Funding Freeze at NU
- Thread starter CoralSpringsCat
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well apparently narcissism is more dangerous than I thought......I thought he would kinda be like my father in law.....a little opinionated....to in any way to try and take the creativity, desire drive and potential of a young person who has worked their way to NU or any other serious higher institute is criminal ....the unique creativity of Humans will always be our biggest resource and to tamper with it deserves a serious response.
The only observation I will make here is my wonderment at the amount of Federal money that has been directed at these research institutions. I had no idea. No wonder the threat of withdrawal of these funds is so chilling to these institutions.
At least you managed not to be capped on this one.
The United States made a decision in the first half of the 20th century to collectively invest in research through a federal grants program. As a nation, it was decided that our institutions of higher learning were the vehicle to carry this out. It has since become an engine for innovation and economic development that is the envy of the rest of the world. It was never a partisan issue either. Both Democratic and Republican Presidents and Congress people supported it historically. The private sector certainly plays an essential role in bringing products and services to market, but the foundation they build from is the basic work done at our nation's universities. Private companies don't have the time or money to do the kind of long-term discovery work that is accomplished through federal funding of our universities. It has been a great partnership for the past century.
Now, any system can use periodic reviews to seek out inefficiencies and modernize priorities. But that should be done intelligently with a scalpel. The current approach is more like a nuclear bomb that will weaken not only our universities, but our entire country.
The R&D conducted by these Universities and funded by government grants is by far the single most important factor that has sustained U.S. economic dominance over the last 75 years. The only Real economic growth that can be sustained over the long term is growth driven by innovation resulting from this R&D. The actions being taken now run the risk of crippling our economic standing in the world for the long term. China and Russia are sitting back and smiling.
I don't believe the intent of the current actions are intended to reduce investment in research - except perhaps in a few areas that are currently controversial - but rather are being used as a cudgel to affect behavioral change. It appears to be a pretty powerful tool at least superficially, but I doubt hearts and minds will be changed among the university communities.
I don't think R&D is the target here. Pausing the funding is a blunt force Trump like leverage move to get the attention of elite university administrators. I think the target here is unlawful DEI practices and a whole range of unlawful identity driven practices with antisemitism at the tip of the spear. You can thank the appalling performances of the Columbia and Penn administrators -- on their own campuses and before Congress -- for people demanding accountability. It appears NU just got caught up in the swelling tide of pushback. It is all so sad IMO.
BTW ... did not see Techtim's post before publishing this.
GOUNUII
I'm pretty sure you guys are wrong about that. It is a freeze on just about all federal grants. This is the line from one of the articles:
"The pause primarily targets grants and contracts from the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to officials that The Times spoke to."
Those are research grants. HHS, for example, includes the NIH which funds all the medical research going on at Northwestern and elsewhere.
The intent may not be to reduce research (we bluntly have no idea what the intent is), but the effect is exactly the opposite. I recently had the chance to discuss some of the contingency plans for NU when (not if) this came. Cuts will be coming to things like studying glioblastoma treatment, pancreatic cancer research, renal cell carcinoma, the expression of genes (to address cancer mutations), and many other similar areas. This is happening to all these schools getting NIH and other cuts.
Where do you think $110M of cuts is going to come from at a school like Johns Hopkins? They fired 2000 people, but that comes with the specialized research many of them are doing.
The damage this is causing is going to be felt mostly by our children. And that is unsettling to say the least.
This is correct. That said, no official notification yet, so hoping its more bluster.
Cutting funding for things like children's leukemia research to target DEI is not a very smart strategy. And ironically, its "DEI" people that are doing the research (just walk through Shilatifard's lab for example)
In addition to the lost research, this funding also supports the training of the next generation of scientists. Schools all across the country are cutting back the number of students they can train and prep programs are being cut. Students in high school and college right now are not going to see science and research as a viable career option. We may lose a whole generation of scientists because of what is going on if it isn't halted or reversed soon.
The U.S. has been the science center of the world for the past 100+ years and it has led us to being THE economic superpower of the globe. That is now at risk.
I didn't say the freeze wouldn't impact R&D, I said R&D wasn't the target. We do know that addressing university behavior is the concern, not R&D, because that is the representation being made by the Government in support of their actions. So, in theory, address their concerns and the funding will be unfrozen - with a trail of short term damage for sure and perhaps some long term.
This action is a freezing of contracts. In theory, change behavior and the contracts are reinstated. There have been R&D contracts eliminated by the DOGE efforts and these run the gamut, but I doubt there is any intentional focus to cut research for childhood leukemia as this would be a political loser.
I do agree, however, that telling universities that their allowable burden is 15 percent is a very effective way to reduce R&D. I don't know where that stands.
This action is a freezing of contracts. In theory, change behavior and the contracts are reinstated. There have been R&D contracts eliminated by the DOGE efforts and these run the gamut, but I doubt there is any intentional focus to cut research for childhood leukemia as this would be a political loser.
I do agree, however, that telling universities that their allowable burden is 15 percent is a very effective way to reduce R&D. I don't know where that stands.
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My general take is schools like NU and many others have ****ed along for far far long enough to be past time to find out
I'm not sure what that means. Not everything should be viewed through the lens of politics as a team sport. These actions are bad for all of us.
This is a consequence of the "grand compromise" that Schill oversaw. Schill's actions have consequences, which are costing the university hundreds of millions of dollars. Why does he still have a job?
Just because things have been done this way in the past does not mean it should continue.
