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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24814 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025

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Continued Evolution on "The Plan" to Deal with Universities

WaPo cites two anonymous "White House officials", one of which is described as a "senior White House official". They claim that the purpose of anonymity is "because [the plan] is still being developed". So obviously, take that for what it is. Plausibly just a trial balloon to see how it plays; plausibly just a push by one faction within the WH to change direction.

“Now it’s time to effect change nationwide, not on a one-off basis,” said a senior White House official

At least somebody at the WH is observing that doing things like indiscriminate chemotherapy wasn't working, and now little targeted things might be struggling, too.

The new system, described by two White House officials, would represent a shift away from the unprecedented wave of investigations and punishments being delivered to individual schools and toward an effort to bring large swaths of colleges into compliance with Trump priorities all at once.

Universities could be asked to affirm that admissions and hiring decisions are based on merit rather than racial or ethnic background or other factors, that specific factors are taken into account when considering foreign student applications, and that college costs are not out of line with the value students receive.

Huh. I wonder who suggested this sort of thing eight months ago. Of course, that person was also showered in downvotes for continuing to suggest something like this over "indiscriminate chemotherapy".

This was pretty straightforward all along. The playbook was already there. The hooks were already there. There are ways to affect change that are actually oriented toward the goals you want to accomplish. It seems like at least some people in the administration are continuing to find their way to it.

Of course, the wild response is wild:

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said the outlines of the proposal amounted to an “assault … on institutional autonomy, on ideological diversity, on freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

“Suddenly, to get a grant, you need to not demonstrate merit, but ideological fealty to a particular set of political viewpoints. That’s not merit,” he said. “I can’t imagine a university in America that would be supportive of this.”

Spoken as if universities weren't asked for ideological fealty to the left in the past. Some academics basically just tried to stay silent on the matter, while others jumped all over it.

A slightly less insane response:

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley’s law school, said “no one will object” if the White House simply requires universities to pledge compliance with existing law.

But Chemerinsky, one of the attorneys representing UC researchers in a lawsuit challenging terminated federal research funding, also said the administration’s view of what the law requires could be at odds with other interpretations: “It all depends on what the conditions are, and whether those conditions are constitutional.”

Chemerinsky said it would be a First Amendment violation to put schools at a disadvantage in competing for funding if they profess a belief in diversity, for example, because government is not allowed to discriminate based on viewpoint. He said it “would be very troubling” if the White House proposal deviates from the standards that have been used in awarding grants based on the quality and importance of the science, peer review and merit, and uses ideology as the judgment standard instead.

Still sort of lacking, as there was previously a (more-or-less, depending) soft disadvantage in competing for funding if one didn't profess a belief in diversity. If you want me to take this complaint seriously, then you should also say that the left having done that before was wrong. You should say so publicly and publicly commit to a position that the previous regime was, indeed, subject to the exact same concern that they were discriminating based on viewpoint.

But indeed, the Trump admin is in a legally privileged position here. They can, indeed, just demand that universities comply with existing law. I think Prof. Chemerinsky is being a bit coy about whether some universities will complain; my sense is that UCal has already been on a tighter leash for some of these things than many other unis... and yes, even just actually complying with the actual law is going to be a fight for some of them.

indiscriminate chemotherapy wasn't working,

American R1 universities are scarily efficient machines. So efficient that they could support admin excess and woke parasitism without harming their productivity one bit.

In comparison, Washington has been an incompetent mess for a while. To extend the analogy, the US economy is the scarily productive machine that sustains Washington's parasitism and budget excess. A reformist (however incompetent) can get away with rearranging Washington, as long as they don't take a hammer to the economy. Similarly, MAGA should be careful about taking a hammer to the productive parts of the university system. Education reform needs to be surgical.

Spoken as if universities weren't asked for ideological fealty to the left in the past

I know ! During peak woke, math papers needed to fill out social-impact forms. 'Diverse' professors were getting hired left-right-and-center. It might hypocritical for the home of Weather-Underground professors to claim that Trump was the one to cast the first stone.

It all depends on what the conditions are, and whether those conditions are constitutional

More reasonable, but still rich coming from institutions that prided in running afoul of the 14th amendment.

UCal has already been on a tighter leash for some of these things than many other unis... and yes, even just actually complying with the actual law is going to be a fight for some of them

UCs are the biggest violators and the most at risk. They're the world's most prestigious public schools and have more to lose. They'll now have to compete with private universities with 1 hand tied behind their back. (IMO, for the best). They are the most expensive and most bloated public schools. (In comparison to mid-west elite public schools which are less wasteful). The over-performance of resident Asians means that UCs have large gaps between the median Asian/White and affirmative action candidates.

I welcome it.

American R1 universities are scarily efficient machines. So efficient that they could support admin excess and woke parasitism without harming their productivity one bit.

Certainly not the case. The admin excess and woke parasitism vastly increased the amount of money they required, and the woke parasitism reduced the value of their output (by diluting it with nonsense)

the woke parasitism reduced the value of their output (by diluting it with nonsense)

Depends on what you mean by "value," doesn't it? If you consider the primary value of universities to be truth discovery/generation, then yes, woke parasitism reduced the value of the output to arguably negative (even the good stuff is no longer credible, because the ability to discriminate between the good stuff and the bad stuff has been corrupted). But if you consider the primary value of universities to be to validating your worldview and political ideology, then, depending on your ideology, it substantially increased the value. In fact, in that case, it took it from negative to positive, since truth discovery was an existential threat to your ideology.

But if you consider the primary value of universities to be to validating your worldview and political ideology, then, depending on your ideology, it substantially increased the value.

This is like measuring labor productivity by what comes out of the hind end of the laborers. Sure, if I use a totally worthless measuring stick the statement could be "true", but by using such a measure the point that it's BS is already conceded.

Democratic vote share of college graduates. There's even a dose dependent effect.

Hardly a worthless measuring stick, since it has substantial impacts on government and corporate management.

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