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Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

economist.com

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Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#211

Post by twic »

snickerbockers wrote: post #44
Kapura wrote: post #11

This framing conveniently ignores the question of whether the president should have the authority to single-handedly withhold funding for universities, broadly considered to be one of the foundational pillars of America's strength in the 20th century. While I think it's interesting and answers the specific question it raises, it's wild that the economist has just accepted that the president has dictatorial powers.

America is a democracy, not a bureaucracy. The executive branch is governed by a single representative elected by the people. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the people didn't make a great choice this time but our constitutional republic is also one of the foundational pillars of american strength and trump being an idiot doesn't change that. The judicial branch has authority to stop him but they're only su…

There are many other democracies, and most do not have this problem. Yours is just an exceptionally poorly-designed one.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#212

Post by InitialLastName »

ryan93 wrote: post #116
steveBK123 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: our parents working their way through college, I think two things happened at least, yes. Reagan gutted education spending. But also the bifurcation of blue vs white collar wages really accelerated through the last 40 years. That is the spread between what my dad made working at a record store vs the professor/admin staff/etc at his college made increased tremendously. Think about it - minimum wage at federal lev…

How credulous do you have to be to attribute education funding to a president from 40 years ago?

By my count, roughly 75% of the US electorate were (or could have been) educated in the last 40 years.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#213

Post by mmooss »

Papirola wrote: post #62
Larrikin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not withholding cancer research because two countries on the other side of the planet can't get along and make it everyone else's problem shouldn't be difficult either.

I agree 100% - I would point out that it's not the Jewish students who set "encampments".

Many Jewish students did participate in the protests, a well-known organized example being Jewish Voice for Peace.

Regardless, the status quo always attacks the tactics of challengers in a similar way. Of course the status quo, support for Israel in this case, doesn't use those tactics - they don't need to! They already have the power structure and their desired policies; they don't need to change anything.

The same patterns of the status quo and challenger happens in politics, social issues, international relations, warfare, etc. The status quo says, 'they're disrupting things, not following the rules'. That's because the rules were written by and for the status quo.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#214

Post by drjasonharrison »

xracy wrote: post #180
SoftTalker wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You include expenses for lab and facilities in your grant budget rather than as "overhead" ?

That's not how facilities work or are accounted for. Facilities are common to all of the university. It doesn't make sense to force this individual requirement on each grant when the University has hundreds of ways it is using a given building or lab equipment.

Are you thinking "facility" == "building" and "rooms"?

The lab equipment is constantly evolving, needs repair, maintenance, on-site training. Perhaps you are thinking of a lab bench that is going to last the lifetime of the building and I am thinking of a computer server, 3D scanner, 3D printer, MRI machine (small lab system), etc.

My son has taken second year organic chemistry classes that had more computer hardware and software than I ever had in my electrical engineering/computer science classes in the early 1990s. The software might be open source, or might have ongoing software license fees. While those specific teaching labs should be paid for through tuition, imagine similar or more advanced versions in the research labs.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#215

Post by mmooss »

PaulHoule wrote: post #28
Papirola wrote: post #7

[flagged]

I can't speak for other universities, but Jewish students have no reason to feel endangered at Cornell. Some crazy Asian student wrote death threats to Jewish students and was kicked out. [1] When the lid blew off in Gaza all our sports events went clear bag, which was a hassle to me as a sports photographer. Security cameras popped up all over the engineering school over a weekend , contrast that to any blue collar…

> Jewish students have no reason to feel endangered at Cornell.

Have you spoken with Jewish students? Do you have first-hand knowledge? It's a stereotype of our blindness to dismiss other people's concerns, especially over safety and discrimination.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#216

Post by micromacrofoot »

Papirola wrote: post #64
micromacrofoot wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out both Jewish and Muslim students are getting harassed, which isn't surprising at all to anyone paying attention... this was also true before the current israel/palestine conflict https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/us/harvard-reports-antisemiti...

you should read this: https://www.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FINAL-Har...

I have, maybe you should

> In virtually every category, Jewish students reported more negative experiences than their Christian or atheist/agnostic peers, though Muslim students reported even greater negative experiences than Jewish students. It is not the goal of this Task Force, nor of the parallel Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias, to engage in a contest to prove which group has suffered more.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#217

Post by mmooss »

strathmeyer wrote: post #70
marricks wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe what’s under discussion is a students right to protest the US governments involvement in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the serio…

Couldn't the same be said of people making accusations of antisemitism? Trump et. al. are hardly in good faith.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#218

Post by rayiner »

otterley wrote: post #68
snickerbockers wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is a democracy, not a bureaucracy. The executive branch is governed by a single representative elected by the people. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the people didn't make a great choice this time but our constitutional republic is also one of the foundational pillars of american strength and trump being an idiot doesn't change that. The judicial branch has authority to stop him but they're only su…

This is true only to the extent that Congress delegates its power to the executive. Per Article I of the Constitution, Congress has the plenary power of the purse. So if it decides to spend $X on something specific , it has to be spent on whatever that something is. The President doesn't have discretion in that case.

> So if it decides to spend $X on something specific, it has to be spent on whatever that something is. The President doesn't have discretion in that case.

But the Congress never did that. You won't find an appropriations bill where Congress allocated $X to Harvard and $Y to Princeton, etc. In fact, it did the opposite. Under Title VI, it empowered the executive branch to withhold money based on civil rights violations. And regardless of your view on Presidential power vis-a-vis executive branch agencies, 42 USC 2000d-1 specifically subordinates federal agencies' rules, regulations, and orders pursuant to Title VI to the authority of the "President."

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#219

Post by mmooss »

treis wrote: post #208
mmooss wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sexual assault allegations against Duke lacrosse players were headed for criminal court. They are unresolved because powerful people prevented them and their alleged victim from having a day in court, evidence and arguments being heard from both sides, and a jury rendering a verdict. Instead their parents did everything possible to keep it out of court (why?).

They aren't unresolved. They were dropped by the state. The initial prosecutor was disbarred and (briefly) went to jail for his misconduct.

What you describe is that they are unresolved - there was no evidence, verdict. That was all suppressed, including by attacking the prosecutor. Why not clear their names in court?

Prosecutors in every other circumstance wield almost unchecked power - except when the children of the powerful might end up in court. Name another prosecutor treated in this way.

Re: Why can't Ivies cope with losing a few hundred million?

#220

Post by rahimnathwani »

vonmoltke wrote: post #204
rahimnathwani wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and the endowment already uses leverage, so many of the endowment's assets will already serve as security for loans.

Sure, but that's margin trading. These bonds have nothing to do with the endowment.

Yeah, sorry I didn't make it clear enough that I was agreeing with you. The endowment's assets are likely mostly/all pledged as security for margin trading, in which case there may be few/no assets left which could serve as collateral for borrowing that will fund payouts.
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