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US Government threatens Harvard with foreign student ban
- xnx 1y agoEconomic, educational, reputational ... it's hard to think of a dimension that the current administration is not destroying the US on.
- sanderjd 1y agoWell, so far, they have just waffled on whether or not to drastically defund the military.
- armini 1y ago“A nation is not lost because of the actions of the wicked, but because of the silence of the just.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
- thrance 1y agoGood quote put pretty ironic coming from the guy that ruined France economically and demographically for the next 100 years, and left it to lag behind the UK and the other Empires of the 19th century.
- ZeroGravitas 1y agoA coalition of monarchies did gang up and wage war on the French republic, to stop their crazy ideas from spreading. Kind of parallel to France demanding Haiti pay them compensation for slaves being freed. In both cases we'd generally look more kindly on republics and freeing slaves from the modern perspective, and maybe put more blame on the people trying to undermine them.
- thrance 1y agoSlight nitpick, but France was no longer a Republic in Napoleon's time. It had become the First French Empire.
- Tainnor 1y agoThat's not a "slight" nitpick. While we can be grateful to Napoleon to bring modern law and scientific advances to the rest of Europe, he certainly didn't conquer it in the interest of democracy.
- ZeroGravitas 1y agoIt's an incorrect nitpick. The post I replied to said Napolean ruined France compared with nearby empires. I said the nearby empires were hostile to revolution and so keen to keep a Franch Republic down. Wikipedia says: > As early as 1791, the other monarchies of Europe looked with outrage at the revolution and its upheavals; and they considered whether they should intervene, either in support of King Louis XVI to prevent the spread of revolution, or to take advantage of the chaos in France. Austria stationed significant troops on its French border and together with Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which threatened severe consequences should anything happen to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.
- thrance 1y agoOk but did he have to go as far as Russia? Couldn't he just consolidate his forces instead of getting drunk on conquest and waging war all the way to eastern-most Europe?
- ethbr1 1y agoNapoleon was a French military officer from 1785 to 1800. During that time, France was a monarchy and republic, before becoming an empire when he rose to political power and directed its military as ruler. So, all of the above in his time?
- thrance 1y ago
- RandomBacon 1y agoThat's probably exactly what the other "side" is thinking. For example: They think that allowing people with penises to to change in women's locker rooms just because they identify as women is wicked, so they aren't being silent about it. > the locker room situation with Thomas, who although she has transitioned to being female hormonally and identified as a woman, still has male body parts https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/lia-thomas-teammate-situation-is-unfair-and-ncaa-is-discriminating-against-cisgender-women-locker-room-discomfort/ https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/lia-thomas-teamma... The pendulum eventually swings to the other side. (I'm somewhere in the middle with I suspect a majority of people - it's the extremists that are the loudest.)
- neogodless 1y agoSo both-sides then? Look I think we should disagree on fiscal and social policy, and be able to deliberate over these issues. And have a system of government that allows for that kind of debate and representative vote. But "one side" is dismantling everything that was still democratic about the United States and turning into a massively one-sided (even one-manned) system of control. So whatever your opinion or mine on social policy no longer matter, because it's all up to the whims of a single person, with no recourse for the rest of us.
- markus_zhang 1y agoThe biggest problem is that everyone has their own version of good and bad, so all need to get up and action, to form sort of equilibrium.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- fleek 1y ago[flagged]
- Geezus_42 1y agoIs it the democratic process failing, or it being destroyed by monied interests?
- ffsm8 1y agoIt's not destroying the US media industry like tv/movies/games. Why can I say that with confidence you ask? Simple! Because they have been doing that for ages before the current administration got to power ( * ´ ω ｀ * )
- Geezus_42 1y agoHave you seen the meadia landscape lately? It's filled with absolute garbage and generative AI is going to make to so much worse. They've also done everything they can to delegitimize every reliable source of truth. So I'd say they've done a great job destroying the media industry.
- HK-NC 1y agoLately as in since the election? Cause for me this has been happening for decades. I'm not even going to comment on the principles of scientific truth considering the nonsense people are peddling today is no better than the bible bashers on the right.
