Columbia could be using its $14.8 billion endowment to endure Trump's dictatorship for 2-4 years, resisting for other, less fortunate schools. But no. It's buckling to fascism. Columbia Is Nearing Agreement to Give Trump What He Wants www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... - ThreadSky

jeffjarvis.bsky.social • 2 days ago

Columbia could be using its $14.8 billion endowment to endure Trump's dictatorship for 2-4 years, resisting for other, less fortunate schools. But no. It's buckling to fascism.
Columbia Is Nearing Agreement to Give Trump What He Wants
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-is-nearing-agreement-to-give-trump-what-he-wants-14315bb3

Comments

mrtinnebo.bsky.social•2 days ago

A damn shame.

climatechangenews.bsky.social•1 day ago

When prestigious universities and renowned law firms obey the state, indeed have obeyed in advance with barely a whimper, the path to a fully fascist regime is much smoother and certain.

jeffjarvis.bsky.social•1 day ago

And networks and newspapers.

krlarion.bsky.social•2 days ago

Shameful

spotandmae.bsky.social•1 day ago

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/nyregion/trump-columbia-university-400-million.html

2c-ornot2c.bsky.social•1 day ago

Woaaoww

therebelscientist.bsky.social•1 day ago

Cowardice!!! They are all cowards!! They could fight, they have the resources to fight!
They would probably win!!! But no, they just capitulate and make everything worse for everyone else!

teresalfenton.bsky.social•2 days ago

Folding to a tyrant is not the answer.

mreddie8976.bsky.social•2 days ago

Right out of Orban's playbook...

cadystat.bsky.social•2 days ago

Did Columbia reject Trump?

b10cza.bsky.social•2 days ago

We need student protests like in the 1960’s

annabusybee.bsky.social•2 days ago

I guess they're anticipating Trump's, dictatorship will last a lot longer than 4 years.

eks08.bsky.social•2 days ago

Stop Columbia.. he couldn’t even spell country correctly

decodingfoxnews.bsky.social•2 days ago

I am not a fan of this school for a number of reasons. They could burn money to heat the buildings and they’d still have piles of cash. They shouldn’t cave.

hallucigenia.bsky.social•1 day ago

I've always hated Ivy League universities. The shit is really going to hit the fan for vulnerable private schools, but presidents at Ivies get bonuses for return on investment, so fuck the faculty and students.

How about you reduce your admin staff by 90% to save cash?

countbern.bsky.social•2 days ago

It’s bucking to its Zionist donors/trustees. Less to do with Trump (or Biden last spring for that matter). It’s owned like Penn, Harvard, by same Zionists. Blaming Trump or Biden misses the mark by a wide margin unless one is pointing out that Trump and Biden are both owned by AIPAC, etc.

countbern.bsky.social•2 days ago

The names of those primarily responsible for crackdowns on DEI and speech supportive of Palestinians at elite well funded private colleges like Columbia, Penn, Harvard are billionaire donors and have names like Ackman, Tisch, Pritzker, Adelson, Rowan, etc. not Biden or Trump.

pierrette1789.bsky.social•2 days ago

When will the “I didn’t think the leopards would eat *my* face!” realization dawn for the AIPAC crowd?

The nutbag white supremacists are very obviously anti-Jewish, and their “Christian Zionist” fellow-travelers are gunning for an “End Times” destruction of Israel. 😒

fleurdelisa.bsky.social•2 days ago

One need only look at who sits on the Boards of trustees at these Ivies. They haven’t been left-wing for decades! If they ever were!

historyisimportant.bsky.social•2 days ago

If they do... 🖕 them.

brit44.bsky.social•2 days ago

Sad. Why are these institutions acquiescing?

berdee.bsky.social•2 days ago

Because the men and women running them are cowards.

markbrandriss.bsky.social•2 days ago

The trustees are preparing to end Columbia's existence as a private university in return for (maybe) a few years of federal money. If they surrender their autonomy, what happens when Trump discovers that Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is a global leader in climate change research?

mightytightywhity.bsky.social•2 days ago

A nation of cowards are about to find out the real price to be paid for cowardice.

wiligelmus.bsky.social•2 days ago

Sounds like a great place to work

https://nypost.com/2025/03/17/us-news/civil-rights-enforcement-agency-opens-probe-into-columbia-university-over-janitors-trapped-and-attacked-by-anti-israel-mob/?utm_source=x&utm_campaign=android_nyp&utm_medium=social

wiligelmus.bsky.social•2 days ago

wow

https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/columbia-did-this-to-itself/

woke1.bsky.social•2 days ago

OMG - If there’s a anything I learned in my Liberal Arts college education, it’s that collectively we are stronger together.
Our institutions of higher learning are buckling under.
Ok folks, now it’s time to reach out to Columbia University!

