US universities have ¡°lost their way¡± on tackling antisemitism and the public is mostly behind government efforts to address it, according to former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

The former Trump staffer told a Canberra conference that he had assumed his country had ¡°moved beyond¡± antisemitism. ¡°Apparently we have not,¡± he told Universities Australia¡¯s Solutions Summit. ¡°A lot of people in my country didn¡¯t realise, until after 7 October, how far to the left our universities had gone.

¡°We¡¯d all heard stories¡­and the journalism schools putting out comments. I get all that. But I think the response to the 7 October atrocities really brought it into the living rooms. Teachers [are] being openly antisemitic in our college campuses. That is a problem. To the extent that this administration can figure out a way to use federal money to try and fix that problem, I think they will have a great deal of support.¡±

Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman, held several posts in Donald Trump¡¯s first administration. He quit the final one, as US special envoy to Northern Ireland, the day after the storming of the US Capitol.

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He told the Canberra conference that Trump¡¯s pardoning of ¡°violent¡± 6 January offenders was one of just two ¡°big mistakes¡± of the new administration so far. And Trump¡¯s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes could be replicated in Australia, Mulvaney warned.

If that happened, he said, universities should not resile from their efforts to promote equity. But they might have to adopt different language ¨C just as companies touting products to the Trump administration now stressed ¡°efficiency and productivity¡± rather than carbon emissions.

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¡°You don¡¯t change what you¡¯re doing. Perhaps you simply change how you explain it. You have to learn how to speak the language of the person you¡¯re talking to.¡±

Australia¡¯s former ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, said DEI would remain important in Australia ¡°which¡­given our population, has to make the best use of resources.

¡°[We cannot] just leave it to the market and [let] meritocracy¡­sort it out. Frankly, in the market, some people start with¡­inbuilt advantages because [of] where they were born. The challenge for society is how you give everybody a measure of a fair go.

¡°You don¡¯t want to make it look like it¡¯s just a preferred policy [where people] have to be a certain identity. [But] I don¡¯t think we should throw the baby out of the bathwater.¡±

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Sinodinos, a former Liberal Party minister for industry, innovation and science, said universities should approach antisemitism from their ¡°first principles¡± values of truth, integrity and freedom of inquiry. Academics criticising Israeli government policies should not be allowed to ¡°fall into¡± antisemitism, he warned.

¡°Antisemitism is not just¡­about what happens to Jewish people. It¡¯s about how, in a society like ours, we all relate to each other. If antisemitism can happen, what are the other ways in which we can dehumanise people? For someone who¡¯s grown up in multicultural Australia, it¡¯s been¡­disillusioning to see how thin the veneer of social cohesion can be.¡±

University leaders must set the tone of debate ¡°by their own example¡±, he said. ¡°Ultimately it does come back to people exerting leadership and saying¡­this is wrong. You can¡¯t debate it that way because¡­you are fundamentally undermining the humanity and respect we should have for each other.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com ?