MIT rejects the mafia's offer!! This is good news as it gives other universities who were afraid more permission to assert themselves--and makes them look like worse collaborators if they don't. This is the argument we are already making at home
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2025/10/10/mit-rejects-proposed-federal-compact
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@inquiline Harvard was also all Vive la résistance! until they thought about having to touch that billion-dollar endowment that keeps the university admin in 7 figure compensation and now are quietly negotiating their capitulation - it’s strictly about the amount. MIT will do the same, all of these institutions are the same, giving up billions in taxpayer dollars is just not something they would contemplate.
@inquiline I really like the way Kornbluth highlighted that the compact *prevents* universities from admissions based on merit. Underscoring not only that universities need diverse *student bodies* to educate well, but that meritorious *individuals* are served fairly by diversity initiatives.
IME, women and minorities still usually have to be substantially *better* at what they do than a typical white guy before they can get a foot in a door that he passes through easily.
The justification sucks and is what I'd expect from MIT. "We evaluae on merit already! We have students compete with each other! We love the SAT" etc.
It's good that they didn't fold to Trump, but their entire model should still go away. Also their "service to the nation" consists to a large extent of making missiles and nukes.
@inquiline seems like the goal will be providing plentiful funding for right-wing universities, keeping costs low for their students, and producing a generation where authoritarian students have better access to degrees and qualifications.
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