woke1.bsky.social•2 days ago

Fear is consuming us and we’re buckling under rather than showing ourselves, Trump and the world, what we’re made of.

themadphotographer.bsky.social•2 days ago

I assume their history department is already defunct, because an historian can tell them that when you compromise with a fascist you essentially signed your own death warrant.

dimitriana.bsky.social•1 day ago

How do you show up on a Monday morning at that university and stand behind what you're teaching? Good luck on that return from Spring Break.

thefool37.bsky.social•2 days ago

shameful

wonky-1138.bsky.social•2 days ago

Shameful.
At the end of the day it’s not about the students or principles or courage. It’s about protecting the monied interests above all else.

ggpsbdpmm.bsky.social•2 days ago

Digusting @columbiauniversity.bsky.social

splaystate.bsky.social•2 days ago

Anyone have a gift link?

jeffjarvis.bsky.social•2 days ago

Here:
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-is-nearing-agreement-to-give-trump-what-he-wants-14315bb3?st=Zg8DRf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

splaystate.bsky.social•2 days ago

tysm

daven50.bsky.social•2 days ago

Hate to see that. Colleges and universities are the most important bastion of free thought and free ideas. They should not be kowtowing to this type of idea control.

realworldrj.bsky.social•2 days ago

Imagine any organization agreeing to this: “The demands include banning masks, empowering campus police and putting the school’s department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies under ‘academic receivership’” (with decisions made by Chris Rufo, presumably)

bwr2628.bsky.social•2 days ago

I trust they will be changing their name to Fascist U so prospective students will know what they will be getting for their money.

irz77.bsky.social•2 days ago

No winning for Columbia by giving in. Who would go there. There are other choices although like major law firms maybe universities will countenance fascism. It wasn’t a good choice in Germany, Italy, or anywhere else. Apparently the history departments don’t have enough influence!

in-zeus-i-trust.bsky.social•2 days ago

yardisiak.bsky.social•1 day ago

Is everyone that afraid to stand up to Trump? To put the 400Million in context Columbia has an endowment of 14.8 billion that earned 7.4% over the last 10 years and spent 5.2% last year. They COULD have absorbed the loss and not given up their dignity.

bluecjp.bsky.social•2 days ago

Don’t give in !!!

surlysimon.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is craven cowardice

kaynnah.bsky.social•2 days ago

Midbrain take - endowments aren't simply big accounts of money that can be allocated as the institution sees fit. Trump's demands are meant to be a boot on the neck, but not complying means that the scientists relying on those NIH grants are starved out. Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

kaynnah.bsky.social•2 days ago

Clarification: $250 million of the grants terminated were for medical research from the NIH. Universities do not pay the salary of scientists (with few exceptions), we are paid from grant money. If the grants disappear, there's no money to pay the salary for scientists and the position disappears.

kaynnah.bsky.social•2 days ago

Should exceptional scientists (professors, postdocs, PhD/MD students, technicians, and staff scientists) have to pay the price for protests they didn't even participate in?

bumblebee9.bsky.social•2 days ago

NO ONE should be paying any price for the practice of free speech, even if one is not an "exceptional scholar." Leave that sentiment at the door, please.

kaynnah.bsky.social•2 days ago

Pointing out that thousands of scientific careers have been destroyed because of this punitive action is not tacit endorsement of punishment for the protests. Nobody should be punished for free speech but terminating these grants destroyed the lives of uninvolved people and they deserve mention.

bumblebee9.bsky.social•2 days ago

Of course it's destroying the lives of people who as you say were "uninvolved." I personally know numerous people whose careers are going to end shortly b/c of this action. But IMO it's a bad idea to protest by saying "I didn't do anything!" rather than "That's gross mistreatment of my colleagues!"

madaml.bsky.social•2 days ago

NO!! Don't do it Columbia! Someone have some damn backbone FFS!!

newinvestor2.bsky.social•2 days ago

Major universities have been corporate-controlled, budget-obsessed, PR- and lawyer-dominated institutions for a long time now, and the people who run them are picked to run them precisely because they have thrived within those guiding qualities. This is not a surprise to me at all.

aimeety.bsky.social•2 days ago

These fucking cowards
- how is this possible that they will acquiesce? I’m sickened by their cynicism and moral weakness.

matt.stocum.us•2 days ago

Are they able to though? I’m not sure about NY law, but in PA, I think universities are capped at withdrawing a maximum of 7% per year from their endowments. The funds are often highly restricted in what they can be used for as well. This is not to excuse their capitulation, however.

secretbandname.bsky.social•2 days ago

Also, endowments aren't slush funds. They are made up of thousands of earmarked mini-trusts.

matt.stocum.us•2 days ago

University donations in general can be extremely frustrating. You can get a $10m donation for purpose X, paid out over 10 years, and each year you get 3% of the funds, so that $10m donation gets you $30k the first year, and in 10 years X is no longer relevant. It’s not always this bad, but it can be

reinhardwitiak.bsky.social•2 days ago

A single person. One person. Bedevils the behemoth. Madness.

