Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 11:23     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:I'm Jewish and I know a bunch of Jews who opted out of applying to Ivies (including some major legacies) and instead are at WashU, Vandy, etc.

Most of these families are over-reacting to the claims of anti-semitism at Ivies and are kind of Trumpy. I think there was some anti-semitism at these schools, but I think Trump has dramatically over-reacted and is using this to act like a tough guy, not because he cares about anti-semitism. But like most MAGA people, these families have had a deep drink of the Kool-Aid.

I'm not sure if I want my kid surrounded by these types. I'm also not thrilled with Columbia and Penn. So I'm not sure what the right answer is. I want a school that is in it for the long term.


There’s a lot of schools that are more in the middle. Northwestern, Duke, Chicago, Dartmouth, even Brown were all pretty reasonable here.
I personally think it’s kind of anti-Semitic to assume that all Jewish students are pro-Netanyahu and can’t tolerate criticism of the current Israeli administration. I know lots of Jewish students who have been protesting.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 11:23     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently


Yeah, aside from working at one university, having a child at another, and having a child applying now, you're totally right.


If really true, then you must be living and working in an echo chamber. This is not news


Please grow up. Part of joining the adult world is understanding that not every thought in our head needs to be expressed—and that if we choose to express every thought in our head, we have to deal with the consequence of being responded to, judged, etc. Conservatives seem to think they should be able to say whatever they want without any consequences. And even in a world that bends over backward to protect conservatives’ rights to say whatever they want in the name of “balance” and “open dialogue,” they still whine and complain like babies when challenged.

I (someone on the left) censor myself every day when I interact with my boss and colleagues at my university. I censored myself when I was a student. My college student children censor themselves. This is called living in a society, where provocation and debate have their time and place—
part of what you learn in a university setting.


Get your head out of your arse. When speakers are boycotted and shouted down with threats of violence simply because their opinion does not align with the students that’s a real problem. I’m talking about reasonable people and students whose views are in the minority. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you’re exactly what’s wrong with many in higher ed.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 11:21     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:I agree with Eisgruber (Princeton) that it's dangerous and a folly for universities to capitulate to a sitting president's political agenda (Trump). That's not what democracies should do. It's what happened very quickly in Russia (see the film my Undesirable Friends Part 1, 2024).

I think some of these uni presidents don't have a backbone and also smell an opportunity to take a middling position or play along with Trump.

History will judge this mess. They're all in the crucible now and we'll see and history will tell what they're made of.


I don't think this goes away with Trump. Every Republican administration will make hay out of this as long as higher education is seem as ultra woke. It's going to be okay of the platform.

Trump is a horrible person but his attack on illegal immigration and wokeness, especially in higher education, has political mass.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 11:03     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently


Yeah, aside from working at one university, having a child at another, and having a child applying now, you're totally right.


If really true, then you must be living and working in an echo chamber. This is not news


Please grow up. Part of joining the adult world is understanding that not every thought in our head needs to be expressed—and that if we choose to express every thought in our head, we have to deal with the consequence of being responded to, judged, etc. Conservatives seem to think they should be able to say whatever they want without any consequences. And even in a world that bends over backward to protect conservatives’ rights to say whatever they want in the name of “balance” and “open dialogue,” they still whine and complain like babies when challenged.

I (someone on the left) censor myself every day when I interact with my boss and colleagues at my university. I censored myself when I was a student. My college student children censor themselves. This is called living in a society, where provocation and debate have their time and place—part of what you learn in a university setting.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 10:51     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:Well done WashU and Vandy! This is not about Trump. This is about common sense.


+1. To many people and institutions stuck in the past risking irrelevance

Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 10:44     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I agree with Eisgruber (Princeton) that it's dangerous and a folly for universities to capitulate to a sitting president's political agenda (Trump). That's not what democracies should do. It's what happened very quickly in Russia (see the film my Undesirable Friends Part 1, 2024).

