I think diversity means different things to the two entities. To the federal government, it means more right-wing viewpoints within the left-leaning faculty of Harvard. To Harvard, it means more viewpoints from people with various backgrounds.
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Is it not the federal government that is trying to mandate âdiversity of viewpointsâ while forcing out other kinds of diversity initiatives?
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Many believe it means the same viewpoints (not more viewpoints) from people with various racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Yes, so DEI for me but not for thee..
You donât have to be rude about it. I really couldnât tell based on how you had worded your previous post.
In the meantime, thank you for clarifying.
I didnât intend that to be rude and apologize if it sounded so.
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Itâs easy to say you donât want your tax dollars going there. But do you want your dadâs Parkinsonâs clinical trial cancelled because the team at MGH has been defunded? Or the specially bred genetic mice that are being used to identify why pancreatic cancer is so lethal being destroyed because the Harvard lab had to furlough all its âsupport staffâ, i.e. the team that keeps the animals alive?
Itâs nice to pretend that all this cutting edge research is going to be picked up by the private sector. But thatâs not reality. Millions of dollars and years of scientific progress down the drain to score political points. Horrifying. I had a parent in an MGH clinical trial. Thank you, taxpayers of America for your faith in science and Harvard faculty.
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There are plenty of universities, with equally good medical researchers, who have held their community members accountable since October 7; Dartmouth, Duke, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt and Washington University come to mind. Federal dollars can go to these universities, and others, instead of Harvard.
If Harvard wants independence to do what it wants without regard for the applicant in the White House, it should eschew federal funding in all forms, like what Hillsdale does. And then it can get on the phone with representatives of assorted billionaires like Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Mackenzie Bezos, et al and raise the money for whatever research its faculty wants. Itâs pocket change to these folks, and freedom for Harvard.
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Great long term plan. Tell that to the about to become furloughed animal tech at one of Harvardâs labs that they should move to Duke by Monday for a non-existent job in a rodent breeding lab.
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Donât think the administration imposes on the few universities you named the same kind of unreasonable, extortion-like demands they imposed on Harvard. Plus research is broad with universities having different strengths in different areas within a discipline. Some of these strengths took years to build, such as a critical mass of leading researchers in a niche area, the only lab in the world with certain capabilities, etc.
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Itâs step one - to tell others you will only push our narrative.
Topple the headâŠ
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Not all of these universities have held their medical researchers accountable (I will not say more).
And many/all of these schools get NIH funding.
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Get ? Or got ?
GotâŠ.
Taking this research funding away from Harvard and other schools will destroy so many lives.
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My fear - everyone will be a got but no longer a get.
Iâve personally benefited (hopefully) from a phase 3 trial - no idea where funding came from but assuming at some point in the chain, from public sources.
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Good assumption. None of our breakthroughs exist in a vacuum.
Wishing you good health to 120!
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Regardless of what any of us wants in terms of federal funding for medical and other scientific research, the Trump administration will be in office for another 3.75 years, and potentially there will be a JD Vance administration afterwards. (VP Vance is even more anti-elite university than is Trump.) Either Harvard makes substantive changes in various areas and plays ball with the administration, or Harvard gets no federal funding and even potentially loses its tax-exempt status. Iâm not saying Harvard should acquiesce to all of the administrationâs demands, but it needs to go far enough for Trump to declare a win. Otherwise, the research at Harvard will need to find other sources of funding. And if the research is promising enough, it should be able to get it from private sources.
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J D Vance went to Yale Law School. Why are you stating that he is even more anti-elite university than Trump (who went to UPENN business school)? Wouldnât that make them part of the elite since they both attended IVY League institutions?
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That doesnât mean they are elitist in education though.
His attorney general went to Stetson and his guy rescuing hostages and negotiating with Iran, Gaza, Ukraine and more went to Hofstra.
Thatâs he a developer is likely more important than where he went to college.
âSteve Witkoff began his studies at Union College in Schenectady, New York, but then switched to Hofstra University, where he earned a B.A.degree in political science in 1980. In 1983, he graduated with a J.D. from Hofstra Law School.[10]â
But those universities have had their some/much NIH funding terminated too,.
^^Link to table of lost NIH grants as reported by grant recipients
Dartmouth lost much its NCI funding to support its cancer treatment center.
University of Utah, University of Nevada-Reno and Intermountain Healthcare (largest hospital system in the rocky mountain states) lost multimillion grant for a
multisite study involving people who have had heart attacks to figure out the ideal mix of medications âto keep them aliveâ before they get to the hospital, a challenge thatâs more acute in rural communities.
Itâs not just Harvard thatâs getting hurt.
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