Trump threatens fund cutoff any campus where no free speech

Post Reply New Topic

"If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS"

Maintaining a campus free from violence seems reasonable to me.

I agree. "Progressives" or liberals who stifle free speech and encourage violence should be treated precisely the same as "right wingers" who do the same.

Both are practicing fascism.

@androbot01

I am not saying they're not worthy of study or that they shouldn't be taught, I just think if the government is providing the money then it serve the interests of the nation and we really don't need any more humanities majors while we have huge shortages in other much needed areas. I would study and learn about things that interest me regardless, I don't think the government is the only thing keeping them afloat. I resent being pushed into college at all, for most jobs at least the ones around me growing up I didn't feel necessitated it. It's hard as a child being told that you can never do what father does and that jobs like that for working class people simply don't exist anymore, its hard for people to understand how profound of a statement 'Make America Great Again' is to me and to hear it mocked or derided by some people who say America is already great is no greater evidence of how out of touch privilege has made certain people in this country.

Free speech should be respected on campus, violence cannot be tolerated under any circumstances I do not care how triggered someone makes you. I think these are pretty easy rules to understand and follow.

I don't know or care if publicly funded universities are, indeed, tilting their campuses against one or another ideology, but if the First Amendment rights of speech, press, assembly and association, among others, are curtailed, those culpable universities and their administrative leaders should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The idea that President Trump would defund such universities ought to be the least of the worries harbored by such universities.

We have the misfortune of living in a decline of Western Civilization. I think it is a result of the rapid increase in technology that the working class jobs are gone. A Bachelor's is today what a high school degree was 50 years ago and I think that young people are kept in school longer these days just to give them something to do. Modern society has to figure out something for the average person to do; as it is now, there is an increasing divide between wealthy and poor with no way to cross it.
With regard to the value of the humanities to society I would argue that they deserve equal funding with other subjects as it is essential to have a certain sector of the population preserving and evolving the learning of our civilization.

There is a glaring need for teachers. Teachers don't get STEM-type degrees.

One of the things that makes America great, and will make America greater, is encapsulated in what the Statue of Liberty stands for. The Statue of Liberty was the prime symbol of America's greatness for generations of immigrants who sought a better life, away from the oppressive environment of their "home" countries.

We were the ones who took in the "huddled masses." If we continue to do so, we will maintain our greatness. If not, we become merely another schmuck country.

Part of the reason why we are "great" is because we are willing to be a member of the Community of Nations. We have abused our position in this "community" quite a bit recently.

But that doesn't mean we should isolate ourselves from the world. We would do much better, instead, in putting into practice the values which we espouse.

We must PROGRESS, not merely REACT.

The financing of US higher ed has a complicated history, which we will probably ignore in this thread. Or not, maybe someone else is in the mood to summarize it.

The biggest problem that the Universities have, in my opinion, is that they have become topheavy. Just track the ratio of administrators to professors. They don't seem to require all that much administration, or even to get all that much useful administration. The people making the budgets keep hiring more people like them, or maybe they just distribute the necessary work and create a lot of busywork. They could cut costs, but they have increased costs despite getting less federal money.

This has given the Koch brothers an opening, and they have a record of making donations while demanding more control with each one. They want other Rand disciples as notable Econ professors, no matter the failings of that theory.

It is not fair to paint all university's based on the negatives of some of them. I currently attend university, and my university is not like Berkeley. It has policies to protect the exchange of different views, to appeal against cases of apparent political bias, and does not tolerate acts of violence. In recent months, there has also been increased discussion to take further efforts to encourage the free exchange of views, and particularly to encourage conservative and minority political thinkers to be confident to freely express their ideas.

still at it I see...

With all those administrators, it's a wonder there are no sympathetic ears.

Part of the problem is reports. Liberals love reading them, and conservatives love making them, so for Congress it's always a win-win to demand a report. Edit: with the exclusion of their own ethics, of course

I know, it's another anecdote, but this is more like an insider source with no conflict of interest. I had a friend who worked for the IRS during the Gingrich govt shutdown. He is probably closest to Dox, in terms of his politics and mode of expression. One of the reforms was to require the departments who were late in processing consumer negotiations already to add to their work. They had to write a note to each one, every two weeks, explaining their current status: unchanged. Just so you know, they didn't have mice on their computers, or Microsoft Word, or a GUI at that point. No additional funds were appropriated, or staff assigned, and any fool can see that they would only fall further behind!

Gotta wonder if Trump is specifically making threats about this to defend his Alt Right constituency.

And in all fairness, the student protest was peaceful. It turned violent with off campus anarchists arriving at the scene. So much for left wing radicals and Marxists taking control of universities.

Off campus anarchists eh?
You might want to check their footwear, see if says "departmental property" anywhere on it.

Indeed. It wouldn't be the first time a "department" of some kind was involved.

You have proof of the contrary?

I have no specific video of this protest, but it's not exactly an uncommon tactic when a protest is too peaceful and well televised such that they can't just wade in with the clubs and bash the non resisting people.