- bko 1y ago[flagged]
- rich_sasha 1y agoReasonable question. It depends, at top level, what the intention is. What the US government thinks it is buying. Is it buying global improvement in research? If so, surely you just hire smartest people out there. In fact it will probably be mostly non-Americans, because even if they come from a much-better-than-average educational system, still, they are something like 4% of global population. Ok, so let's say not this. Perhaps US govt is strictly buying (indirect) improvement to US economy. Well, a lot of these students will stay in the US, find startups, or simply become good taxpayers. Most developed countries struggle to grow or keep their societies steady, US has this funnel of highly skilled workforce - universities. Even better, since these immigrants, if they stay, won't have generated primary education costs, and if they eventually leave, also will cost less in adult life than people who stay in the US all their life. This is about undergrads, really. Postgraduate students are more like hard, underpaid jobs. People come and go, and perform the service of churning out research for an American University. Finally, not sure how much the US govt is paying for these foreign undergrads. Rich undergrads will have to lay a good chunk of their own fees - perhaps all, either via cash or loans they have to repay. I'm not in any way endorsing this kerfuffle, but it's always good to be clear why you are paying for things, as sooner or later someone will challenge it.
- apwell23 1y ago> Here's maybe a dumb question serious question, why did you think your question might be dumb?
- rayiner 1y agoIt’s because Harvard profits from selling fast-track access to american immigration.
- bko 1y agoI get it, it helps to have wealthy foreign donors and you don't have to give them aid. I was more asking why is this acceptable? If its an American university, benefiting from American tax dollars, shouldn't it primarily benefit American students? So many things we just accept at face value and don't question. I never really thought about it before, but it's weird now that I think about it. This is necessarily a scarce resource (by design). It doesn't have to be, they could vastly grow their class size without lowering standards. But they choose not to, to maintain elite status and make their donor class happy. If they wanted to keep their class size the same, they could probably fund it entirely through their $53bn endowment, yet they still charge 50k+ a year. And then they have the audacity to reject thousands of qualified American kids and give their seats to rich foreign kids? Come on
- grafmax 1y agoCowing Harvard - one of the world’s greatest universities - would mark a pivotal victory for the dictatorship taking shape before our eyes. Dictatorships derive their power from the submission of a society’s key institutions. That’s what’s at stake here.
- rayiner 1y ago[flagged]
- Geezus_42 1y agoWho responds to polls? Old people, people with an ideological motive, and people who get paid. They mean almost nothing.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- yareally 1y agoWhere did you get those numbers? That's a little inflated by what pew gathered. https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/03/26/americans-views-of-deportations/ https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2025/03/26/am...
- rayiner 1y ago[flagged]
- yareally 1y agoI have read lots of your comments over the years and you've had some great contributions, but I don't think this is one of them. What figure from the link supports your comment? 74% support deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes. That's a bit different than what you initially said
- Braxton1980 1y agoI hope people realize that protesting or being angry at Trump/Republicans is pointless. The power is bestowed upon them by Republican voters and they are to blame. Voting for one issue, lack of education, or desire to tune out politics isn't a reasonable excuse. Edit I have no issue with downvotes but offer up arguments why voters aren't responsible.
- JojoFatsani 1y agoWhat is the point of this post? There are a lot of people to be angry at here. Demonstrating displeasure to elected officials is our first amendment right.
- wiz21c 1y agoI think the point was: Trump is just a symptom, not the disease...
- kowabungalow 1y agoTrump is a disease, the tools he uses are the opportunities given to adapt Putin's template for the American Empire.
- goatlover 1y agoTrump is the one in power and he's following an autocratic takeover playbook. So by all means push back.
- apercu 1y agoFor all of us who have "lost" family members to propaganda, I worry that Fox "News" is the disease.
- Braxton1980 1y agoLet's be real "Fox News" isn't a spinning black and white wheel that hypnotizes you or has some other movie like power. People are responsible for their views. Especially if they don't look into other viewpoints, consider it they are being lied to, etc.
