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submitted 1 week ago by Mee@reddthat.com to c/news@lemmy.world

The Trump administration responded quickly to Harvard University's defiance on Monday, freezing more than $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts after the university rejected demands that it change hiring, admissions and other policies.

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[-] Ledivin@lemmy.world 92 points 1 week ago

Based on some basic searches (deep research, obviously), Harvard can run off of just its endowment for almost 10 years. Add in forthcoming donations and investment returns along with some mild cost-cutting, and it seems like an easy bet on Harvard to outlast Trump... hopefully they don't cave.

[-] p3n@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

It may outlast the entire country. Considering it was founded 140 years before the U.S., that wouldn't be entirely surprising.

[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

That's what I was thinking: how can Trump mess with their endowment?

Devalue the American dollar.

Or just order some Nazi loyalist troops to take over thee campus and kill whom ever they choose.

[-] softcat@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

So long as it's an official act the Supreme Court says he can do anything he likes.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago

Harvard can run off of just its endowment for almost 10 years.

They can't. It's not just cash in a savings account. It's hundreds of investments that have legal restrictions on the usage of the interest from those investments that regulate how it can be used.

[-] duhbasser@lemm.ee 10 points 1 week ago

Yea this is a bully technique. Scare people (colleges) to conform to your laws or else (“withhold funding”). That’ll work on colleges that are relying heavily on government funded assistance, but when mommy and daddy make over $20 million per year…yea they don’t give a shit. They pay to push people through as qualified, it’s why Donny was elected in the first place 😆

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

Not to mention that they own huge swaths of extremely valuable land. They own like a third of Allston, MA alone. They could easily sell a chunk of that for tens of millions of dollars.

[-] Wazowski@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Tens of millions of dollars in a budget like Harvard’s barely funds anything. Billions of dollars in federal funded have been frozen.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I'm sure the current government administration can, too. What's going to stop them from abusing civil forfeiture to do it... a sternly worded letter, maybe?

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago

The message I got from Harvard today sits in refreshingly stark contrast to the one I got from Columbia a few weeks ago. I opened it dreading what HU was going to say, and I'm pleasantly surprised. The school has many things it needs to work on, and I'll take a good news like this when I can. Where do we go from here?

[-] liverbe@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

We need more companies and colleges to defy orders. I doubt any other schools can afford to. I think there are plenty of companies that "could" until an impossible tariff is put on them.

[-] orcrist@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago

Of course plenty of other universities can afford to do it. It's the research heavy universities that can't afford it right now, but that might mean that they should cut a bunch of their research divisions. Tuition dollars are not affected by these types of legal shenanigans.

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

low-prestigious definitely cant afford it, our state schools is so desperate for students, they even give an easier bump to hs to get admitted to 4-year university now.

[-] Wazowski@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Torches and pitchforks.

Is this blocking of funds going to impact HU significantly or do they have a large fund.

Also, what do you study there?

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I'm sure it will have an impact. I appreciate that their update wasn't bundled along with a request for donations. One step better than the Democratic party lol.

I went to Harvard Business School. This was en email they sent to all alumni across the university.

Nice.

Does Harvard set up for life as well as I assume or are there people that go and don’t succeed?

[-] Wazowski@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I am well connected in he Harvard community. Harvard isn’t some magical ticket to wealth.

No I doubt it is. I assume that the vast majority of people that go already have wealth.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Where do we go from here?

To court presumably.

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 32 points 1 week ago

Hmm if he keeps doing this to colleges it stop researchers from researching tech and slows gettin new ones? Never heard of that strategy in a 4x game. Its a Bold move let's see how that works for the player.

Oh he's going to disconnect from server soon so he doesn't care about long term state?

[-] clearedtoland@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Without delving deeper into these numbers, the politics, mechanics, or absurd cost of education in the US - $2.2B is an absolutely staggering amount of funding for a single institution. To say that it is privileged is an understatement.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Apple netted $96 billion last year.

[-] Wazowski@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Every bit of tech and medicine in your entire life was made possible by institutions like Harvard. The gov’t gets a rip roaring deal by investing in universities. It’s not merely funding. It’s investment in America’s industry and scientific leadership. What are all those tax receipts worth?

[-] SkyeStarfall 2 points 1 week ago

Remember that a loooot of that goes to stuff like funding research, as that's the domain of universities beyond just education. I don't think it's unreasonable at all

[-] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Good for them. At least someone is standing up to his bullshit

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Didn’t he get impeached for this last time?

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

they had to do this, because of thier previous anti-ASIAN policy for admission"where they wanted to birng WHITENESS elitist back to the college"

this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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