Universities are not in the education business. They are in the misty-eyed nostalgia business. A key part of their revenue consists of donations from aging alumni whose fond memories of late nights with good buddies and first loves serve as a sort of fountain of youth. These emotionally attached older graduates also help ensure that public subsidies to higher education continue to flow without interruption.

But this misty-eyed nostalgia business model is in danger of disruption by scores of student groups at universities across the country endorsing or rationalizing, in the name of “decolonization,” the atrocities being committed by Hamas.

Alummi have always indulged naughty behavior by subsequent students. Some rule-breaking and mild protesting reminds them of their own experiences fighting apartheid by building the mock shanty town where they got to sleep oh so close to that girl who thought they were brave for taking a stand.

But praising Hamas’ “historic attack on the colonizers” for showing “the creativity necessary to take back stolen land”—as the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at my alma mater, Tufts University, just did—is more than most alumni can take.

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Admiring the “creativity” of gang-raping women and slaughtering babies shatters the reverie that fuels alumni giving. Wealthy graduates have begun to express alarm and wonder whether bequeathing large sums to their old university is such a good idea.

This has placed university leaders in a bind. They are accustomed to coddling students, not chastising them. After all, today’s students are tomorrow’s misty-eyed alumni. This is why most college presidents try to avoid making any statements that express disapproval of student behavior or disagreement with their worldviews, no matter how monstrous.

At Tufts, President Sunil Kumar followed SJP’s bloodthirsty communique with a mealy-mouthed statement mourning “the loss of life and those who have been injured in this intense and widespread conflict” and offering counseling resources to students.

A day later, after receiving what must have been an earful from angry alumni, Mr. Kumar issued a “personal note” claiming that, based on emerging reports, he could now “see the harrowing and painful pictures of the suffering of innocent civilians,” called the attacks “pure barbarism” and denounced “these heinous acts in no uncertain terms.”

In truth, virtually all of the evidence documenting Hamas’ “pure barbarism” was available when Mr. Kumar issued his initial statement. His change was not the result of new information about the atrocities but new information about the anger of wealthy patrons threatening to stop donations and remove Tufts from their wills.

Like the profligate child who pleads not to be cut out of his inheritance, Mr. Kumar adjusted his story as necessary to keep the misty-eyed nostalgia money flowing.

Universities nationwide, not just Tufts, attend very carefully and invest heavily in cultivating the emotional attachment of current students and alumni to their institutions. This is why football teams, clubs, fraternities and sororities, pep rallies, and fight songs are so important. Most universities do an excellent job with these kinds of activities.

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Actually, teaching their students is another matter entirely. According to Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s extensive study of the quality of college education, most students do very little reading, spend little time studying, and seldom write papers. Not surprisingly, when Mr. Arum and Ms. Roksa administered standardized tests to students, they found almost no increase in knowledge or skills from when students start college to when they finish. If students don’t read, study or write much, they hardly learn.

But students do spend a lot of time in their Greek life events, doing club activities, and cheering at the football games. This is by design. Colleges don’t earn a lifetime of donations from misty-eyed alumni by working them to the bone and threatening to fail them out. But they do cultivate enduring emotional attachments (and donations) by offering a rich set of social activities and clubs.

Historically, protests organized by student clubs have been part of the social life that universities have encouraged. But if those protests get out of hand and threaten to alienate alumni or scare aware future students, the misty-eyed business model of higher education is threatened.

I’m not sure alumni can get universities to reform their models to focus more on academic instruction. But they can use their leverage under the current business model to force universities to get college-sponsored clubs under control so that they no longer celebrate or rationalize rape and baby-killing. Like a modern-day Lysistrata, alumni should withhold their wallets until universities change their ways.