America’s richest university sues US government to keep taxpayer money coming

Okay – “the richest” university would be Harvard, in case anyone needed help with this low-level Jeopardy question. Harvard is terrified that the government might reduce or cut off their taxpayer funded welfare. That would be a threat to $2.2 billion immediately, and around $9 billion in total. See link below.

Harvard has an endowment of $53 billion. Endowments are kind of like an IRA. Special tax rules, and your bank account keeps growing, year after year. Harvard is richer than Rupert Murdoch and Melissa French Gates – combined. You’d be outraged if Rupert Murdoch was getting billion dollar checks from the US government, wouldn’t you?

Here’s Harvard’s specific complaint: they refuse appoint an independent advisor to help ensure their classes and course material are “diverse”. Diverse is in quotes because it’s Harvard’s SPECIFIC objection. Harvard is now apparently against DEI. Last year they were for it. I guess the wrong kind of diversity must be resisted at all costs. It could be an existential threat to a university.

This case, of course, is probably going to end up in the US Supreme Court. Where four of the Justices graduated from Harvard Law School: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Gorsuch, Elena Kagan, and Chief Justice Roberts. Another 4 justices graduated from Yale, Harvard’s historic rival. This case could be better than the annual Harvard-Yale football game. (Harvard usually wins that. A rivalry that's been happening since 1875 - 150 years).

Harvard’s attorneys and administrators have another complaint: “Government should not dictate what universities teach”. Yeah, tell that to the politicians who are screaming bloody murder about the impending death of the US Department of Education. The DOE's sole mission was to dictate public school curriculums.

Of course, the Trump administration has a different story: this is about the recent pro-Hamas/antisemitic protests on campus. Replete with vandalism, arson, interruption of classes, cancellation of exams, and intimidation of students suspected of being Jewish. Well, I can see how protecting the rights of a religious minority and ending violent protests would sound alarm bells to a college sitting on a $53 billion bank account.

This wouldn't be the first time Harvard was on the wrong side of history. Until the state of Massachusetts outlawed slavery in the 18th century, Harvard faculty and staff owned dozens of slaves.

I'm just sayin' . . .

First Thing: Harvard sues Trump administration over grants freeze

Harvard University endowment - Wikipedia

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Kwek00 · 41-45, M

Is there anyone here that can clarify how any of these funds can qualify as "welfare"?
Because most of the sources I read about this, say that the majority of these funds go to research and development. What part goes to "welfare" exactly? Or is this just more ignorance and demagoguery?

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

@Kwek00 funding the search for cures comes under the term "for the general welfare". Y'all bipartisan capitalism fans killed socialism. You killed the social contract.. get a political left or admit you dig it!

Kwek00 · 41-45, M

@Roundandroundwego I don't think I've ever heared anyone use the word "welfare" in that way.

Y'all bipartisan capitalism fans killed socialism. You killed the social contract.. get a political left or admit you dig it!

Still having those unrealistic expectations? Maybe it's time to grow up.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Kwek00 covid 19 money was sent by the US government to 3 separate labs to develop vaccines. none of these was Harvard.

i'm not sure what harvard is doing with their "research money". If it's curing cancer, better EV batteries, or combatting climate change i'm not seeing any results.

Kwek00 · 41-45, M

@SusanInFlorida You probably never looked into it either. It's not because you are ignorant about it, that it doesn't excist.

SOURCE: https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/history-hms/timeline-discovery

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@Kwek00 i love it when hyper-partisans call me names, and post off-topic links.

the topic "does harvard have to obey the law on discrimination"? the answer is yes. Just because an institution made some discoveries in a science lab doesn't give them carte blanche to encourage anti-semitic attacks on students suspected of being jewish

Kwek00 · 41-45, M

@SusanInFlorida Why not jus admit that you never looked into what Harvard researchers have developed. Instead of feeling all offended when someone points it out.

ElwoodBlues · M

@SusanInFlorida says

i'm not sure what harvard is doing with their "research money". If it's curing cancer, better EV batteries, or combatting climate change i'm not seeing any results.

Obviously you haven't looked. Below are a few examples; there are, of course, many many more.

As I said to you elsewhere, the money doesn't go to Harvard. The money goes to Harvard affiliated researchers who have won grants, mostly from the National Institutes of Health, but also CDC, NSF, and other government agencies.

You can read about the NIH's rigorous grant application review process here: https://grants.nih.gov/grants-process/review/first-level

BTW, investigating the research grant process for you seems to have put Harvard on my feed, and it yielded these:

Harvard researchers awarded Breakthrough Prizes

This guy worked for 25 years to make his MS breakthrough

Alberto Ascherio, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, was recognized for work establishing Epstein-Barr virus infection as leading cause of multiple sclerosis.

... he discovery revolutionized the field of MS research, and a vaccine and antibody drugs that target Epstein-Barr are now in development. “It’s virtually a consensus now that Epstein-Barr is the leading cause of MS,” Ascherio said. “I’m happy to say that finally, after 25 years, it’s been a big splash.”

Joel Habener, a professor at Harvard Medical School, was part of a group of scientists honored for contributions to the discovery and characterization of the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1 — findings that subsequently led to the development of treatments based on GLP-1.

... The body of research conducted by the five scientists, supported in part by federal funding, has dramatically advanced understanding of how GLP-1 functions in the body. Notably, their work contributed to the development of GLP-1 drugs, which have revolutionized treatment for Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

David Liu — the Richard Merkin Professor at the Broad Institute, director of the institute’s Merkin Institute for Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences at Harvard — was honored for the development of the gene editing platforms base editing and prime editing, which can correct the vast majority of known disease-causing genetic variations and have already been used in at least 15 clinical trials, with life-saving results. Base editing was recently used to achieve the first-ever correction of a disease-causing mutation in patients.

Base editing, which Liu’s team developed in 2016, is a gene editing technique that directly converts an individual DNA base pair into a different base pair. Prime editing, which Liu’s group pioneered three years later, can make insertions, deletions, and substitutions up to hundreds of base pairs long in the genome.

Since their initial development, both base editing and prime editing have been used by thousands of laboratories around the world and have enabled the study and potential treatment of many genetic diseases.

“The real heroes behind our work are the incredibly talented graduate students, postdocs, and collaborators who worked tirelessly to develop these technologies in ways that would allow them to benefit society,” said Liu. “Without their dedication, this work would not be possible. The honor of my professional life is to be able to work with and support such a vibrant group of scientists.”