- submeta 1y ago[flagged]
- DobarDabar 1y agoAlways has been. Many such cases.
- GuestFAUniverse 1y agoYou get what you pay for. Capitalism 1.0 -- just unveiled being like it ever was. That's what happens when a (pseudo-) democracy never gets fixed, because everyone in the upper class thinks to get away best _with_ all the loopholes. A president reigning at will, no court being able to really stop the shit show and undoing former president's pardons while using pardons as a tool to side-track courts. The whole construct didn't -- and doesn't -- make sense, if you still aim for anything not being despotism.
- jraby3 1y ago[flagged]
- NoTeslaThrow 1y agoAntisemitic by whose definition? The ADL's?
- jraby3 1y agoWhat's wrong with the ADL definition of antisemitism?
- ZeroGravitas 1y agoIt basically made criticising Israel automatically "anti-Semitic". While someone who has previously said that the Jews are importing immigrants to intentionally undermine the USA who gave multiple Seig Heils was an ambiguous situation that they didn't want to rush to judgement on. They basically destroyed all their credibility by becoming an advocate for Israel not for Jewish people.
- bryanrasmussen 1y agofor some reason the article has IRS as Inland Revenue Service (at this time)?
- fidotron 1y agoIn the UK the equivalent to the IRS was the Inland Revenue, so when attempting to reverse the abbreviation they probably arrived there. I've made that exact same mistake myself.
- viraptor 1y agoAlso familiar with the UK system. I actually only just now realised that's not the official name for the IRS - it's almost never used expanded.
- aaronmdjones 1y agoThis would be a poor name for the US IRS considering they do not only tax inland revenue. They are the only country in the world that taxes its citizen's income regardless of where those citizens live or work.
- Redoubts 1y agoThat doesnt sound very internal either!
- robocat 1y agoThe US isn't the only country. See pink countries on map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Taxation_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Taxatio...
- aaronmdjones 1y agoHuh, TIL. Thanks !
- 1y ago
- rayiner 1y ago[flagged]
- sealeck 1y agoThe defiant response of... asking students how they will contribute to Harvard in admissions essays??
- rayiner 1y agoAn applicant’s race is immaterial to how they would “contribute to Harvard.”
- sealeck 1y agoThe question asked how your life experiences will enable you to contribute to Harvard. Presumably expecting students to have done things in life is not also "woke" now.
- rayiner 1y agoThat question is fine as long as Harvard isn’t using it as a backdoor for race consciousness. The administration is betting, quite reasonably, that Harvard is doing that.
- allturtles 1y agoIf they were betting that, they could file an appropriate lawsuit against Harvard for violating the terms of Students for Fair Admissions. But of course they are not doing that, because the goal is ideological control of the universities by the executive, not colorblind admissions.
- myvoiceismypass 1y agoNothing at all this administration is betting on is reasonable at all. I do not understand how anyone can believe or trust a single thing they do or say.
- DarkWiiPlayer 1y agoWhat's gonna be next? Banning Ukrainian students to help combat "Russophobia"? This is just so weird. How do people support this stuff only to then go on and complain about "free speech" the second you tell them something they said was kind of a little bit mean?
- belter 1y agoNext is to make sure every Top 500 company has a MAGA approved member on the board, or you will be barred from selling to the US government. Chris Krebs, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency was forced to resign from SentinelOne Inc - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-17/ex-cyber-chief-targeted-by-trump-vows-to-fight-administration https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-17/ex-cyber-...
- ta1243 1y agoThey're making strong moves on putting in political officers into the army https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/head-of-greenland-base-vance-visited-is-fired-after-criticizing-the-trip-and-trumps-plans/ar-AA1CL7ha https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/head-of-greenland-base-van... https://www.newsweek.com/air-force-special-ops-fired-military-2060619 https://www.newsweek.com/air-force-special-ops-fired-militar... The purge is progressing faster than anyone expected
- UncleMeat 1y agoBecause it was never about free speech. It was only ever a rhetorical cover to be able to do things like defend professors calling people the n-word without defending it directly. The actual goal has always been the re-entrenchment of "natural" hierarchies. Man over woman. White over black. Straight over gay.
