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Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

harvard.edu

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

#561

Post by benrapscallion »

bretpiatt wrote: post #32

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…

Harvard affiliated hospitals are dependent on NIH funding for survival. Wonder if they are included in the scope of this.

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

#562

Post by sunflowerfly »

WalterBright wrote: post #542
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LoL - why it makes any sense to do this for universities and not billionaires is beyond me, but I'm sure half the country can explain it to me like I'm 5.

Billionaires do pay income tax on investment income.

Not at rates anywhere near tax rates on wages of a middle class worker.

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

#563

Post by janalsncm »

WalterBright wrote: post #316
janalsncm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Importantly, the Civil Rights Act is a (well-litigated) law, not an ad hoc decree from the executive branch. If the current administration wants to strong arm universities, they should go through Congress.

> Importantly, the Civil Rights Act is a (well-litigated) law, not an ad hoc decree from the executive branch That's right. And it's the function of the executive branch to enforce those laws.

I agree. Congress has allocated funds to Harvard. It’s not up to the executive whether to disburse them, unless that was specifically stated in the law.

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

#564

Post by rayiner »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #440
robocat wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans Are Floating Plans To Raise the Endowment Tax. Here’s What You Need To Know : https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/2/11/increasing-endo... Proposed College Endowment Tax Hike: What to Know : https://thecollegeinvestor.com/52851/proposed-college-endowm... College endowments are typically tax-exempt, but a 2017 law imposed a 1.4% tax on investment income for a small group of wealthy private universities.…

LoL - why it makes any sense to do this for universities and not billionaires is beyond me, but I'm sure half the country can explain it to me like I'm 5.

[flagged]

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

#566

Post by xienze »

crazygringo wrote: post #135
forrestthewoods wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if a $50,000,000,000 endowment can not be used to smooth things over in times of need or turbulence then the endowment managers need to make changes. You can not possibly convince me that Harvard’s endowment doesn’t trivially have one year of liquidity in it. I’m sure it’s not structured to handle a 7% annual draw down for the next 30 years. But it’s got plenty of time to restructure if needed.

The point is, it's eating your seed corn. Spending a billion of it is not just spending a billion. It's spending the many billions it was meant to provide, in interest, over the next decades. It's extraordinarily expensive to spend it directly, as opposed to spending the income it generates. You can certainly do it, in a true emergency. But you certainly don't want to make a habit of it.

> The point is, it's eating your seed corn.

How much is “enough” money to hoard in an endowment though? We hear lots of arguments about how the concept of a billionaire is itself obscene, why can’t we apply to same logic to institutions? E.g. much like people say “billionaires shouldn’t exist”, perhaps endowments over some similarly arbitrary value shouldn’t exist either.

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

#567

Post by Der_Einzige »

const_cast wrote: post #554
Der_Einzige wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Most professors in non stem departments are Marxist So, as I alluded to before, the issue here isn't the education - you are delusional. I don't know how to help you because what you're saying is just not aligned with reality and that's not something I can fix. For the record, you can analyze the text of various scholars even if you don't agree with them, and that's a huge part of critical thinking and higher educa…

[flagged]

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

#568

Post by rurp »

silexia wrote: post #461
janalsncm wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be true for Harvard, but I don’t think free speech should only be for those who can afford it. I know my school couldn’t if the government came knocking.

Harvard is free to say whatever it wants and operate without government funds. A shocking idea may be for a school to actually use the tuition paid by students to educate them. This is forced speech for all those of us who disagree with Harvard's politics and yet have our tax dollars sent to support it anyways.

Somehow I doubt you would apply these same principles to someone who doesn't believe in police and objects to their taxes being used to fund them.

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

#569

Post by ascendantlogic »

rayiner wrote: post #564
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LoL - why it makes any sense to do this for universities and not billionaires is beyond me, but I'm sure half the country can explain it to me like I'm 5.

[flagged]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.

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

#570

Post by zeroonetwothree »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #440
robocat wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans Are Floating Plans To Raise the Endowment Tax. Here’s What You Need To Know : https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/2/11/increasing-endo... Proposed College Endowment Tax Hike: What to Know : https://thecollegeinvestor.com/52851/proposed-college-endowm... College endowments are typically tax-exempt, but a 2017 law imposed a 1.4% tax on investment income for a small group of wealthy private universities.…

LoL - why it makes any sense to do this for universities and not billionaires is beyond me, but I'm sure half the country can explain it to me like I'm 5.

Billionaires do not get a tax exemption
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