It is never wise to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But that is the perverse prospect we now face because of the striking failure of many college and university officials to confront campus antisemitism, both during the last academic year and now as the students return to campus.

Political decisionmakers who view the performance of the administrators as unacceptable — and who are answerable to voters rather unimpressed with campus elitism — often have only blunt instruments with which to address the kind of administrative behavior that we have seen.

One such blunt instrument is a potential reduction in federal funding for a wide range of campus activities and functions.

Congressional responsibility for budgeting as part of its role in the foreign and defense policymaking process makes it appropriate, as an example, to eliminate funding for government laboratories in China or other foreign adversaries.

But other programs conducted in substantial part at research universities are hugely........

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