Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) is not running for re-election. In case Romney wants to keep busy, his colleague John Fetterman (D-PA) has an idea – how about serving as President of Harvard?
Romney announced it was time for a new generation of leaders in the Senate as he made his decision to be a one-term senator. At the age of 77, retirement is a reasonable thing for Romney to be thinking about.
The Washington Post ran an op-ed that called upon Romney to become the next president of Harvard University. Daniel Rosen, a 1996 graduate of Harvard, penned the op-ed, giving reasons why Romney would be a good choice.
Rosen thinks Romney would work to stop the antisemitism on campus today. Romney is known as a fixer. He has the skills to go in and work to turn a bad situation around. Rosen said he is a lifelong Democrat, did not vote for Romney when he ran for president, and has no connection to Romney. He describes Romney as a bridge builder.
As we saw with the disastrous congressional testimony of then-President Claudine Gay, leadership matters. The university president must be the flag-bearer of our values. There is no doubt that there are other Americans of similar standing and stature, but Romney’s unique bridge-building character is precisely what Harvard needs in an age of toxic polarization. A Harvard alumnus, he is an eloquent and experienced administrator who has consistently demonstrated his political independence in defense of what is right, rather than what is expedient.
Romney has been nothing short of a profile in courage in the Senate, supporting gun safety reform and voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black female Supreme Court justice. Importantly, he has been a staunch supporter of civil rights for all, including leveling heartfelt criticism at Harvard for failing to protect Jewish students. He can guide Harvard as it faces intense scrutiny from Congress and from an increasingly anxious — even angered — Jewish community.
A survey in 2022 found that 80% of Harvard’s faculty describe themselves as liberal. He pointed to Romney’s “moral courage” and “independence to identify the root sources of antisemitism at the university, address the decline in Jewish student applications and enrollment, and teach a new generation of young adults the importance of mutual tolerance and civilized coexistence.”
The traits Rosen praises are the ones most agitating to Republicans who criticize Romney as a squish, a moderate to liberal Republican who is more in line with Democrats than Republicans on some issues.
And, just like that, Senator Fetterman weighed in with support for the idea.
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
I don’t know if Harvard would have the cojones to put a Republican into that position of power but it’s an interesting idea. Romney is a former Governor of Massachusetts and a Harvard graduate. He often points to his ability to work with everyone on important issues.
Romney was successful in the corporate world, and he helped fix the Olympics at one point. Maybe he’s a person to bring change to the campus. Is liberal America ready to make a change in higher education? The hideous and dangerous antisemitism seen today may be what creates an opportunity for change. Whoever gets the job also has to deal with faculty members who join the student demonstrators. Nothing changes until a wider range of voices is heard from those teaching the students.
It’s an interesting idea. Like him or not as a senator, he would be an improvement from the president who was on the wrong side of the antisemitism on campus.