I think some of these uni presidents don't have a backbone and also smell an opportunity to take a middling position or play along with Trump.

History will judge this mess. They're all in the crucible now and we'll see and history will tell what they're made of.


Yeah, this is just rank opportunism from Vandy and WashU. They smell an opportunity to get out from the shadow of more elite institutions by accepting the terms of the Rufos of the world. It’s embarrassing, short-term thinking but probably not surprising given the desperation of these schools to get out of the Ivies’ shadow (not to mention their location in deep-red states where I’m sure the fight against authoritarian ideology must be exhausting…but then university presidents are paid a whole lot of money to do this job, so my sympathy does not run very deep).

I also know that at least one non-Ivy top-10 institution was approached to join the Vandy/WashU group and declined. They heard the pitch as purely opportunistic—let’s differentiate ourselves from the Ivies—and didn’t want any part of it. So it’s not just the Ivies who see this as foolish.


+100

Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:41     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:Well done WashU and Vandy! This is not about Trump. This is about common sense.


+1

Agree.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:36     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Well done WashU and Vandy! This is not about Trump. This is about common sense.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:32     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I agree with Eisgruber (Princeton) that it's dangerous and a folly for universities to capitulate to a sitting president's political agenda (Trump). That's not what democracies should do. It's what happened very quickly in Russia (see the film my Undesirable Friends Part 1, 2024).

I think some of these uni presidents don't have a backbone and also smell an opportunity to take a middling position or play along with Trump.

History will judge this mess. They're all in the crucible now and we'll see and history will tell what they're made of.


Yeah, this is just rank opportunism from Vandy and WashU. They smell an opportunity to get out from the shadow of more elite institutions by accepting the terms of the Rufos of the world. It’s embarrassing, short-term thinking but probably not surprising given the desperation of these schools to get out of the Ivies’ shadow (not to mention their location in deep-red states where I’m sure the fight against authoritarian ideology must be exhausting…but then university presidents are paid a whole lot of money to do this job, so my sympathy does not run very deep).

I also know that at least one non-Ivy top-10 institution was approached to join the Vandy/WashU group and declined. They heard the pitch as purely opportunistic—let’s differentiate ourselves from the Ivies—and didn’t want any part of it. So it’s not just the Ivies who see this as foolish.


What are the "non-Ivy top 10 institutions?" Duke? MIT? Cal Tech? Stanford? I think that is pretty much the list unless you want to be more loose in your definition of "top 10" and add Chicago, Hopkins, Northwestern? Why not just say what school it is?


The non-Ivy League Top 10 National Universities are:

MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, & Duke.

The school in question is probably, my best guess, Duke.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:19     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Then go to Liberty U. Snowflake.


You sound unhinged


You both sound clichéd.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:16     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently


Yeah, aside from working at one university, having a child at another, and having a child applying now, you're totally right.


If really true, then you must be living and working in an echo chamber. This is not news
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 09:15     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently


Yeah, aside from working at one university, having a child at another, and having a child applying now, you're totally right.


Yeah right
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 08:32     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently


Yeah, aside from working at one university, having a child at another, and having a child applying now, you're totally right.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 08:11     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Come on. Stop. You can’t actually be so brain-poisoned as to believe this.


Haha you really don’t have a deep understanding of college experiences recently
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2025 08:09     Subject: Elite presidents in battle over admin

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I applaud Vandy and WashU. For too long, too many liberal institutions have suppressed the voices of those who don't agree with their views. Princeton may be all in all DEI but they do not have ideological diversity.


Why can't you just find a good fit for yourself? Go to wash u. Go to vandy. Why do you have to beat on some institution that has a different perspective than your own? You're allowed to be conservative. Other people are allowed to be progressive. It's okay.


I'm not sure you're "allowed" to be openly conservative at many of these institutions, including Princeton.


Then go to Liberty U. Snowflake.


You sound unhinged