- kowabungalow 1y agoUniversities had better hurry up with opening up their foreign campuses.
- bko 1y agoThe universities could have expanded campuses and opened up new ones at any time. Harvard could easily double or triple their class size with no negative effects in terms of student body. They choose not to because it would dilute their brand and they're more about an exclusive club than educating students or doing research. Their doner class that finds their hedge fund doesn't like that. So let's not pretend these institutions are noble
- kowabungalow 1y agoLet's not pretend that was the topic.
- bko 1y agoWhat is the topic? You said they should now build foreign campuses. I said they won't because it would dilute their brand. And they could have done so in the US or abroad before this. What am I missing here?
- kowabungalow 1y ago> So let's not pretend these institutions are noble If only the noble deserve a reasonable state then welcome to hell.
- carlosjobim 1y agoThat's like saying that knowledge could be distributed by printing words on paper. Just ridiculous.
- devsda 1y agoAmerican universities are in demand among foreigners because they are a gateway to network and life in the US. If it's a choice between say Princeton in the US and Harvard outside the US, Princeton will be the choice for many.
- farmdawgnation 1y agoThis seems like a relatively empty threat considering many international folks don’t want to come here anyhow. There are some parallels here to when my toddler tries to give me consequences for doing things she doesn’t like.
- odo1242 1y agoA lot of international people go to Harvard. Like the article mentions, it’s 27% of all students.
- apwell23 1y agoevery college grad in my neighborhood in india is planning to go to usa after graduation. its seen as something odd when someone decides not to.
- OhioMan2943 1y agoThere is near infinite demand for western universities. As I've been experiencing personally in Australia
- apwell23 1y agoyea i laugh when someone says no one wants to immigrate to usa anymore. most of these colleges are conduits for immigration in usa.
- OhioMan2943 1y agoA lot of people who talk about student migration clearly haven't been to a university campus in the last 15 years...
- OZYMANDIASAK 1y agoAt what point can we say that the US truly has fallen from being the leader of the world? Each and every decision taken by the current administration is bringing the US closer to an age of darkness and idiocy. I’m from Europe, I’m not saying the US was ever perfect but I don’t understand how it came to this. My bet is a on a combination of extreme individualism due to a poor internalisation of the ideals of liberalism combined with a predatory capitalistic environment. It’s sad to see what happens to a society that has the highest concentration of the brightest minds in world mostly working towards money related goals. So many great people that could work for the greater good and are dutifully tuning algorithms for the 0.01% capturing everyone’s attention and ideas. Sad state of the world but I guess you can’t stop “progress”.
- apercu 1y ago>At what point can we say that the US truly has fallen from being the leader of the world? When a ridiculous, obtuse con man was elected President in 2016 and his party lost whatever little desire they had left for a functional government? Of course, I would argue it was when "W" was elected for the second term.
- mnky9800n 1y agoTo be fair to W, some part of the world followed america into iraq. it wasn't like he did it all by himself. i think if these countries had not supported this war, there would have been a reckoning for the usa much sooner than trump. in much the same way that people now question, what could we have done differently with how we treated russia prior to 2014 when they started a war with ukraine, the world should ask itself how it should have responded differently to joining america in a war in iraq in 2003. but so far, i don't hear anyone having these conversations about how did the world allow america to arrive to now.
- giraffe_lady 1y agoYeah everyone's reckoning needs to go back to bush and sept 11 2001 frankly. The consolidation of executive power, the labeling of "enemies" and "terrorists" as inherently applying to some groups which therefore do not have the same rights of due process, the torture prisons it didn't quite all start there but it was a massive turning point. The way the wars fed back into american policing, the justifications for the drone assassination program (but not here! not quite yet). A lot of what we're seeing now is the natural endpoint of processes that were started under bush "in reaction" to sept 11 and expanded under obama and later biden. The main stream of the republican party has been, first quietly but then openly, fantasizing about authoritarian control for 25 years. And through that whole time the democrats have made it one of their biggest priorities to help them construct the apparatus needed to accomplish it. And our allies have been eager to get their hands on these same powers & systems to apply to their own citizens. Honestly looking back the biggest mistake I made was that I thought the things that are happening now would happen in bush's second term. When they didn't I took seriously the possibility that I was wrong about the bloodlust of the american right, sincerely spent many years convincing myself they were in working in good faith towards what they understood was best for the world. I had it right the first time. For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts are destruction; their throats are open graves.
