Press "Enter" to skip to content

GC Kevin Reed and VPRI Razdan to advise PIs on Trump rules – just don’t quote them

They want to apply the Chatham House Rule, which would prevent a PI from telling their grant officer, say, “but I just followed the advice I got from my university’s general counsel.”

Sort of reminds me of this classic. 

9 Comments

  1. Jack K 04/10/2025

    Profiles in Not Sticking Your Neck Out

    • Not the hill to die on 04/12/2025

      And live to fight another day. Let’s not go about deliberately inviting the Sword of Damocles to graze our throat.

    • Eugene Townie 04/24/2025

      Very few public flagship university presidents did. A policy of institutional neutrality is the way to go. I strongly support Scholz’s decision to not sign this, or any other political statement, regardless of how strongly I agree with the contents. While even a strict reading of the Chicago principles may permit a president to sign on to a statement such as the one organized by the AACU, a “may permit” is not a “must do.”

      Universities, including UO, have fallen off the wagon when it comes to the inappropriate adoption of controversial political political stances in rhetoric and policy. Universities are for everyone — not just the ideological majority (e.g., not just the progressive/moderate left), not just women and racial minorities or others on the top of the “hierarchy of non privilege”, not just the financial and credentialed elites.

      While I partially disagree with the way Trump is going about rectifying this miserable situation the universities have found themselves in (international student deportations is a major sore point for me), as a swing voter I don’t have too much sympathy for the universities themselves right now when it comes to the government yanking funding and non-profit status. Universities have only got themselves to blame. Trump’s actions aren’t authoritarianism. Trump’s actions reflect the will of at least 40%+ of the American people finally having their longstanding concerns meaningfully addressed by academia, in the only language university administrators and professors seem to understand: money.

      The gnashing of teeth of the progressive elites and the rhetoric of “Republican/Trumpian authoritarianism” by left-leaning scholars (which, due to years of unchecked ideological discrimination against undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty candidates at multiple levels, has resulted in the majority of scholars being left-leaning) is laughable, especially considering America’s recent history where actual authoritarianism was unjustly imposed on Americans and Oregonians for years during Covid by Democrats. Trump, like all presidents in recent memory, will see his favorability ratings diminish with time. But on the topic of higher ed reform, and the need to seriously shake up the sector, I’m still mostly rooting Trump on.

      To those (overwhelmingly Democratic) innocents who are collateral damage: I have a little sympathy, but because you’ve collectively treated Republicans with contempt and discrimination for decades I have a hard time mustering too much of it. In their treatment of dissenters living outside their self-defined Overton windows, smug cruelty by Democrats towards dissenters has long been the norm in academia. Time for an overhaul, and you don’t make omelets for the whole of the American people without breaking all the eggs. Or, as my acquaintances on the progressive left might put it, the master’s tools will never tear down the master’s house; it’s time for an external demolition and rebuilding.

      • Jack Burton 04/24/2025

        Probably easier to just say “I support fascism.”

        2
        1
  2. Must be the Money 04/24/2025

    Interesting point on who signed onto the AACU letter and not. Scholtz’s last school did. So did UO’s last president. B1G pretty much split, ergo I share curiosity on how the mutual defense proposal breaks. Seems more about local politics and attending fundraising than any other matter of principle.

    Summary below.

    Public Flagships

    Signed (13)
    California, Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey

    Not Signed (36)
    Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, N Dakota, S Dakota, N Carolina, S Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, W Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Arkansas

    Split (1)
    New York (SUNY Buffalo signed, SUNY Stony Brook not signed)

    B1G

    Signed (8)
    Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Northwestern, Rutgers, UCLA, Washington, Wisconsin

    Not Signed (10)
    Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue, USC

    • Old Gray Mare 04/30/2025

      Are we reading the same letter? I see Scholtz’s signature as UO pres.

      • Pissed off 05/01/2025

        He did, three days and ~250 signatures later.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *