FINALLY. One university with the balls to stand up to Trump.
I don’t think all the people I was telling understand how much money Harvard has.
It’s … Way way more than it appears on paper.
They have, over the last 40 years or so, systematically bought commercial real estate in Boston, left it vacant to devalue the housing property in the neighborhood, then bought houses in the neighborhoods, bulldozed, expanded. They own way more of Allston than people realize. Let’s not even talk about their endowment, which can pay for all students tuition on interest alone.
Here’s a fun one.
42.3580140, -71.1385711
Try and figure out what that building is, who owns it, what it’s for. It’s like 5 acres. In the middle of a major capital city.
Yeah. Good luck. (P.S. it’s Harvard)
Now note proximity to Harvard Stadium.
Harvard runs shit. In broad daylight secrecy. Within a democratic stronghold.
Scott Galloway on YouTube often mentions this on his podcasts. That Harvard and a few others have turned from being a university with money to a private equity fund with some students.
Any rec?
So you’re telling me Harvard may be home base for a modern day revolution when it comes. Noted!
Let me guess and you guys support these billionaires who pocket student money, correct? Just because it looks like it’s fighting another of your imaginary enemies?
What’s the point of sitting on a $53B endowment if you’re not going to use it? Losing $9B in contracts to fight fascism is worth every penny.
Donald Trump proposed taxing large private university endowments as part of his 2024 election campaign.
This tax aims to fund the creation of the “American Academy,” a new institution designed to provide free, high-quality educational content. The tax would target excessively large endowments, collecting billions of dollars to support this initiative
This proposal is part of a broader effort to reshape higher education and address political controversies within universities. The tax on endowment investment income could significantly impact universities with large endowments.
This just sounds like they’re going to contract PragerU to rebrand their videos and then someone will pocket billions of dollars.
Likely because their endowment is large enough to not need federal funds.
Georgetown has been out ahead of this for weeks. But they get no press because they’re (a) not Harvard and (b) not humiliating themselves in compliance rituals like Columbia, so they aren’t as exciting to cover.
You’ve also got schools down in Texas - A&M and UT particularly - that have already been fully integrated into Governor Abbott’s brand of Lone Star Fascism that there’s little to report. Just a bunch of admins saying, in thick German accents, that everything is normal and there’s nothing to see.
The Government will retaliate. I wonder if all intentional students will now be under a watchful eye
They have the largest academic endowment in the world. All of their students could go there for free for basically forever but they still collect tuition. Somehow they’re brave because of this though.
The letter that they sent Harvard was mental. Demanding wholesale replacement of the staff and students, removing the human rights curriculum, removing any cultural studies, a full mask ban bc only ICE get to wear masks now apparently, and a tattletale hotline. That letter is so up its own ass. Glad they published it.
Harvard has its own issues of course, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that this thing it’s done is the right thing.
An insane list of demands like that should fall under the “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” clause right?
Well, an insane list of demands aimed at an international school that derives a huge amount of its income from foreign students and a reputation as a global leader in law and commerce. Harvard’s admins aren’t “Going Woke”. They’re going into survival mode.
They’re also likely looking at the bloodbath at Columbia as the admin over there bend itself into a pretzel to comply with these demands, gets their funding gutted anyway, and turns the student body into either El Salvadorian inmates or white nationalist freaks. Clearly there’s no upside to compliance. Trump never goes away, he just comes back with a longer and more vile list of demands.
Well they have balls not like other universities
