6 ms·

Terence Tao focused on fundraising after federal funding to UCLA was suspended

54 points by breve 1y ago

yurivish 1y ago
https://archive.is/xd67g https://archive.is/xd67g
andsoitis 1y ago
Why doesn’t UCLA or the University of California system (UCLA is a part), solve this for Tao’s program so that he can focus on the things he is uniquely positioned to do? I suppose it could’ve because he IS the marketing…
- qwerpy 1y ago
  The headline "Terence Tao focused on fundraising after federal funding to UCLA was suspended" also makes for better marketing than "UCLA diverts tiny part of massive war chest to address temporary funding issue".
  - Yeul 1y ago
    The headline should be that America no longer has free and independent universities and is speed running China.
    - Larrikin 1y ago
      Maybe the USSR, China still seems to be innovating.
  - stiglitz 1y ago
    That doesn’t seem like an accurate synopsis of the article at all.
- momoschili 1y ago
  These days the thing he is most unique positioned to do is not math, it's getting funding.
parkaboy 1y ago
UCLA has a $10B endowment. I find it bollocks that they and these other academic institutions can't just dip into that for their researchers to (hopefully) ride out the current funding situation at a minimum.
- intermerda 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - veggieroll 1y ago
    The vast majority of people talking about how big university endowments are don't care what the rules are on it. It's not that people don't know how endowments work; they just find the rules to be bullshit to justify universities continuing the status quo.
  - dang 1y ago
    Please don't cross into personal attack. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dekhn 1y ago
  It's not bollocks, the endowments are contributions that have constraints on their spending. They cannot legally redirect much of the endowment towards these researchers in the way you want. Instead, they use the endowment as an investment that produces interest which is spent on operating expenses.
  - tgma 1y ago
    The way you describe it as if a widow is reaching out to interest from a nest egg to get by and I got a little tear. But since I do know better: - some of these endowments grow over time to infinity. - that's tax-free gain/interest and any hedge fund would kill to get that special treatment. As long as they have such special tax treatment, it is only fair they should stay in line with a framework that taxpayers provide.

54 points by breve 1y ago

https://archive.is/xd67g https://archive.is/xd67g

Why doesn’t UCLA or the University of California system (UCLA is a part), solve this for Tao’s program so that he can focus on the things he is uniquely positioned to do? I suppose it could’ve because he IS the marketing…

qwerpy 1y ago
The headline "Terence Tao focused on fundraising after federal funding to UCLA was suspended" also makes for better marketing than "UCLA diverts tiny part of massive war chest to address temporary funding issue".
- Yeul 1y ago
  The headline should be that America no longer has free and independent universities and is speed running China.
  - Larrikin 1y ago
    Maybe the USSR, China still seems to be innovating.
- stiglitz 1y ago
  That doesn’t seem like an accurate synopsis of the article at all.
momoschili 1y ago
These days the thing he is most unique positioned to do is not math, it's getting funding.

parkaboy 1y ago

UCLA has a $10B endowment. I find it bollocks that they and these other academic institutions can't just dip into that for their researchers to (hopefully) ride out the current funding situation at a minimum.

intermerda 1y ago
[flagged]
- veggieroll 1y ago
  The vast majority of people talking about how big university endowments are don't care what the rules are on it. It's not that people don't know how endowments work; they just find the rules to be bullshit to justify universities continuing the status quo.
- dang 1y ago
  Please don't cross into personal attack. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dekhn 1y ago
It's not bollocks, the endowments are contributions that have constraints on their spending. They cannot legally redirect much of the endowment towards these researchers in the way you want. Instead, they use the endowment as an investment that produces interest which is spent on operating expenses.
- tgma 1y ago
  The way you describe it as if a widow is reaching out to interest from a nest egg to get by and I got a little tear. But since I do know better: - some of these endowments grow over time to infinity. - that's tax-free gain/interest and any hedge fund would kill to get that special treatment. As long as they have such special tax treatment, it is only fair they should stay in line with a framework that taxpayers provide.