Letter: Uni­versity donors ought not to take sides in a war

I am truly per­plexed by the need for schools, busi­nesses, other organ­isa­tions, and even coun­tries to take a side in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel (“US uni­versit­ies lose mil­lions as donors pull fund­ing over polit­ical stances”, Report, Octo­ber 20). For that is when the odds of war and dam­age, whether dir­ect or indir­ect, rise appre­ciably.

Instead, we should be bring­ing sides together. Donors pulling funds is their way of tak­ing a side and insist­ing the recip­i­ent of that gift take their side too. That is not a gift. That is an ideo­lo­gical deal. Uni­versit­ies should not accept gifts with such con­di­tions and they should not rely on such donors. If they do, then I expect stu­dents will migrate to schools that uphold free speech and free­dom of asso­ci­ation.

The Found­a­tion of Indi­vidual Rights and Expres­sion has such a rank­ing. I will use it when my chil­dren shop for their uni­versity exper­i­ence. Per­haps we will sidestep that whole insti­tu­tion in favour of altern­at­ives.

Nancy Woodall
Lafay­ette, CA, US