Harvard University

On December 5, 2023, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing entitled “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.” Legislators grilled the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about their response to a dramatic rise in antisemitism on campuses following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 Israelis.

Earlier this year, following the passage of the Donor Intent Protection Act in Kansas, Philanthropy Roundtable launched a monthly series on donor intent controversies around the country to better inform those who care about this important topic.

It’s been one month since Hamas terrorists brutally murdered over 1,400 innocent Israeli civilians – including babies, children, women and the elderly – and the international community was jarred back to the reality of the evil in this world.

A 2009 encounter with a teacher dramatically changed the course of Laura and Jeff Sandefer’s lives—and the lives of thousands of students—forever. That year, the Sandefers were considering a move from Montessori to traditional school for their sons. During a meeting with a teacher from a local private school, Jeff Sandefer asked when they should make the transition.

Philanthropy Roundtable is pleased to share this essay by Joe E. Ross, president of Reach University. Ross and his team have worked to provide an innovative model that creates pathways to opportunity for individuals working within educational communities while simultaneously solving one of the largest problems plaguing our nation’s schools today – teacher talent pipelines. Reach University is providing a low-cost solution to the barrier of credentialing for individuals who are best positioned to meet the educational needs of their local communities through a groundbreaking apprenticeship model.

In the latest episode of Philanthropy Roundtable’s interview series “Doers to Donors,” Roundtable President and CEO Christie Herrera sat down with entrepreneur, author and philanthropist Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg. Ochoa-Brillembourg is the chairman emeritus and founder of Strategic Investment Group, an independent investment management firm based in Arlington, Virginia. She also is chairman and founder of The Orchestra of the Americas Group, which has helped train talented musicians from around the globe for careers in world-class orchestras.

In 6-3 and 6-2 rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of race-based preferences in college admissions, writing “The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.” President of Students for Fair Admissions Edward Blum, the organization that filed the lawsuits, applauded the ruling, saying, "The polarizing, stigmatizing and unfair jurisprudence that allowed colleges and universities to use a student's race and ethnicity as a factor to admit or reject them has been overruled. These discriminatory admission practices undermined the integrity of our country's civil rights laws."