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Guy Bassini's avatar

This is the first honest essay that I have read on the problems with our top universities. Others are long-winded word avalanches that could be reduced to “everything we do cures cancer and if you don’t give us endless amounts of unaccountable cash, people will die.” Just talking about fiscal accountability can kill people. Every administrator is essential, as is every overhead expenditure. Efficiency equals mass extinction. I imagine that we heard the same thing from the church in pre-revolutionary France. The people are shoeless and the kids are starving, but the tithe is essential.

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Wayward Science's avatar

Great piece. A critical point is that Harvard also has a massive influence on other universities. I’m a tenured prof at a mid level university, and I cannot understate just how conformist universities and their administrators are. My university would never dream of taking a bold step (like institutional neutrality) unless the proximal university of higher stature nearby did the same. If Harvard had resisted woke incursions, it might have limited the damage across universities. Harvard’s influence would trickle down throughout the country.

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