- apwell23 1y agoanyone know why trump didn't do any of these betwee 2016-2020 when he ran on exact same platform. But this time he hit the ground running. What's different this time?
- hollywood_court 1y agoPutin demanded results this time.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tohnjitor 1y agoBetter preparation most likely. He had a staff of about 1,000 already hired before being sworn in. Some of them had probably been working on this stuff since 2020.
- DragonStrength 1y agoHe mostly had standard GOP appointees last time who weren't on board. This time he has staffed his administration with loyalists, which is why so many have so little experience. They are there to do what they're told.
- apwell23 1y agoyea no "leaks" this time which was a constant feature of his last term
- JensRantil 1y agoOne reason is the ruling by the Supreme Court on July 1st 2024 that says Agent Orange has legal immunity for most actions he does as a president.
- titaphraz 1y agoMango Mussolini's first term was a trial run for fascism but few on his team were onboard. Now he's back with full team of loonies.
- DarkmSparks 1y ago60 Universities, the only reason Harvard is interesting here is the revelation its administration are just another average bunch of crayon munching racist idiots. Down vote all you want, wont make blocking students from class because they are Jewish and hiring people based on their race or sexual preferences any less moronic. Breath of fresh air to see that idiocy burn.
- mjburgess 1y agoHarvard isn't burning. It has 60bn. What's 'burning' is the hospitals, military research, medical research and the vast array of technical R&D that congress has requested harvard to perform. This is just an attack on americans. Harvard is secure regardless of what destruction the presidency does to the projects congress has asked of it.
- OhioMan2943 1y agoQuite vitriolic. I wonder if you have any personal biases you might be bringing into this discussion?
- DarkmSparks 1y agoOur lawyer attended Harvard as a postgrad and this idiocy makes him ashamed he did so, so much he took it off his linkedin profile so as not to be associated with them. Don't know how much he paid for it, but cant imagine it was cheap. About as close to personal as it gets, other than having zero respect for racist crayon munching idiots.
- mschoch 1y ago[dead]
- alwa 1y agoI have a hard time imagining this specific threat to be more than bluster. Would someone with relevant legal expertise be able to comment on how likely a ban on foreign enrollments would be to fly in the courts? Surely the administration have a substantial degree of discretion with respect to student visas, but can they precipitate a blanket revocal on something as nakedly coercive (and speech-involved) as this? (Edit: at a casual, non-expert glance it seems that a student can apply for a student visa at any SEVP-certified school, and the regulations governing SEVP certification seem to be at [0]. They list a lot of potential reasons to withdraw approval once it’s issued, but they all seem pretty specific: falsifying records, lying on your application, failing to keep proper records in relation to the students’ enrollment, and so on. Does it feel like maybe the mechanic here is claiming that tracking students’ speech is part of that essential record-keeping task?) [0] https://www.ice.gov/sevis/schools/reg#2144 https://www.ice.gov/sevis/schools/reg#2144
- curious_curios 1y agoNAL but we’re in uncharted territory here with the administration ignoring court orders.
- chinathrow 1y agoUncharted for the US. Well known in other regimes.
- tomp 1y agoNot entirely uncharted. I'm not sure how it was done legally, but when the Supreme Court ruled that Biden administration's student loan forgiveness was unconstitutional, Biden (or rather, his team) found another way to forgive loans. I expect Trump's administration to similarly find legal workarounds.
- d3nj4l 1y agoYeah, they found another way. The Court said they couldn't do it one way, so they found legal ways to cancel debt. That's not ignoring a court order.
