FINALLY. One university with the balls to stand up to Trump.
I don’t think all the people I was telling understand how much money Harvard has.
It’s … Way way more than it appears on paper.
They have, over the last 40 years or so, systematically bought commercial real estate in Boston, left it vacant to devalue the housing property in the neighborhood, then bought houses in the neighborhoods, bulldozed, expanded. They own way more of Allston than people realize. Let’s not even talk about their endowment, which can pay for all students tuition on interest alone.
Here’s a fun one.
42.3580140, -71.1385711
Try and figure out what that building is, who owns it, what it’s for. It’s like 5 acres. In the middle of a major capital city.
Yeah. Good luck. (P.S. it’s Harvard)
Now note proximity to Harvard Stadium.
Harvard runs shit. In broad daylight secrecy. Within a democratic stronghold.
Scott Galloway on YouTube often mentions this on his podcasts. That Harvard and a few others have turned from being a university with money to a private equity fund with some students.
Any rec?
Someone should support them! Poor guys, can’t catch a break!
Maybe Lemmy should run defence on them
So you’re telling me Harvard may be home base for a modern day revolution when it comes. Noted!
They’ll protect themselves first. If that means working with the regime then that’s what they’ll do.
Let me guess and you guys support these billionaires who pocket student money, correct? Just because it looks like it’s fighting another of your imaginary enemies?
Trump is imaginary?
What’s the point of sitting on a $53B endowment if you’re not going to use it? Losing $9B in contracts to fight fascism is worth every penny.
Donald Trump proposed taxing large private university endowments as part of his 2024 election campaign.
This tax aims to fund the creation of the “American Academy,” a new institution designed to provide free, high-quality educational content. The tax would target excessively large endowments, collecting billions of dollars to support this initiative
This proposal is part of a broader effort to reshape higher education and address political controversies within universities. The tax on endowment investment income could significantly impact universities with large endowments.
This just sounds like they’re going to contract PragerU to rebrand their videos and then someone will pocket billions of dollars.
Trump University.
Did that already happen or am I now adding grifts to the long list that do exist?
It’s just how he’s going to get around the prohibition on bills of attainder.
They only need to create law that can be arbitrarily enforced and then enforce that law on your enemies.
Who in their right mind is against this?
Anyone who can see that with any republican sentiment in the government, that ‘high quality educational content’ is going to be pants on head idiotic shilling for conservative viewpoints?
Read the letter sent to Harvard. It will give you the idea what the new higher ed would look like.
Anybody actually in their right mind is against this
How was his last University? How well did that do? Donald sure does love the uneducated.
Columbia looking twice as pathetic now. I hope this catches on.
Dartmouth too. One of trump’s rnc ghouls is working with her directly.
Likely because their endowment is large enough to not need federal funds.
I don’t think Columbia’s hard up for cash either, but they folded like a cardboard lawn chair
They have “Russian asset go fuck yourself” money.
Georgetown has been out ahead of this for weeks. But they get no press because they’re (a) not Harvard and (b) not humiliating themselves in compliance rituals like Columbia, so they aren’t as exciting to cover.
You’ve also got schools down in Texas - A&M and UT particularly - that have already been fully integrated into Governor Abbott’s brand of Lone Star Fascism that there’s little to report. Just a bunch of admins saying, in thick German accents, that everything is normal and there’s nothing to see.
The Government will retaliate. I wonder if all intentional students will now be under a watchful eye
They already have been.
I do not believe someone ever said once “hey wait a minute did I woke up in Harvard? That wasn’t the plan at all?!”
Didn’t require balls, mate. Don’t glorify them doing the bare minimum.
They have the largest academic endowment in the world. All of their students could go there for free for basically forever but they still collect tuition. Somehow they’re brave because of this though.
$9B is still a lot of money, plus you know more spite is coming - turnipas ego doesn’t like to be told no
The letter that they sent Harvard was mental. Demanding wholesale replacement of the staff and students, removing the human rights curriculum, removing any cultural studies, a full mask ban bc only ICE get to wear masks now apparently, and a tattletale hotline. That letter is so up its own ass. Glad they published it.
Harvard has its own issues of course, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that this thing it’s done is the right thing.
An insane list of demands like that should fall under the “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” clause right?
Well, an insane list of demands aimed at an international school that derives a huge amount of its income from foreign students and a reputation as a global leader in law and commerce. Harvard’s admins aren’t “Going Woke”. They’re going into survival mode.
They’re also likely looking at the bloodbath at Columbia as the admin over there bend itself into a pretzel to comply with these demands, gets their funding gutted anyway, and turns the student body into either El Salvadorian inmates or white nationalist freaks. Clearly there’s no upside to compliance. Trump never goes away, he just comes back with a longer and more vile list of demands.
Well they have balls not like other universities
One would hope that the wealthiest university in the country would have the minerals to tell the Trump regime to piss off.
It’s a good start.
If all the universities came together and told Trump to shove those demands up his ass, that would be historic but instead they chose to be cowards like the big tech not realizing that they don’t serve the president but the president should serve them.
Collectivists supporting billionaires and running defense for them online in 3…2…1
The stunlock intensifies
Who wants to take bets that Donald was rejected from Harvard in past?