “safe passage liaison” for physical protection, and Harvard, which she said has accommodated a far-left campus faction. Her position was framed as a funding decision rather than a ban on where her children may enroll.

She pointed to earlier controversies at Harvard, including criticism of a 2005 speech by Jada Pinkett Smith that praised the possibility of combining marriage, children and a career. Critics at the time described the remarks as heteronormative. Harvard later sought restrictions on single-sex organizations, including fraternities and sororities, before federal court action led the university to abandon that policy.

The columnist also cited Harvard’s political positions on fossil fuels and diversity, equity and inclusion, along with poor results in annual campus free-speech rankings produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. FIRE data cited in the column said 79% of surveyed Harvard students regarded shouting down a speaker as acceptable and 32% accepted violence to prevent a speech. She also referred to former Harvard president Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony about calls for genocide against Jews and her later resignation amid plagiarism findings.

No comprehensive data establishes how often college attendance produces lasting political estrangement within families. Markowicz nevertheless argued that parents reasonably weigh that risk alongside academics and cost. She said students might learn to conceal their views or tell professors what they expect to hear, but questioned why families should accept such pressure.

The debate also reflects changing application patterns. Markowicz linked growing interest in universities in the South to parental concerns about campus culture, while citing Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University and the University of Chicago as institutions that have publicly emphasized free expression. Her conclusion was that elite status alone no longer assures parental support when families believe a university’s culture conflicts with their principles.

Her argument asked critics to consider the issue from the opposite political direction: progressive parents, she suggested, would likely object if their children returned from college as committed conservatives. That comparison placed the dispute around institutional trust and parental responsibility rather than a claim that only one political group cares about influence. Markowicz acknowledged that her children could probably withstand ideological pressure, but said the family saw little reason to pay for an environment it regarded as hostile.

K.Gray--SFF