Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Harvard's response to federal government letter demanding changes

harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 1001 posts

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

#121

Post by outer_web »

epolanski wrote: post #92
ghusto wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of no return is Trump getting a third term. The parallels are strong there. I was just thinking this morning that we very much needed the USA's help fighting Nazi Germany, but who will we turn to when we're fighting fascists coming from the East _and_ West? (Russia and the USA)

The point of no return was January 6th 2021! Once Americans pardoned an attempt by the sitting president to overthrow US democracy the game's over. America desperately needs a huge revision to the powers conceded to individuals and should instead mature to a slower, maybe less effective at times, but stronger democracy that nurtures parliamentary debate and discourse.

It could have been water under the bridge if we simply did not re-elect him. But now we have a second term emboldened by de facto total immunity.

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

#123

Post by ceejayoz »

nonethewiser wrote: post #95
PerilousD wrote: post #13

I guess that Harvard probably does not need the Feds as much as the Feds need Harvard but I'm glad they are standing up to the Fascists. I'm going to have to see what NYU is doing now.

What does the Federal Gov need Harvard for? Harvard gets 16% of its funding from them - what outweighs that on the aide of the Federal government?

The tax revenues from the $1.3T company that arose from their online yearbook?

Lawyers? Doctors? Medical research? Thousands of highly educated graduates annually? 161 Nobel prize winners?

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

#124

Post by thinkingtoilet »

repeekad wrote: post #83
areoform wrote: post #26

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…

$9 billion dollars from the federal government to Harvard equates to nearly $30 per American, that is an ignorant amount of money for a single academic institution, surely the world isn't so black and white that we can have a conversation about how much money is leaking out of our tax dollars without it always coming back to "fascism"?

> that we can have a conversation about how much money is leaking out of our tax dollars

Of course. It's clear you didn't read the letter because Harvard addresses this specifically. The Trump admin is literally refusing to have a conversation. This is 100% politically motivated and it's obvious to anyone who is not in the Trump cult. This is particularly disgusting because their doing it under the guise of 'antisemitism', while Trump keeps friends with known white supremacists.

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

#126

Post by outer_web »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #109
bilbo0s wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He still controls the congress, the white house and the supreme court. So he could potentially pull a completely illegal fast one and freeze their accounts. Since rule of law seems on fairly shaky ground right now in any case.

> he could potentially pull a completely illegal fast one and freeze their accounts Harvard (and most institutions and powerful individuals) would be smart to maintain liquid assets and a bank account outside America’s control.

Maybe their endowment is held in treasurys they should start selling off...

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

#127

Post by MR_Bulldops »

repeekad wrote: post #83
areoform wrote: post #26

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…

$9 billion dollars from the federal government to Harvard equates to nearly $30 per American, that is an ignorant amount of money for a single academic institution, surely the world isn't so black and white that we can have a conversation about how much money is leaking out of our tax dollars without it always coming back to "fascism"?

Let's have a conversation about leaking tax dollars. How do you feel about our tax dollars directly enriching the sitting president? How do you feel about our tax dollars leaking into a military parade to celebrate the president's birthday? If you don't address those leaks, how can we be expected to take people like you seriously when you defend authoritarian policy as fiscally responsible?

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

#128

Post by adamc »

outer_web wrote: post #115
areoform wrote: post #26

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…

Habeas corpus - still in effect unless you're already in El Salvador.

Although the president was caught on mic musing about deporting American citizens.

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

#129

Post by somethoughts »

soup10 wrote: post #3

Harvard has a 50 billion endowment, what do they need federal funds for. If they value their intellectual independence so much, then cut the cord.

It'd be an interesting strategy if you could split the organization based on departments that depend heavily on federal funds (i.e. perhaps STEM fields such as medicine and physics/hard sciences, etc.) and those that are not (and perhaps simultaneously requiring more freedom of thought).

Perhaps resurrect the Radcliffe College to support the more intellectual, free thought based departments. [1]

[1] https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/about-the-institute/histor...

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

#130

Post by ceejayoz »

repeekad wrote: post #113
ceejayoz wrote: post #97

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

The people who want to hurt Harvard also want to hurt the local schools.
Post reply on HN