The War Against Academia

[Langue_doc]

Two recent op-eds on this topic:

The Authoritarian Endgame on Higher Education

'It Is Facing a Campaign of Annihilation': Three Columnists on Trump's War Against Academia

[Langue_doc]

The End of the University as We Know It

[Langue_doc]

Trump's Battles With Colleges Could Change American Culture for a Generation
Many in higher education worry Trump's efforts to bend academia to his will could end American leadership in research and science. Universities are not finding many allies to defend them.

[Langue_doc]

This is just the beginning--

Trump Administration Will Review Billions in Funding for Harvard
The move follows the cancellation of roughly $400 million in funding for Columbia and the suspension of $175 million for the University of Pennsylvania.

Reposting the following here for continuity:

White House Plans to Pause $175 Million for Penn Over Transgender Policy
The decision is the latest clash between a university and the administration as it pushes schools to end diversity programming and adopt stricter discipline, among other things.

Justice Dept. Will Investigate California Universities Over Race in Admissions
California banned affirmative action decades ago. The Trump administration says it plans to investigate whether schools there are still considering race.

[Wahoo Redux]

We must find a way to remove Trump from office (and please spare me the history lesson; I was alive in 2019 and 2021).

[treeoflife]

He is not going anywhere.

[Ruralguy]

We can only do one election at a time unless more special elections turn up. Next up is probably Virginia governor, and then 2026 midterms. Of course the country could be a total mess by then.

I don't think there's much chance of even having an impeachment vote, let alone one that sends the case to the
senate, and gets a conviction. Though if the economic hurt continues for a bit, I can see more Republican defection.

[kaysixteen]

The GOP congresscritters, with the exception of a relatively few MAGA hardcases, are being quiescent and Trumpservient now because they fear their own primary voters.   If too many of those voters become impoverished by Trumptard policies, one has to figure that enough of those voters will decide they'ver had enough, and rebel from him, such that enough of those GOP congresscritters will have to grow a spine.

[spork]

Unless academics start publicizing how the Trump Administration's wars against free speech and science are negatively affecting voters in specific ways, they will have no effect on elections.

E.g., "Today we had to tell Mr. and Mrs. Smith that Mr. Smith will not be getting the potentially life-saving experimental cancer drug that he was supposed to get, because the Trump Administration stopped clinical research of the drug. By killing the grant, the Trump Administration is killing Mr. Smith. Congressman Maga is a fervent supporter of this policy."

[Langue_doc]

Trump Administration Set to Pause $510 Million for Brown University
The administration has now targeted five schools' federal funding as part of a pledge to combat what it considers to be antisemitism on university campuses.

The first few paragraphs:

The Trump administration intends to block $510 million in federal contracts and grants for Brown University, expanding its campaign to hold universities accountable for what it says is relentless antisemitism on campus, according to two White House officials familiar with the plans.

Brown became the fifth university known to face a potentially dire loss of federal funding, leaving other universities that the administration has targeted wondering when their turn might come.

If the administration pauses $510 million, even over a period of years, the consequences for Brown could be significant. In its 2024 fiscal year, Brown received about $184 million through federal grants and contracts.

In an email to campus leaders on Thursday, Brown's provost, Frank Doyle, said the university was aware of "troubling rumors emerging about federal action on Brown research grants." But he said that the university had "no information to substantiate any of these rumors."

[Sea_Ice]

Unless academics start publicizing how the Trump Administration's wars against free speech and science are negatively affecting voters in specific ways, they will have no effect on elections.

E.g., "Today we had to tell Mr. and Mrs. Smith that Mr. Smith will not be getting the potentially life-saving experimental cancer drug that he was supposed to get, because the Trump Administration stopped clinical research of the drug. By killing the grant, the Trump Administration is killing Mr. Smith. Congressman Maga is a fervent supporter of this policy."

This!

Many long years ago some innumerate elected officials in my state informed the Uni System that, due to a massive budget shortfall, it should immediately plan for sharp reductions in funding.  The reactions were varied, but a couple of the best cost-cutting proposals I can remember (from different institutions) included shuttering the Agricultural Extension Service for the entire state, and closing a Nursing Program.  The public outcry was sufficient to get some competent folks to review the fools' math, and locate the errors.

This will be a bit trickier at the national level, especially when the cardinal rule of politics is that you don't dare be correct too soon.  The sooner we can get the critical mass that allows the politicians to publicly state, AND to act on, that which so many people have known since forever the better off we will be.  Until then, with all the talking-heads (the new DEI - Drunks, Elites, Idiots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyUVBIfLM2M ) who are "in charge" of critically important areas, and even more especially with a convicted felon and (probably) demented psychopath (I've seen qualified professionals conclude this) at the top of it with his strings being pulled and words being put in his mouth by Lord only knows whom, things will just continue to get even worse.

[Wahoo Redux]

The GOP congresscritters, with the exception of a relatively few MAGA hardcases, are being quiescent and Trumpservient now because they fear their own primary voters.   If too many of those voters become impoverished by Trumptard policies, one has to figure that enough of those voters will decide they'ver had enough, and rebel from him, such that enough of those GOP congresscritters will have to grow a spine.

This is what I have been saying.

The time in now to start needling our reps, governors, mayors, etc. to stand up to Drumpf.

I have become paranoid about these tariffs and layoffs and interventions into university funding.  What is Trump doing? 

And the demented sociopath will not care about cancer drugs and, more importantly, neither will his mob until it affects them personally.  This is why those of us who care need to speak up.

[Ruralguy]

There's a lot of resistance at the core of MAGA. It really *is* a death cult. If dear leader says we have to destroy the country in order to save it, then by golly, that's what we gotta do. Anyone who says otherwise is a traitor who deserves at least political death, and at most, firing squad.

[Wahoo Redux]

There's a lot of resistance at the core of MAGA. It really *is* a death cult. If dear leader says we have to destroy the country in order to save it, then by golly, that's what we gotta do. Anyone who says otherwise is a traitor who deserves at least political death, and at most, firing squad.

Yeah, but this only like 20% of the population.  We just need to have enough Americans who have had enough to act.  Let the MAGAs throw their temper tantrums. 

[Langue_doc]

Trump Officials Freeze $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern
The funding pause amid civil rights investigations into both universities sharply escalates the Trump administration's campaign against elite colleges.