It is the responsibility of every citizen and every taxpayer-funded government to continually question how our taxpayer dollars are used, and what types of public return on investment is generated. This is simply the "eternal vigilance" that TJ mentioned when discussing freedom.
Now I am not arguing against federal funding for research in medicine, science, and basic research. But these are vast amounts of money and we should demand the utmost in return for this funding.
Having worked in higher education (and federal agencies) for many years, I can assure that our tax dollars are not always used widely. This is the first time in my LIFETIME that an administration has seriously questioned our massive federal expenditures. As ham-fisted and crude as DOGE and the administration's actions are, I still welcome them. Our federal spending needs as much sunlight on it as possible.
This is pretty generic stuff, staying away from the ugly. All to do with NU funding - why, impact.
Yes, that’s the $790M question! Hopefully he will be shown the door shortly after the Fitz trial/settlement.
Just got an update from NU. It has received no communication from the Trump administration regarding funding cuts. To this point, their knowledge is limited to what has been reported in the media.
GOUNUII
aka people are refraining from being dicks to each other (you know, normal course when talking politics)
Remember Al Gore and Bill Clinton cut $1T and gave the next president a surplus. That included increasing efficiency of research. Perfect? Of course not but didn’t jeopardize the future like what is happening now. This is about power over universities and nothing else. The problem is as others have stated that these universities are a major reason why the US is a leader of the world.
So Northwestern loses its research grants because of how it handled the protests last year? That seems appropriate to you?
If that’s what they are actually doing, I don’t disagree. But I don’t think there is any thoughtful review of what the funds are being used for being conducted. It’s a stick to change behavior they don’t like. Same thing they are doing with law firms.
Whether or not we think it's appropriate has no bearing on reality. The leader of our university should know how to read the room. Getting called to testify before Congress should've been a warning sign.
With this elite university research funding withdrawal and tariff/market chaos, the jaguars are on the prowl and people who were inclined to vote poorly are finding out. Is this what you hoped for? Or did you just want all that research money to go to Elon contracts and sycophant kickbacks instead? I had Mirkin for orgo and he developed Lyrica which has been pretty successful on all fronts for him, NU, and a lot of suffering people. He was a d***bag and a horrible prof, but his research group is phenomenal. Say by bye to future wins like that.
Is this a permanent withdrawal of funding or a means to incentive Universities to adjust their policies, which will help combat anti-semitism on campus and protect their Jewish students?
While the world has greatly benefited from a long line of university researchers, many of whom have created new technologies that have changed the world, I find it curious that the present efforts to develop artificial generative intelligence, which seems likely to be the most significant technological development in human history, are being carrried out by private firms. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft. Certainly the broader history of machine learning was nurtured and developed in universities. But we are very close to the point where AI development will become the most important and perhaps the only innovation that really matters.
Have a hard time believing this is about antisemitism. That’s the excuse . It’s more about throwing red meat to his MAGA supporters and wanting certain leaders or groups to kiss the ring…
Other countries are already recruiting researchers to move to their borders. If America wants to be a future leader, a big brain drain isn’t the pathway
I notion that this is to battle rampant antisemitism on campuses is just a wolf in sheep's clothing. This admin is full of antisemites. It. is about destroying higher-education. If there are Title VI violation by the university, there are a clear set of procedures to follow before pulling funding. These follow none of those.
Yeah it’s not going that well. From my perch inside one of the commercial leaders in this space I can say the Wall Street pressure for instant payoff is crippling customer-focused innovation. We get less of the latter as the federal government retreats in fear.
Reports of antisemitism on campus are down 88%. It’s politics of the worst sort hiding behind Israeli hypocrisy, and that’s coming from a bar-mitzvah’ed Jew. Northwestern has always had a strong Jewish cohort, and it’s always seen its share of anti-Semitic invective. Maybe it’s time for all of us to stare deeply into the mirror and figure out right from wrong and if the golden rule matters. I know my G-d of the Old Testament would be putting the smacketh down right about now if he/she really existed.
Anti-Semitism has become a major problem at many universities and is particularly rampant at Columbia and NU. Jewish students are now being subjected to constant threats and can no longer have a peaceful and enjoyable education at these schools.
It is embarrassing and hard to understand that Schill, who is Jewish, has done little to combat the problem at ours. Finally, Trump is using the power of the purse to try to get these feckless administrators to do something about it, and I fully support him in the effort.
Just no. That’s propaganda. Reports are down 88%. NU has complied to all the strong arm tactics. You don’t have to be an ardent Zionist to be a good Jew just like you don’t need to follow all the tenets of Christianity to be a good gentile apparently. Now being a MAGA cultist is another animal in itself. Being considered a hypocrite should be a general guideline in your daily life and how that reflects in interactions with other humans of different beliefs. Hailing the purple is one thing, but if you’re heil-ing herr Drumpf or Musk after all the recent events please reconsider your what led you to such a skewed worldview.
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I don't know where you are getting your information from, but everything I'm seeing from multiple sources says that anti-Semitism on college campuses, while down somewhat from a peak a year ago, is still a major and growing problem.
Here is the opening line from an article saying exactly that published just one week ago on MSN.
"Lawmakers and experts agree that antisemitism is a problem on campuses across the country, but they remain divided on how to combat the growing problem."
You can read the whole article here:
Here is the opening line from an article saying exactly that published just one week ago on MSN.
"Lawmakers and experts agree that antisemitism is a problem on campuses across the country, but they remain divided on how to combat the growing problem."
You can read the whole article here:
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