2c-ornot2c.bsky.social•1 day ago

I read most endowments are earmarked, so very little budgetary space?

How about Columbia not making such a horrific and indifferent impression next time with anti semitism and pro Hamas rallies - oftentimes led by foreign students - that block access and threatens students safe space?

readriderock.bsky.social•2 days ago

Cowards. The Admin makes too much money and doesn’t want to jeopardize that.

bluefairyva.bsky.social•2 days ago

Why on earth would they do that?

jeffjarvis.bsky.social•2 days ago

Here is the Columbia board of trustees preparing to throw students and the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies under Trump's bus with no guarantee that they will then get the $400 million back.
https://secretary.columbia.edu/directory

sarabethell.bsky.social•2 days ago

Despicable

jackiegardina.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

jeffjarvis.bsky.social•2 days ago

"There is no appeasing these forces....Columbia’s cowardice has made me and many others even more committed to these principles." -- @karenattiah.bsky.social
The political pressure on Columbia should chill all Americans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/18/columbia-university-human-rights/

dont-argue.bsky.social•2 days ago

The response from @Columbia, as reported, should enrage all Americans!

jeffjarvis.bsky.social•2 days ago

“If anyone is well-situated to lead the charge to help save higher education, it would be a university like Columbia.” - AAUP counsel.
But no. Columbia is making its choice.
US universities face choice to surrender or fight back against Trump’s takeover
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/20/universities-trump-administration

quillbo.bsky.social•2 days ago

For a university full of smart people they sure suck at history.

When is the last time Trump came through with money he promised for anything? They're capitulating for exactly nothing in return, JUST like Chuck Schumer.

checkedout2.bsky.social•2 days ago

How can you ever trust anything they teach going forward? They have lost all credibility.

walteriv.bsky.social•2 days ago

As a reminder of how Columbia got here https://bsky.app/profile/justinbaragona.bsky.social/post/3ljstkhkrws2r

quillbo.bsky.social•2 days ago

What a cynical, gutless putz.

luxechronicles.bsky.social•2 days ago

What is the point of billions in endowment if it’s not to protect academic integrity and freedom in times of trouble?

mickimaynard.bsky.social•2 days ago

Because endowments cannot be used that way. It’s not a big savings account. Donors often demand strict criteria in return for the money. Donors have been known to sue universities that do not follow their wishes.

bumblebee9.bsky.social•2 days ago

^ This. Lee Bollinger (former Columbia president) got lots of kudos for his fundraising, but the reality is that most of it is tied to specific projects or otherwise illiquid. That's why e.g. Columbia employees had their wages frozen when COVID hit & tuition income dropped.

yardisiak.bsky.social•1 day ago

You don’t think they could have fundraised off this and used the funds to directly pay for the pulled grants? They took the easy road

bumblebee9.bsky.social•1 day ago

The kinds of people who have enough money to donate to cover a $400M loss are the kind of folks who also like to have their donations marked by named buildings, because they want the long-term recognition. Besides, that level of donation typically involves years of courting the donors.

mickimaynard.bsky.social•1 day ago

Michigan is trying hard to fundraise - this week was GivingBlue Day. They raised $4.7 million.

mickimaynard.bsky.social•2 days ago

I knew him when he was at Michigan. The campus here is blanketed with named buildings, even named auditoriums and classrooms. But you can’t use that money to lower tuition or pay for expenses.

luxechronicles.bsky.social•2 days ago

Thank you for clarifying. Is it the case that all money received comes with strings attached? Is there no portion at all that is discretionary?

mickimaynard.bsky.social•2 days ago

I believe - and someone can correct me if I am wrong - that interest on the endowment can be spent at the university’s discretion. However, some donors require interest to be added to the lump sum and devoted to the stated purpose. Make sense?

luxechronicles.bsky.social•1 day ago

Makes sense, sadly. It’s still hard to fathom that a university as wealthy as Columbia could remain so vulnerable to the whims of a mad man but this is where we are.

tmorrow66.bsky.social•2 days ago

Sad collapse of an institution. What will New Yorkers destroy next?

streetglimpses.bsky.social•2 days ago

My email to Katrina Armstrong.

scarter830.bsky.social•2 days ago

You cannot peacefully remove a fascist.

dscrad.medsky.social•2 days ago

Leaders, leaders, everywhere and nary a spine to see.

This is spot on. If an endowment purpose isn't to provide you with the financial liberty to maintain your values then what good is it?

ekvenuti.bsky.social•2 days ago

I had the opposite happen. CUNY lost my application. I went to Columbia. But they’ll never get another dime from me.

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