"Trump Remedies to Harvard's Ills Should Respect Free Speech," by My Hoover Institution Colleague Peter Berkowitz

This excerpt from his piece today in Real Clear Politics should give you a flavor for the argument; the entire piece is worth reading:

In its multi-pronged efforts to pressure Harvard to live up to its self-proclaimed mission to seek and transmit knowledge and pursue the truth, the Trump administration seems to be of two minds on free speech. Along with demanding that Harvard meet its obligations under civil-rights law to combat antisemitism on campus and end race-based discrimination or lose federal funding, the Trump administration has conditioned billions in taxpayer dollars on the university's protecting the free speech on which excellence in scholarship and teaching depend. Yet the White House's remedies to Harvard's censoring and indoctrination clash with free-speech imperatives and risk turning Harvard, with its shameful record of stifling dissent from progressive orthodoxy, into a free-speech martyr.

Only weeks after inauguration, Vice President JD Vance delivered an unequivocal message to America's European friends: Free speech is central to our shared civilization and essential to our prosperity and security….  But the Trump administration's campaign against Harvard sends an equivocal message on free speech, affirming it and calling it into question….

Notwithstanding their many and serious faults, America's elite universities conduct extensive and costly scientific research that fuels America's global leadership in technology. A substantial portion of the billions in federal funds earmarked for Harvard frozen by the Trump administration supports such scientific research. Consequently, Trump's Harvard remedy erodes America's "technological edge." By operating against Harvard with a sledgehammer, the Trump administration not only breaks its promise to respect free speech but also impairs a core national-security interest….