Trump administration cancels $400M in grants for Columbia University | Hacker News Reader

Trump administration cancels $400M in grants for Columbia University

nbcnews.com

> “Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses — only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” she said in a statement. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

They took away money from Columbia for not suppressing free speech and not having enough DEI.

They have gone completely out of their minds.

Our economy benefits so much from attracting top scientific talent from around the world and giving them the resources to do great research and educate students.

Who is going to want to do research in the US if your funding can be pulled because the university displeased the president.

I dislike the pro-Palestinian protesters, but this is a completely insane response.

> They have gone completely ...

Plausible assumption: Their metrics for success bear almost no resemblance to yours. If so - criticizing them on that basis will score points with those who share your values, but does nothing to improve the situation.

/{tag for bitter cynicism}

This is the correct take and why productive conversation around this topic is so challenging. Even if their actual goal is their stated goal their world view is so different from those who disagree with them it’s near impossible to use evidence that would convince you to convince them.

The larger question is why is the US Government giving Columbia $400M when their endowment is $14.8 billion with a 11%+ RoR? That's 1.6 billion/year.

https://endowment.giving.columbia.edu/endowment-performance-...

Because Columbia has some of the best scientific and medical researchers in the world and they apply for competitive grants. That's how scientific and health research is funded in the United States, and we reap massive economic and health benefits from that research. For instance, Eric Kandel, who won a Nobel prize for discovering the biological basis of memory, is a Columbia faculty member. Columbia has a budget of $6.3 billion, so the income from its endowment can only fund a portion of operations. And even then, most endowment income can only be spent for a particular purpose specified by the donor and can't legally be redirected.

Because the government has a vested interest in the outcomes of the research that $400m is funding?

Are you equally confused by why you’re giving Apple or Samsung or whoever $1000 for a phone when the companies are worth billions to trillions?

Republicans can't be the free speech party if they use the term "illegal protests. J6 would certainly fall under the Trump admins definition of "illegal protests". A truly malevolent force makes all major Western political parties uniformly hostile to free speech and protest.

This is ironic given the oppression Columbia put on their own students for supporting Palestine. They complied in advance to fascism and still lost.

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