- titaphraz 1y ago"... he's America's Hitler" -- JD Vance, Vice president of USA on Trump, President of USA. (Before JD became VP)
- ta1243 1y agoThe full quote: > I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a*hole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler. How's that for discouraging?
- blueflow 1y agoDo you think it is appropiate to compare Trump with Hitler? I think industrial-scale genocide is a bit of a different league than Trump.
- ta1243 1y agoDo you understand it was a quote from JD Vance?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- morkalork 1y agoWell, his VP thought it was appropriate so it ought to be fair for the rest of to talk about it.
- monkeyfun 1y ago1. It's a quote, not an expression of the poster's opinions directly. 2. We wouldn't even be talking about that industrial scale genocide this early on Hitler's term, which I don't say to suggest he's going to be Hitler 2 but rather to point out how it can be quite valid to be concerned before someone's getting into full swing with atrocities.
- Braxton1980 1y agoPlease forward this question to the current vice-president
- mjburgess 1y agoI had been somewhat neutral on trump -- the grievances of the american right were real and under served. Major civil institutions of power and culture had been monopolised by the left; there had been a "default preference" for wealth over income, capital over labour. Immigration had been treated as a purely economic question, with little regards to the suddenness of population and cultural changes metered out on communities which took on the highest levels. I had thought the leftwing reaction to accuse this of authoritarianism, overblown. Many of the actions that had been taken were taken by previous leftwing administrations, just with less publicity (, and so on). However I think the rubicon has been crossed. The president now believes he has impunity to engage in extrajudicial rendition to enslave people, including citizens, in foreign prisons. He attacks the centres of civil power: universities, law firms, (likekly soon, ) the mass media. And rival state power: ignoring the supreme court, congress (ie., reorganising federal gov beyond his power), and the institional professional class in the executive. All the while, increasingly I see people on the centre-right in the mass media credulously believing the president's account of his actions. Identifying with the president as an expression of their power, and believing likewise, that the whole of civil society is legitimately brought under state ideological control. That the presidency is the state, that state is society, and that society must "for democratic reasons" be brought to the state's heel. The next phase of this will be very dangerous for the american people. I think civil resistance will be target for at best, imprisonment -- perhaps even rendition to a foreign prison. All one needs to say is that the resistance protestors are domestic terroists, and trump has a wide base of people credulously willing to believe it -- no doubt looting and other things will occur. It is very easy to imagine state elections being brought under "federal control" and a process of election rigging soon following. As far as I can see there are two forces acting against the possibility of an american tyranny: trump's own desire to perform what's he's doing completely destabilises his plans (eg., on the economy especially). Secondly, the federalism of the american system. It seems now plausible to me to imagine a future in which a democractic state violently expels federal forces, esp., eg., if ICE are used to rendition american citizens. It will be almost an obligation of states to suspend federal police presense. This, in the end, may make totalisation of federal state power difficult.
- mschoch 1y ago
- thrance 1y agoWhere are those people who two days ago insisted the administration was fighting for "bringing back" merit-based admission to colleges? Are foreign student all incapable or merit or was it simply a lie, like everything else?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- inglor_cz 1y agoThis comment is not meant to defend this sort of blackmail, rather a tangential thought that struck me. Most successful franchises try to expand abroad. Why not build a Harvard branch in London, Dubai, Sydney, Mumbai or Tokio? Each of those would likely be subject to some pressures over time, but those times and pressures would vary. Nowadays it is a "all eggs in one basket" situation.
- oefrha 1y agoUniversities are not fast food restaurants, the reputation resides in the faculty, and they’re not replicable like fast food recipes or supply chains. “Harvard London” will be a completely different school with its own reputation (with a little bit of halo effect from the brand of course), just like no one mistakes UC Riverside for Berkeley. Unless you’re advocating for some remote teaching sort of deal. Edit: In addition, some people only attend Harvard and co. for the networking opportunities.
- inglor_cz 1y ago"Unless you’re advocating for some remote teaching sort of deal." I naturally expected that this would be the case. At the very least, record the lectures in 8K and stream them to other campuses (there would be major timezone differences).
