Posted on 04/15/2025 1:54:39 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
President Trump has set his sights on defunding colleges, singling out some of the world’s wealthiest schools in what critics say is an attack on academic freedom.
The Trump administration is seeking to exert extraordinary influence over American universities by withholding the kind of federal financial support that has flowed to campuses for decades.
President Trump and his allies contend that some schools, especially a handful of elite universities, have become bastions of antisemitism and ideological indoctrination. Though the higher education industry has acknowledged shortcomings and failures, especially since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, it has warned that reducing schools’ federal funding could backfire on American society as a whole.
University leaders fear that by threatening to withhold funding, or suspending it with little or no warning, the government is trying to stamp out academic freedom, a cornerstone of the American education system.
The Trump administration has given broad reasons for the cuts, often involving claims that the schools tolerate antisemitism. But the choice of schools it has targeted and even some of its demands have sometimes confused educators and experts. Northwestern University, for example, recently released a lists of steps it had taken to combat antisemitism that closely tracked with a list of demands the Trump administration had given to Columbia University. Northwestern was targeted several days later, nonetheless.
The issue is revealing the dollars-and-cents consequences of the tensions between campus leaders and the Trump administration. But the outcome of the underlying debate — over the very purpose of higher education — could shape the country for years to come.
Which schools have been targeted?
So far, seven universities have been singled out for punitive funding cuts...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Why do "some of the world's wealthiest schools" need government funding?
Alan Blinder. Now there is a nightmare from the past!
What “academic freedom”?
Hillsdale College is smiling.
No, we don’t accept Federal funding!
The issue with the federal gov’t always has been, is now, and always will be THE CONSTITUTION which created the LIMITED federal gov’t and is the ONLY source of its valid and legal authority.
Today, most of the federal gov’t is unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal and invalid.
School funding is just one of many examples of unconstitutional and, therefore, illegal gov’t activity.
(Though the higher education industry has acknowledged shortcomings and failures, especially since the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023,)
Understatement of the week.
“Northwestern University, for example, recently released a lists of steps it had taken to combat antisemitism that closely tracked with a list of demands the Trump administration had given to Columbia University. Northwestern was targeted several days later, nonetheless.”
Every bureaucrat in DC checks the Northwestern website daily. /s
Why, to replenish their coffers, of course, the very reason George and Alex Soros "needed" USAID funding, of course!
Hopefully no one has forgotten the disastrous testimony of the Harvard, UPenn and MIT. I support Trump's working toward the elimination of university support DEI and Palestinian terrorists.
Question for the ages. 🤪
Liberal administration allies, much like the Chinese that also fund many unusually well to do universities.
There is not one university in this country that should receive any of my tax dollars in funding considering that I can't afford to send my children there due to the cost.
These Jew hating commie schools have a massive sense of entitlement. They are private schools. They are entitled to nothing from the taxpayer regardless of what they do.
Seems that Harvard at least made an effort to meet Trump half way by eliminating the requirement for Jewish students to wear gold stars.
1. Because they hate Jews and discriminate against them
2. Because they hate women and force them to play against men in putative “women’s’ sports.”
3. Because they teach pernicious and racist DEI
4. Because they are thoroughly infested with DEI, communist, and marxist radicals teaching things anathema to the founding principles of the USA
5. Because they teach the teachers and those taught teachers hate everything American
6. Because universities are no longer dedicated to the preservation and transmission of knowledge, broader inquiry, or true research and academic freedom.
7. They are racist and sexist. If you don’t toe the marxist line, you have no future in today’s university. If you are a white male, you will never get hired at today’s university.
I’m sure I’m missing 8. through 20.
I thought NYT was against corporate welfare?
I thought they wanted to spread the wealth not concentrate it among the wealthiest?
‘ There is not one university in this country that should receive any of my tax dollars in funding considering that I can’t afford to send my children there due to the cost.’
You could learn to code, would you pay for Harvard or Columbia if you could afford it?
List of colleges that don’t take federal money:
Aletheia Christian College (Idaho)
Bethlehem College & Seminary (Minnesota)
Boyce College (Kentucky)
Christendom College (Virginia)
Crown College (Tennessee)
Faith Bible College (Maine)
Grove City College (Pennsylvania)
Gutenberg College (Oregon)
Hildegard College (California)
Highlands College (Alabama)
Hillsdale College (Michigan)
Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary (Tennessee)
Mount Liberty College (Utah)
New College Franklin (Tennessee)
New Saint Andrews College (Idaho)
Patrick Henry College (Virginia)
Pensacola Christian College (Florida)
Principia College (Illinois)
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Kentucky)
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Texas)
Weimar University (California)
Wyoming Catholic College (Wyoming)
That’s it. Just 22. The other 1700 or so “private” colleges take untold billions of our dollars annually. .
Duh. To draw attention to their communism.
Because the racist Hamas supporters at these schools physically prohibited Jewish students from attending classes and Jewish professors from accessing their offices. In addition Jewish students were threatened and hid in their dorm rooms.
With 129 Nobel prizes to their credit, mostly in science and medicine, oppressing Jewish scholars and students makes a mockery of any leading University's claims about the advancement of knowledge. Since much of the federal funding deals with scientific and medical projects, it is appropriate for the government to review whether these efforts should remain where they are, or be moved to other institutions more amenable to civilized behavior.
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