Damaging Research Programs

Academic elites seem shocked! They have encouraged a political backlash by abandoning their central mission of free inquiry too often. 

According to media outlets, lobbyists for universities and colleges are rushing into DC. Leaders of prestigious universities looking for support want to meet with lawmakers to talk about the value of research funding and endowments to high-profile alumni. Well, perhaps not presidents of higher officials.  Big names like Harvard, Columbia, and Yale, to name three of about 50 colleges, are hiring lobbyists to help colleges and universities explain the value of research funding and convince lawmakers of the importance of endowments to high-profile alumni.

It’s no secret that university faculty enjoy billions of dollars in government funding, tenure protections, and academic autonomy. Detractors accuse them of indoctrinating young people with left-wing ideology rather than creating productive, critical-thinking students.

Worried universities are not looking forward to hearings in the coming weeks on antisemitism. Universities know the public hasn’t forgotten the combative 2023 hearings on that subject. Presidents (Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, etc.) attempt to deflect questions from lawmakers. They are preparing to defend their approach to campus protests following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

University lobbyists are arriving at meetings supported with data about how changes could hurt students at small schools, where endowment money helps fund financial aid. They seem willing to answer questions about potential antisemitism on campus.

For example, Davidson College (Stephen Curry) hired its own lobbyist. Still, it is working with a coalition of other small liberal arts colleges that hired its own firm in Washington.

Douglas Hicks, president of North Carolina-based Davidson College, explained an endowment tax would hurt the college’s ability to provide financial aid to students.

In an “extraordinary” four-page letter to the school’s community, it looks like Columbia University President Katrina Armstrong has agreed to all the Trump administration’s demands.

No Choice

“Many in academia are calling this an act of surrender, but she had little choice if she wants the money.”

Tax-payers, by and large, do not want to subsidize schools focusing on race, gender, and class rather than on Western Civ. Universities notes the WSJ, would be wise to reform themselves or abandon federal money.