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Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I thought it was money for competitive research grants, mostly in the sciences. I'm not sure what imbalances you are seeing, but would assume that non-elite research universities are getting much more money than elite liberal arts colleges. For example, I'm sure the University of Alabama gets much more money than Wesleyan does. (But I also understand that GOP legislators are working behind the scenes to keep money flowing to state schools in red states, like the University of Alabama.)
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You are correct based on what I've read. Trump's withholding is, like his blunt DOGE job cuts, a chainsaw where a scalpel is needed.
Cutting hard science research grants is punishing the people at Harvard who are likely the least political, if political at all. It harms all of us who benefit from medical and scientific research to spite a small cadre of politically bizarre people.
A better approach would be to assess all the research that is being funded and pull the dollars for all the programs tied to politically problematic professors and student organizations. (I personally think that is also a bad policy, and probably unconstitutional, but for purposes of this thought exercise, I'm simply trying to find a compromise position that protects hard science research.) But this would take thinking, and analysis, and those don't comport with a "break things, make a mess, then try to get a 'good deal' navigating the carnage" approach Trump seems to be taking toward everything.
