Trump's university mandates are about control, not antisemitism

I’m not the most likely defender of Cornell University. For the last 20 years, first as a student activist, and then during a decade as mayor of Ithaca, New York, I have been one of Cornell’s biggest critics.

As a former local official, I firmly believe that universities should pay property taxes. When I was mayor, I often took Cornell’s leadership to the woodshed about the university’s responsibility to support the infrastructure and city services the institution and its students rely on ...