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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

#641

Post by briantakita »

Harvard received the "worst score ever" clamped at 0.0 in 2023. By the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The actual score was -10.69.

They were particularly oppressive on anyone espousing opinions on the political right...Both leaning toward Individual liberty & stateist inclined.

While I believe that freedom of speech is a right not to be infringed on. Their current stance is selective. They have a massive endowment. So Harvard doesn't need subsidies. Since their endowment benefits private parties, Harvard can be funded by private parties.

https://www.thefire.org/news/harvard-gets-worst-score-ever-f...

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

#642

Post by hnburnsy »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #526
hnburnsy wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Billionaires pay 37% or 20% on their investment gains, can't really explain it to a 5 year old because congress and the IRS make it complex.

They don't pay anywhere close to that, there are tons of tricks to avoid paying that % on gains and the more money you have the more leeway for loopholes. Very relevant in startup ecosystem as well (look up exchange funds, opportunity zones etc.)

There are no loopholes for investment gains. If you are talking about offsetting losses and delaying gains, those options would likely be available to endowment funds.

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

#643

Post by cypherpunks01 »

priyadarshy wrote: post #573

The wildest thing I read was: > Harvard will immediately report to federal authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, any foreign student, including those on visas and with green cards, who commits a conduct violation. Conduct violations at Universities are a pretty broad set of rules at universities and don't necessarily line up with what's legal or not but more with the univers…

Another good one, "Reforming Programs with Egregious Records of Antisemitism or Other Bias .. The programs, schools, and centers of concern include:"

> Harvard Divinity School

> Graduate School of Education

> School of Public Health

> Medical School

> Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School

> Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic

(partial list)

I must have missed the time when the Medical School racked up a record of egregious antisematism.

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

#644

Post by tines »

Loughla wrote: post #512
kashunstva wrote: post #486

From the United States government letter to Harvard: "Harvard must implement a comprehensive mask ban with serious and immediate penalties for violation, not less than suspension." So if a student has, say, an immunodeficiency syndrome and wears a mask to protect their health during the riskier seasons of the year, they would face dismissal from the university? (Or worse - whatever that is - according to the letter.)…

They want freedom for themselves. They're free to impose their will on others without judgement. That's the purpose.

I wrote this on another thread recently, reposting here:

Things started to make more sense to me once I realized that by nature, human beings hate freedom and love tyranny. Once you accept this, it all falls in place. Deporting citizens to foreign prisons? Sounds great. Incoherent foreign and economic policy? Love it. Freedom of the press? Who needs it! Destruction of democracy? Own the libs! Legalize bribery of foreign officials? Even the playing field! And finally, words don’t need to mean anything because they are simply evocations intended to stir up certain emotions. They are more akin to a hunter’s duck call. The hunter doesn’t speak duck and doesn’t care whether that sounds he’s making have any meaning, he simply makes noise and looks for a result. Not getting the desired result? Just change the noise a little.

This is why democracy will eventually fail and autocracy will rise in its place. And no one will ever learn.

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

#645

Post by hnburnsy »

kristjansson wrote: post #600
hnburnsy wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give us some of these restrictions? This seems like a BS excuse to not support the students.

This is absolutely par for the course for university endowments. They're not big pots of money, they're thousands of small pots of money with various restrictions on their investment, disbursement, etc.

Not asking for the breakdown, wondering what some of those restrictions look like and whether they support the students with those restrictions.

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

#646

Post by myko »

Herring wrote: post #629
elliotec wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment and the parent’s are the best retorts I’ve seen yet to the “these people are just stupid” idea we hear all the time. These “rules” are not calculated and brilliant, and that’s the point. They’re controlling at any angle they want.

No, it's still stupid. High corruption leads to weaker economic performance (eg compare red vs blue states). Nepotism looks like winning right until it sinks your company.

Right, this is why fascist governments tend to fail. In the meantime, though, normal folks will be hurt.

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

#647

Post by kenjackson »

impossiblefork wrote: post #502
os2warpman wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merit is not easily definable. Standardized tests are bullshit, IQ tests are phrenology, class rankings are not comparable across school districts. Someone who was president of every club at school may be less able than a kid who had to flip burgers in the evenings to help make rent. Merit to a university may mean "someone whose charisma and social connections will bring great repute to the institution" more than "a…

Standardized test reliably predict academic success. IQ tests similarly. Here in Sweden, if you do well enough on the entrance exam, we simply let you in, even to the best universities. This means that people other than hoop-jumpers have a chance.

Academic success isn’t what Harvard cares about. They want leaders, not kids who are great at “school”.

Put it this way they’d much rather have Roberts or Obama as alumni than your typical 1600 SAT quant.

Whats the best metric to find the people they are looking to educate?

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

#648

Post by decimalenough »

squigz wrote: post #275
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…

> the more they will accelerate down a path where there is no coming back from. Why do you say this? At practically every point in history where a government or dictator goes too far, we've come back from it.

It can take a good long time though. It's Juche Year 114 in North Korea and the Kim dynasty remains firmly in control.

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

#649

Post by abirch »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #543
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.…

Eh, colleges were originally religious institutions. (Harvard was founded to train clergy [1].) Converting the Corporation to Harvard Church is about the least shenanigany thing I could think of in this tale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Harvard_University

This is genius. Next up, Apple could easily convert into a church with its many disciples.

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

#650

Post by cypherpunks01 »

legitster wrote: post #36

Even if Harvard wanted to comply with the government letter, it's full of so many non-sequiturs and self-conflictions that it reads more like a piece of satire: > The University must immediately shutter all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, offices, committees, positions, and initiatives, under whatever name, and stop all DEI-based policies, including DEI-based disciplinary or speech control policies,…

Harvard Medical School?

Ah yes I've heard of that, it's one of the "Programs with Egregious Records of Antisemitism or Other Bias" which most fuels antisemitic harassment and reflects ideological capture!

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