The subjugation of universities to official power is a hallmark of autocracy. No one should be under any illusions about what’s going on here. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/n... - ThreadSky

jameeljaffer.bsky.social • 1 day ago

The subjugation of universities to official power is a hallmark of autocracy. No one should be under any illusions about what’s going on here. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/nyregion/columbia-university-students-disciplined-hamilton-hall.html?smid=nytcore-ios-shareu

Comments

hirokiboy.bsky.social•1 day ago

We saw this in the Soviet Union. Check out the book Political Ponerology for how that happened. I'm sure there's examples in other authoritarian states. In the US it started with anti-intellectualism, & the idea of Mickey Mouse degrees & blaming women with blue hair.

rodziczak.bsky.social•1 day ago

We have seen this before!;
Even before the Nazis came to power, political pressure on Bauhaus had increased. The Nazi movement, from nearly the start, denounced the Bauhaus for its "degenerate art", and the Nazi regime was determined to crack down on "cosmopolitan modernism".

imagetree.bsky.social•11 hours ago

That was happening under Biden too when they sent militarized storm troopers to college campuses to brutalize anti war protestors and college kids. Folks are still under the illusion the US is a democracy

factsandfiction.bsky.social•1 day ago

I guess all universities better gang together and mount some kind of resistance.

schools-matter24.bsky.social•1 day ago

Acquiescence is required for subjugation.

packrfan4.bsky.social•1 day ago

If I’m on the Board of Trustees this is my response to Trump after reading his demands:

individualangst.bsky.social•1 day ago

The Trump Cultural Revolution and its take on the “Stinking Old Ninth” and purging academics. Best get lasik or contacts before wearing glasses puts you under suspicion of being an intellectual subversive to Dear Leader.

wildplumbay.bsky.social•1 day ago

The Harvard Crimson has published a good relevant article. Didn’t Mao do the same thing to universities.

planetabsurdia.bsky.social•1 day ago

This is the time to use their insane endowments as a Bulwark, but there isn’t courage to do so. What they don’t realize is that they may lose these endowments under a full dictatorship.

jmgabriel.bsky.social•1 day ago

That's not how endowments work. Endowments aren't like savings accounts that you can just take money out of for whatever reason. They are contractually assigned to certain types of spending based on the wishes of the donor

planetabsurdia.bsky.social•1 day ago

Happy to amend to say “use or leverage”. My experience representing clients with endowments are that some are entirely unrestricted, some are unrestricted within a category, and some are specific like hospital wings. I didn’t say spend it all. Even fighting actions with unrestricted dollars

planetabsurdia.bsky.social•1 day ago

May be worthwhile and effective. Thank you for your comment.

jmgabriel.bsky.social•1 day ago

Thank you

paulrevere2.bsky.social•1 day ago

Universities were slow to respond to campus protests skirting the line between peaceful protest to end war and promoting support for Hamas & Islamist terrorists who started the war, while also accosting Jews on campus and collectively, while also promoting destruction of Israel.

blurosie.bsky.social•1 day ago

Why does the US president have any control over a private university?

patricknoonan.bsky.social•1 day ago

Because, so far, they’re letting him. 🤷🏼‍♂️

msshilpa.bsky.social•1 day ago

From the beginning of this debacle, 5 out of 7 of the board members and university rep’s who went to the Congressional Hearings and negotiated with Congress, were Z’s. So they were against the protesters from the beginning.

npitchford.bsky.social•1 day ago

Because virtually no US university can survive without federal funding. If Title IV (federal financial aid) eligibility is withdrawn, that’s massive.

blurosie.bsky.social•1 day ago

Federal funding is set by Congress. Not the executive That was my question

johnpicker.bsky.social•1 day ago

This Congress (at least so far) is deferring to the President/Musk on their responsibilities. So that federal $$ is essentially in the hands of Trump for now.

davidarditi.bsky.social•1 day ago

Seeing it happen to a private school is shocking. At public universities, we consistently get abused. But the question is the same: what is public? What is private? How much money gives a government say over the school? The state provides 20% of revenue to my school, state determines everything

davidarditi.bsky.social•1 day ago

If the federal government now has say over universities, who do presidents ultimately report to?

kittensceilidh.bsky.social•1 day ago

They are supposed to be answerable to Congress but Congress has abdicated that duty just as Trump wanted. He wants to be answerable to no one

davidarditi.bsky.social•1 day ago

University presidents don't answer to Congress

delbertgseasons.bsky.social•1 day ago

They do, by choice

kittensceilidh.bsky.social•1 day ago

Sorry I thought you meant THE president

nek.blue-ocean.social•1 day ago

NYT is so whitewash-minimizing what's going on. Collaborating with it.

marsyd.bsky.social•1 day ago

Many reasons why Columbia is singled out for attack. Excellent international affairs program that produces top government analysts.

