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Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

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Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything negative you can say about Israel is equated to antisemitism then Israel gets a free pass. Hamas engaged in terrorism, but Israel's response was out of proportion. Saying that aloud doesn't make one antisemitic. The ICC and UN are not antisemitic organizations for ordering arrest of Netanyahu and condemning Israel's use of excessive force.

What would have been a proportional response? Is it a numbers game? lets do 2x? 5x? 10x? In the gilad shalit deal Palestinians established the proportion of 1 Israeli to 1027 Palestinians. So on Oct 7 - 1,195 were murdered, by your standards Israel should have killed 1,227,265 Palestinians.

First of all, the proportional response should be delivered directly to the source: Iran. There are lots of bad guys in Gaza, but there are lots of innocent people too. Indiscriminately killing everyone is not the solution.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#412
post #173

Public funds should not be subsidizing wealthy private universities. The end.

Unless you're speaking about the high overhead rates, that's really the wrong framing. The public funds at issue are buying things like research, or hospital services.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#413

If you've read history, this rhymes with certain acts that have happened before under certain regimes. Under a non-authoritarian Government, this type of showboating can be dismissed, but when habeas corpus and the right to due process is suspended — such actions take on a very different cast indeed. It's good that Harvard is fighting this. The more people accede, the more they will accelerate down a path where there…

Harvard can do whatever they want. They can also not get taxpayer funding for it.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#414
I think it's also important to point out the auditing and spying the government is asking the universities to comply with including the whistle blower section and things like - "report all requested immigration and related information to the United States Department of Homeland Security".

It appears that because it's easier to bully, punish and disappear individuals than an institution the Trump administration is doing everything it can to find out who these individuals are so they can be targeted.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#415

With their endowment above $50 billion, combined with Federal plus Non-Federal sponsored revenue at 16% of operating budget, it makes sense to me they just forgo Federal funds and operate independently. If all 16% is canceled, then they'd need to draw an additional $1 billion per year from endowment at current budget levels. That would put them above 7% draw so potentially unsustainable for perpetuity, historically t…

those endowments, especially for the Ivy League schools, aren't liquid at all. They'd take a massive haircut if they had to start pulling funds from it

Presumably they could go to a large bank and make a deal so that they only have to take a relatively small haircut by getting a loan to be paid back from endowment interest.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What organised group of leftists has attacked a group of people based on their ethnicity? Do you have a link you could share?

SJP for example. That's why Khalil and others are deported.

Can you expand on this?

What is SJP? What student did they attack based on ethnicity? Can you send any links?

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A demand letter that said only "Harvard may not use race, gender, or national origin as criteria for admissions and hiring" would be a lot more defensible, and much harder to oppose. But the government's list of demands includes all kinds of stuff that would be mildly insane even if offered in good faith. And we have seen enough already that any independent organization would be very irresponsible to assume good fait…

> the government's list of demands includes all kinds of stuff that would be mildly insane even if offered in good faith And their demands are so insane you couldn't name one. I've gone through it and it all seems incredibly reasonable https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/...

> Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will provide viewpoint diversity.

Insane

> Harvard must implement a comprehensive mask ban with serious and immediate penalties for violation, not less than suspension.

Insane

> reducing the power held by faculty (whether tenured or untenured) and administrators more committed to activism than scholarship

Is even insane if you think about it for two seconds; nobody wants the government deciding what counts as activism and what counts as "real" scholarship. A good heuristic: do any of the proponents want a Bernie Sanders or AOC wielding this authority?

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#419
The law in the immigration act to disallow people who espouse support for terrorism is a good one.

We protect freedom of speech for citizens because we have to. They are part of our country.

I don’t believe this extends to foreigners. We should allow only immigrants who do not support terrorism and want to be productive members of society. This isn’t too much to ask.

This is not a right or left issue. This is a pro-America vs con-America issue.

Re: Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

#420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $9 billion dollars from the federal government to Harvard equates to nearly $30 per American… Now do what it gets them.

given my comment got railroaded instantly, this is clearly what everyone thinks, but let's at least have that conversation rather than blindly pumping money into academia while local schools can't even afford books

If you are looking for someone to take this money and redirect it to local schools I have some bad news for you.
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