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A university president makes a case against cowardice

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450 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 03 Apr 25 12:29 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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JKCalhoun ◴[03 Apr 25 13:06 UTC] No.43569036[source]▶
Wild that he is some kind of exception. Rolling over, folding is not the university culture I remember.
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rincebrain ◴[03 Apr 25 13:16 UTC] No.43569162[source]▶
There wasn't, historically, the level of enormous potential negative consequences legally and practically if the universities talked back.

Universities, like many institutions, have also become more like large incumbent businesses than previously - e.g. perpetuating their own existence over having strong core values.

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Thorrez ◴[03 Apr 25 14:07 UTC] No.43569937[source]▶
Biden was considering withholding federal funds from schools over their vaccine policies[1], and tried to withhold federal funds from schools based on how they treat transgender students[2], but that was blocked by a judge. Obama did a similar thing regarding transgender students[3].

Things like this are why Hillsdale College rejects all federal funds. So they can do what they want without threat of the government revoking funding[4].

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-vaccines-delta...

[2] https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/12/texas-title-ix-lgbtq...

[3] https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477896804...

[4] https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-co...

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1. rincebrain ◴[03 Apr 25 15:18 UTC] No.43570994[source]▶
Sure, but my argument was not "the federal government has never done this", but that "colleges have usually felt secure that this would not be done to them if they defended student protests", or at least, if we're being cynical, "that they would have an opportunity to walk it back if their calculations were incorrect".