Posted on 12/15/2024 12:27:07 PM PST by george76
In this episode of "The No-Longer-Hallowed Halls of Academia"...
In a bit of a surprise move, Harvard University president Alan M. Garber reportedly told faculty members in a closed meeting that they need to rethink their messaging following President-elect Donald Trump's decisive win in the 2024 general election, which also saw multiple down-ballot GOP wins, resulting into regaining control of the Senate and retaining the House.
Translation: Garber reads the writing on the wall.
Garber reportedly described his take on the post-election mood in Washington, D.C., which he said was the greatest threat to the university in recent memory, the Harvard Crimson reported (emphasis, mine).
At the FAS [Faculty of Arts and Sciences] meeting on Dec. 3, Garber said he met with roughly 40 members of Congress during six trips to Washington since becoming [Harvard] president. Garber said he emerged from the conversations convinced there was bipartisan frustration with Harvard and acknowledged that he believes the criticisms contain elements of truth.
Garber’s remarks — among his first since President-elect Donald Trump won a second term in the White House — suggest Harvard’s leaders are reevaluating their public messaging in the face of an increasingly hostile climate in Washington.
During his remarks, Garber said that the University’s communications strategy has not worked as well as its leaders had thought.
Details of the meeting were relayed to The Crimson by three faculty attendees who were granted anonymity to describe Garber’s private remarks to the FAS.
The Crimson reported Garber saw last month's election results as an "anti-elite repudiation by the American electorate," and said Harvard "must listen to public criticism with 'empathy and humility.'"
So let's analyze the bolded parts of the block quote above.
It's no surprise that Republican members of Congress, along with Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, are beyond frustrated with the no-longer-hallowed halls of academia, including Harvard, but it does come as somewhat of a surprise that Garber suggested Democrat members are also frustrated Harvard, and by extension, other universities and college, as well.
This could be for several reasons, including that many "moderate" Democrats have been held hostage by the radical faction of their party, including the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley.
Or, perhaps more than a few "moderate" Democrats in Congress agree with most of the bile spewed by radical, far-left professors but would like to see elitist academics turn down the volume a bit, given the repudiation of the Democrat Party in the election.
It's important to note that while Garber admitted Harvard's communications strategy has not worked as well as its leaders originally thought, he did not provide details on how Harvard would modify its messaging going forward.
Still, the Harvard Crimson wrote:
Garber’s conciliatory tone suggests he intends to take a diplomatic approach — rather than a defiant one — as he interacts with an incoming presidential administration that has Harvard in its crosshairs.
"Conciliatory tone." Interesting. And not uncommon on the left following what some call a "mandate" for Trump.
As I reported on Thursday, Facebook co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms (DBA: Meta, formerly named Facebook, Inc.) jetted to Florida for a private meeting with Trump and donated a measly million dollars to the incoming president's inaugural fund. This was Zuckerberg's latest attempt to make amends with Trump after admitting to Congress that Facebook censored users at the request of the Biden administration.
...
Similarly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, long a foe of the president-elect, congratulated Trump on X after the election for “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” and said this month that he’s “actually very optimistic this time around.”
Speaking at a New York Times conference, he said: “What I’ve seen so far is that he is calmer than he was the first time and more confident, more settled.”
The Bottom Line...
The list of people like Harvard President Alan Garber, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is long, but the reason they're lining up to make a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump's ring is short:
Smart left-wingers who have more to lose than gain are well aware that they don't have a strong hand against a man who overcame incredible hurdles to become the 47th president of the United States. They also know if they get crosswise with Donald J. Trump, they're going to lose.
How about this advice: veritas, you stinking liars.
The fact that they think they need “messaging” indicates the root of the problem
Harvard Hates America: The Odyssey of a Born-Again American Hardcover – January 1, 1978
by John Leboutillier (Author)
Messaging? He’s supposed to be teaching kids real stuff.
Smart left-wingers who have more to lose than gain are well aware that they don’t have a strong hand against a man who overcame incredible hurdles to become the 47th president of the United States. They also know if they get crosswise with Donald J. Trump, they’re going to lose.
Shhh...let them think its the messaging is the problem.
Messaging is the Least of the fundamental change they need to implement.
All “studies” Depts. need to go right away.
Make Profs teach 3 to 4 courses per semester or take a big pay cut.
Hahhvaarrrd needs to be tuition free.
Messaging and communications? Yeah...re: analyze your propaganda and lies. Citizens, not just politicians, are onto you.
Both sides are frustrated, but not for the same reason: the Republicans don't like the incessant proggie cheerleading and the Dems don't think they've gone far enough down the road to Communism. Also certain wealthy Jewish donors don't like being run off campus by hysterical student mobs whipped up by radicals. Also certain Asian students would like a fair shake at admission. The real question is, how does Harvard maintain its status as a playpen for elite brats without making it quite so obvious? Best of luck with that.
This is similar to Mark Twain’s saying:
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
Trump and others say what America needs and what they think is right.
The Left in academia, the media and politics vary according to the reactions of others. If a statement doesn’t work out and there is strong blowback then they might——might-—adjust to what is popular later.
Tax endowments. They have no right to run hedge funds without paying taxes.
“The fact that they think they need “messaging” indicates the root of the problem”
exactly ... the only “messaging” a university needs to engage in is: “come to our university to get a world class education” ... any other kind of “messaging” would be irrelevant to the function of providing education ... period ... end of story ...
I’d bet all 40 of the Congress members are CommieCrats..
Agree with you 100%.
“studies” do not help students in real life, all they do is spreading divisiveness.
Profs now hardly teach anything, at best some graduate class with seven students, occasionally.
And Harvard has soo huge an endowment, that it can easily afford free education for all students, forever.
Before Harvard goes into transmit mode and tries to message its views to the world, it needs to find a receiver and figure out how to listen. This university led the way off into the left field of Marxism and over the mountain of globalism and into the abyss of woke elitism [and I don’t even know what that means except a melange of high falutin drivel that you are supposed to swallow because it is spouted by Harvard professors]. I don’t know how you get from there to a educational institution that supports the human values of America built on a classical liberal tradition including rigorous free inquiry, free speech, freedom of religion but not from religion. Instead they have fallen into the slovenly habit of thinking the they speak the truth because the truth is what they speak and Merrick Garland is their son.
Before you can message you have to have a message. Instead of the message of God revealed through Christ, they are trying to shift gears and change a message that no one is buying anymore. This proves that this idiot is not interested in telling the truth after inquiry to find out what the truth is, but to sell truths because selling truths is the Harvard brand. It’s their logo TM.
You wait for Dennis Prager to get well from his injury, then hire him to take over. All hell will break loose at first, but eventually the hell will slink away and educational heaven will become the order of the day.
Imagine being an education institution and so leftarded that you can’t simply figure out how to educate rationally.
How far our society has fallen.
It is time to take the entire Harvard endowment and give it to working class white people as reparations for sixty years of hate.
Tax Harvard’s 50 billion endowment and strip away non-profit status. They are easily demonstrated as partisan.
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