New Stanford President Declares ‘University’s Purpose is Not Political Action or Social Justice’

New Stanford President Declares ‘University’s Purpose is Not Political Action or Social Justice’

The activist students at Stanford are going to just love hearing this.

Campus Reform reports:

‘The university’s purpose is not political action or social justice,’ new Stanford prez declares

Stanford’s new president, Jonathan Levin, gave an inaugural speech in which he stated that “the university’s purpose is not political action or social justice.”

In his speech delivered Friday, Levin said that Stanford’s “North Star” is “our fundamental purpose of discovery and learning.” He said that the school exists to “create and share knowledge, and to prepare students to be curious, to think critically, to flourish, and to contribute to the world.”

Though he claimed that the school’s leadership expects the Stanford community to “wrestle with social and political issues,” he clarified that “the university’s purpose is not political action or social justice.”

Instead, Stanford’s purpose is “to create an environment in which learning thrives.”

Continuing, Levin stated that the university should strive to “foster searching discussion, to listen with curiosity, and to ensure the freedom of members of the university to study and learn,” which he promised will be “goals I will work toward as president.”

Stanford’s previous president, Richard Saller, stepped down July 31 following a turbulent several months that saw the California school rocked by several protests.

On June 16, protesters at the school disrupted the graduation ceremony to demonstrate their disapproval of what anti-Israel activists see as Stanford’s “complicity in the ongoing genocide”–that is, Israel’s campaign against the terrorist group, Hamas. The protesters left the commencement during Saller’s speech and held a separate so-called “people’s commencement.”

A few weeks before, activists took over Stanford’s president’s office on June 5 after vandalizing parts of the campus with graffitied messages like “Death 2 US” and “Kill Cops.” The protesters were part of an anti-Israel tent encampment at the school that was started on April 25 and lasted for roughly a month and a half before being dismantled.

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