- amanaplanacanal 1y agoIsn't there already plenty of that out there? If all you want is recorded lectures, you can have that today.
- morkalork 1y agoI can think of one university that went the fast-food style franchise route: DeVry
- beardyw 1y agoIt's fairly common for UK universities to have overseas campuses.
- oefrha 1y agoI’m a foreigner who was U.S.-educated, spent a substantial part of my life there (left a little while ago), and still have family there. I’m seriously advising prospective students from pursuing a college education in the U.S. now. A partial education is now a very real concern under this mad man, especially for someone with the “wrong” nationality/ethnicity, which could completely upend one’s life and torpedo a lot of career prospects. Not to mention concerns for personal safety. As an aside, I faced casual racism plenty of times in the country; pretty sure no one ever gave a shit. Trump country would cheer for it, actually.
- d3nj4l 1y agoEspecially after the recent actions canceling visas for legal, free speech and minor traffic violations, I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone to come to the US to study. It's the US's loss more than anything else - a good portion of the cutting edge research that happens in US Schools is done by international grad students.
- HeavyStorm 1y agoSo, are you guys realizing that this is _already_ a dictatorship?
- inverted_flag 1y agoIt feels like the early days of Covid right now, where everyone is still living their lives normally but you know things are about to rapidly change for the worse.
- team_groovy 1y ago[flagged]
- Zamaamiro 1y agoThe Constitution protects us from the whims of the majority.
- mjburgess 1y agoImportant to note this isnt a majority: 30% of eligible voters chose the president; and even of those, hardly any are very engaged with his current policies and behaivour. It's important not to so quickly cede the democractic ground here -- this isnt a democractic movement. It's a 49% election of a president, with 30% of the eligble voters, who collectively did not vote for the constitution to be suspended. They voted for a president, an office which exists by and within the framework of that constitution. There was no referendum on whether the constitution should be amended to allow for effectively unlimited presidental power.
- UncleMeat 1y agoIf we elect somebody who then completely flaunts the law to harm people he hates, what's the difference? Should the lawfully elected president have the right to just order somebody to shoot me in the head apropos of nothing?
- Molitor5901 1y agoTangentially related, but at my university international students paid the most to attend - by far - than any other student. It has been rumored by some that universities may have an unfair preference for international students because of this. I wonder if this thinking is playing into the policy making.
- Balgair 1y agoBased on the previous actions of this administration, I can with 100% confidence say that absolutely no thinking played into this policy making.
- oldmariner 1y agoYou can be confidently wrong. It seems like you just don't like the thinking/reasons they did.
- temp84858696945 1y agoIt seems really clear that the order as operations is as follows: 1. Administration makes demands of Harvard to change the way it's operating to fall in line. 2. Harvard stands up against these demands. 3. Administration is using every means possible to punish Harvard for daring taking a stand against it. This is what dictatorships look like.
- brandensilva 1y agoExtortion is Trump's favorite tactic. He's been punishing Maine for standing up to him. The law firms too. Soon the democrats when he can get past deporting the criminal U.S citizens. I don't think it's unreasonable to say people are the only option to change our trajectory. We haven't reached critical mass yet, but the next national protest is April 19th which lands on the 250th revolutionary war anniversary. Be there or be square.
- FireBeyond 1y ago
- hersko 1y agoTangentially related question: Why do universities like Harvard (who has a ~$60bn endowment) get federal funding at all? Between tuition and donors are they not profitable?
- guax 1y agoResearch grants, laboratories, partnerships. Government funding of universities are usually not handouts but investments. For example: | Sarah Fortune, a professor and chair of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, woke up Tuesday to a stop-work order for a large contract focused on unraveling how the immune system fights tuberculosis, with the goal of creating better detection and vaccines.
- insane_dreamer 1y agoIt's not funding for student tuitions, rather Harvard research labs bid on research grants just like all universities do. Government sponsored university research since WW2 has been a primary driver of innovation in the US and a key element in the US becoming and maintaining its position as the #1 economy. It's investment, not charity.
