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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   21657 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025

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The NYT wants you to know that Harvard has "no way out." I'm sure Harvard University with its 53.2 billion dollar endowment is going to start having trouble attracting researchers:

Trump has stripped extensive federal funding from Harvard. Let’s say a judge gives back all of that money for this year. Half of the university’s research budget comes from the federal government. Where is Harvard going to get the money in the year after that, and the year after that? If you’re a researcher, do you want to be doing research at a school where your funding is in question?

I suspect they're scaring their readership to rack in the clicks. The article is being embraced by Rightist influencer people eager for confirmation of their "victory." They're COOKED! Back in reality, the Democrats will likely take back the Presidency in 2028, if not then then very likely by 2032. It will eventually dawn on these people that Harvard remains massively prestigious while nobody knows or cares about Fred's Car Wash in Des Moines Iowa.

I hope Harvard stands firm and puts the admin in its place. It's one thing to be against Affirmative Action but a completely different one to oppose academic independence say you want MAGA leaning professors in the physics department.

Fight Fiercely Harvard!

In some ways the precedent for the administration was set long ago. The only real question is whether the executive can deem Harvard, of all institutions, of similar legal stature to Bob Jones University. They may have the text of the law on their side: Congress not infrequently writes "If the Attorney General decides...", presumably giving her a lot of discretion in this case, subject to its other rules about capriciousness.

Alea iacta est, but I know not which way the legal cards will fall in this case.

The only real question is whether the executive can deem Harvard, of all institutions, of similar legal stature to Bob Jones University.

That is what equality under the law means.

Some of Trump's demands in the funding case seem unreasonable, but both going after the tax status (which hasn't actually happened yet and is the same as what was done to Bob Jones for similar reasons) and Noem's letter about foreign students which demands only information, not policy changes, seem well within the law, except perhaps the demand for disciplinary records.

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