How Colleges Can Weed Out Lawbreakers

I've had two kids go to Notre Dame (one undergrad, one law school). My Alma Mater U of Chicago shares one thing with the Catholic University. There aren't out of control demonstrations on campus. They both don't tolerate such and their admissions deptarments managed to admit smart kids who aren't douchebags.

Harvard, Yale, and the Ivies apparently are looking for different types of people. Want to reform the culture at those places? Bring on some conservative faculty to balance the left-leaning profs (both points of view should be heard) and revamp the admissions departments, who aren't exactly crushing it.

How Colleges Can Weed Out Lawbreakers

Ask applicants simple yes-or-no questions like the ones on visa or green-card forms.

By Alison Leigh Cowan

May 15, 2025 5:09 pm ET

A student displays the Palestinian flag on his graduation cap at Harvard University graduation in Cambridge, Mass., May 23. Photo: Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Colleges love asking applicants navel-gazing questions such as “So where is Waldo, really?”—a University of Chicago staple aimed at teasing out the best of the lot. Almost no attention is paid to weeding out the worst applicants: those inclined to foment chaos the moment they get their campus IDs.

If a university wants to avoid disciplinary hearings, lawsuits and federal investigations, here’s an idea: Accept fewer radicals keen on burning the place down, whose actions threaten the institution’s grant money, tax-exempt status and public standing.

Start by asking applicants to pledge that they will be respectful, law-abiding members of the community if admitted. Assuming no one quibbles with that minimal threshold, delve a bit further using moral-reasoning prompts drawn from recent headlines. Applicants can reply with a simple “yes” or “no,” or submit longer answers:

• Is it ever justified to spit on another human being?

• Is it ever justified to pull a fire alarm in a crowded auditorium to protest a speaker some find offensive?

• Is it ever justified to mar public spaces with hard-to-remove graffiti? Should perpetrators pay to clean it up?

• Is it ever justified for a private individual to assassinate another private individual?

• Is it ever justified to burn a Quran? What about destroying a mezuza on someone’s door?

• Is it ever justified to restrain custodians or other bystanders as part of a protest?

• Is it ever justified to set fire to the homes of authority figures?

Foreigners seeking green cards or nonresident visas must answer dozens of yes-or-no questions from the U.S. government. False statements can be grounds for deportation. They are also asked if they have any affiliation to communist or other totalitarian parties, and, in some instances, whether they intend to give financial or other support to terrorists or engage in activity intended to oppose, control or overthrow the U.S. government. American-born university applicants shouldn’t get a free pass. Plenty of them have been on the front lines of the rankest campus spectacles.

This extra layer of diligence won’t solve the separate problem posed by tenured faculty who radicalize students once they arrive. But it’s a good place to start: University presidents have more sway over their admissions offices than they do over entrenched faculty members.

Those who prefer the status quo, where mostly Jewish students and university researchers must pay the price for the current turmoil, may argue that applicants will simply lie in their responses. At least then, schools can borrow a page from federal authorities and expel anyone who gets in under false pretenses.

Ms. Cowan is a former New York Times reporter and editor of the most recent edition of “How to Survive Your Freshman Year.”