- Braxton1980 1y agoHow is this related? The issue is government overreach. Who said they aren't profitable
- tzs 1y agoThey are already spending billions a year from the endowment, which is around the maximum that can be spent from it sustainably.
- UncleMeat 1y agoAlice is a professor at Harvard. She wants to research some topic. She applies to the NSF for a grant. The NSF says "wow that research sounds awesome and aligned with our priorities" and funds her lab to perform that research. She and the lab perform the research and share it with the scientific community for free. That's what federal funding for universities looks like.
- dtquad 1y ago[flagged]
- insane_dreamer 1y agoLet's drop the pretense that Trump's actions have anything to do with anti-semitism; it's crystal clear that's just a cover. If students did illegal activities on campus, charge the students according to the law. _This_ is a Soviet-style government crackdown.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoEarlier, unflagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43712855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43712855
- insane_dreamer 1y agoThey're also threatening to pull their tax-exempt status [0] [0] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/trump-irs-harvard.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/trump-irs-har... This is exactly what dictatorships do: comply with our demands or we will bring you down. Harvard might be able to stand up to them, but many other less wealthy universities will fold immediately. But if the universities don't bind together and take a stand now, it will be too difficult and too late to do so later. Poor Columbia--now that Trump knows they will cower, he can make whatever demands he wants. Don Corleone would be proud.
- belter 1y agoWhy is this flagged?
- Braxton1980 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- dang 1y agoThat has zero to do with how we moderate HN. If you want to familiarize yourself with how the site actually works, you'll find links to thousands of past explanations in my comment upthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43724590 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43724590.
- Braxton1980 1y agoI wasn't accusing you or the moderators of Hackernews of anything. Downvoting is a function for users (after certain initial conditions are met). Flagging is also a user function. There's a recent post [2] where a reply to me in a political argument, I don't remember the specific words [1], was some generalization or BS to support Trump. I continued the discussion but later the comment was flagged. I was fine with arguing the points. There were also many more comments with similar content that weren't flagged. I was previously a user for years and a reader for more than 15. I even directly conversed with you when I wanted to deleted my account, you asked if I was sure [3] so I'm familiar with the gist of the rules. I've also seen comments from you similar to. [Para]"This isn't directly related to tech but it's of great interest so it's allowed" [1] I thought this was possible in the past but I can't seem to do it now, however if I'm just not seeing the option then that's my fault. [2] link upon request [3] I'm not implying any relationship or that I'm some special "old soul"
- dang 1y agoSorry! I'm prone to misinterpreting comments that way. I don't understand the latter part of your comment, I'm afraid, but if there are specific links you want us to take a look at, we'd be happy to.
- josefritzishere 1y agoThe president, getting involved with the petty operations of private companies seems anti-capitalist.
- southernplaces7 1y agoWhy the hell would this be flagged? Perfectly valid, debate-worthy and absolutely relevant in the context of many non-flagged submissions on this site. Again it would be nice if the HN admin stop letting any random orangutan flag anything they like out of their own shitty little naval-gazing ideological fixations.
- wltr 1y agoOh, I found /active just recently. And turned out many, if not most, interesting topics are censored. While some mediocre and irrelevant things are not. However, I’m not surprised, being a long time visitor, and seeing very dang questionable moderation practices.
- leereeves 1y agoIt wouldn't matter if it were flagged or not. It would be removed from the front page because HN downranks posts with a lot of comments. HN is designed to hide political discussions. If it weren't, the front page would be nothing but political discussions.
- insane_dreamer 1y ago> HN is designed to hide political discussions. unless they're PG political posts, ahem
- trymas 1y ago> … posts … They are called “essays”. /s
- demarq 1y agoWoah! I’m genuinely shocked. It has changed what I think of this website.
- rsynnott 1y ago
- arunabha 1y agoThe 'official' explanation that I got from Dang was that political posts hit automated software filters because of flagging and down voting which cause them to disappear from the front page. Separately, sometimes the moderation team disables these filters on certain posts, but it's not often.
- lakomen 1y ago[dead]