617to416.bsky.social•1 day ago

Columbia, I'm afraid, is showing that when given the choice between protecting academic freedom and protecting the flow of funds from the government and from its wealthy donors, it will choose to protect the flow of funds.

massdisillusion.bsky.social•8 hours ago

FUCK REPUBLICANS!

francoisguite.bsky.social•1 day ago

Leadership failure at scale.

dtodd-411.bsky.social•1 day ago

It’s rich for this administration to talk about preventing violence on campus when they lead the “AR-15s for all, school shooting” movement in this country.

saudades.bsky.social•1 day ago

the nyt and its bullshit campaign for "freedom of speech" and "Against antisemitism" has gotten another target

wintersong.bsky.social•1 day ago

The handwringing from @nytimes.com after watching them carry water for Trump all through the campaign is endlessly infuriating.

originalsunshine.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Omg so glad my kid isn’t there anymore. He was an employee and a student. This is horrific.

fsf2.bsky.social•7 hours ago

I'm under the illusion that citizens like democracy and its norms.

Like the approval polling for Congress being so high, for so long. How can that be?

g2w8p.bsky.social•1 day ago

I want to know how the admin knew Columbia would fall right in line.

bringthenoise.bsky.social•1 day ago

I imagine “calling in a tip to ICE about one of their own students” was a pretty good indicator

briggum.bsky.social•1 day ago

This is a warning and a threat to all colleges and universities. They must hold the line against tyranny.

aileinduinn.bsky.social•1 day ago

We should not be so deluded as to think that Columbia won't just roll over and show belly.

erinandersonga.bsky.social•1 day ago

I want to know how this approach to attacking Columbia aligns with what happened at the New College in Florida. Wasn’t that the first major attempt at attacking a college to remake it?

ntammerman.bsky.social•1 day ago

Reminded of just this at Santiago’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights. “Purifying” all the humanities and social sciences was at the top of Pinochet’s list.

gerts-michael.bsky.social•1 day ago

The Nazis and Soviets “decapitated” the 🧠intellectual leaders of the opposition.

bridgieb.bsky.social•1 day ago

I mean NYU is just as liberal and problematic. Why does he say nothing about it?

vaelis.bsky.social•1 day ago

Because they only care about the “elite” universities, the ones that wealthy people like sending their fail kids to in dick measuring contests with each other (“well MY son went to Harvard, yours merely went to Stanford”) since those serve as entrances to the halls of power in ways NYU doesn’t.

bridgieb.bsky.social•1 day ago

His son goes to NYU was my point

vaelis.bsky.social•1 day ago

Now that is interesting, I had no idea - figured he’d send him to one of the many Ivys taking a knee right now. Will be interesting (sad) to see how much NYU contorts itself to keep Trump happy. What little I saw just googling this already shows how protected Barron is there.

iaskquestions.bsky.social•1 day ago

NYU is already capitulating in a variety of ways—even before T was inaugurated.

https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-condemns-faculty-arrests-amidst-protest-crackdown-nyu

scottstew.bsky.social•1 day ago

Colleges and Universities ended the Vietnam war. They exposed the ugliness of apartheid. They revealed the rape of the earth by petrochemical companies and others. These should be academies of free thought, novel ideas...

kittensceilidh.bsky.social•1 day ago

That's exactly why Trump and his ilk want to destroy them

hanson412.bsky.social•1 day ago

So universities have to bow down to trump, businesses have to bow to trump, and next private citizens will have to bow down to trump. No, I tell you, no, I will never bow down to trump.

bmorebaker42.bsky.social•1 day ago

Elite, ivy and ivy-adjacent, institutions have been essentially the finishing schools for the plutocracy for so long it will be interesting if they even bother pushing back.

dogolaca.bsky.social•1 day ago

Look no further than New College of Florida to see what happens at universities when the American right wingers take over.

jcabraham.bsky.social•1 day ago

The interest on Columbia's endowment is probably about $400 million a year, incidentally.

zoesg.bsky.social•1 day ago

Wondering how these universities think this will play out... like would you ever willingly give $$$ to an institution that will unilaterally take away your degree?!? Long after Dumppy & Co are sorted out, this stuff will stick and tank the institution - at least internationally.

wholetree.bsky.social•1 day ago

Trump, and his "projekt 1939" is setting out to do nationally to colleges and universities, what Ron DeSantis did to "New College," in Florida, in 2023. Look for the boards at these institutions to be overtaken and filled with conservative hacks and political fucktards.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply