Weekly Intent: Federal Funding in the Ivy League
Reworking our weekly check-in into written form for easy scrolling, shareable links, and topical discussions. Plus announcing my second Substack newsletter, completely free and full of the fun stuff.
Whoops - it’s not Monday anymore! But such is life in the middle of legislative session. Welcome to the new format for our weekly check-in, in written form for both paid and free subscribers. I’ll pop in on video as makes sense or when we have a guest and hope you all enjoy these links and ideas as much as I do. Paid subscribers - never fear - premium content and protected posts will still be coming your way throughout the year.
Other things I’ve shared lately:
I’ve started a second Substack - this one is all about the fun bits of life that are giving me energy away from the Capitol buildings. It will mostly discuss art, food, and travel with a bit of the day-to-day sprinkled in. It’s called Not Quite Still Life. Please check it out and consider subscribing (it’s all free!)
Speaking of my struggle with Millenial Hobby Energy.
Leslie Odom, Jr. of the original cast is returning to the Hamilton stage from September 9 - November 23, via Deadline.
SPICY TAKE: The Blue Origin space launch got to me, and I wasn’t alone. These real pioneers are the only women in space I want to read about this week and I don’t think any of them ever needed an Oscar de la Renta space suit.
“With all of those assets — If Harvard can’t resist, who can?”
Harvard University, as we all know, is a private institution, one that receives billions in federal funding each year (as many do - keep scrolling for the Guardian’s graphic on this).
Last week, the Trump Administration sent a letter to Harvard, obtained by the New York Times, that said Harvard failed to justify federal investment due to its "intellectual and civil rights conditions."
The letter included many requests, including reporting students who are “hostile” to American values. Harvard’s President announced yesterday that the University would not comply and would remain independent of political influence - hours later, the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced froze $2.2 billion in grants earmarked for the institution as well as $60 million in multi-year contract value, a potential step one to losing more than $9 billion in federal funding. Harvard’s annual operating budget sits at about $6.4 billion annually, so this first cut accounts for roughly 1/3 of annual operations.
*The Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is comprised of the representation from the following federal agencies: Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration
Last year, Harvard was one of many high-profile college campuses that was taken over by antisemitic protest encampments and has since been encouraged to take stronger action to quell this activity from both sides of the aisle. Remember that disastrous Congressional hearing?
“Harvard is in a very different place today from where it was a year ago. These efforts and additional measures the university will be taking against antisemitism, not only are the right thing to do but also are critical to strengthening Harvard’s community as a place in which everyone can thrive,” Harvard has responded.
Former Harvard President (and former Treasury Secretary) Larry Summers reminded the school of its $52 billion endowment in a speech last week, saying, “With all of those assets — If Harvard can’t resist, who can?” he said.
As non-profit leaders, we understand that endowments have a lot of restrictions. According to Axios, Harvard’s endowments are over 70% restricted, with only 20% available for discretionary spending, which might include backfilling lost federal funding.
It will be interesting to see where other universities engage vs. the Trump Administration on the cultural issues that risk their billions in federal funding for research grants and how the cuts overall have the potential to affect to shift federal dollars to public higher education. The Guardian created a helpful graphic showing which institutions receive the most federal funding.
More Ivy League Thoughts:
Some non-profits are moving toward the idea of co-CEOs. Stanford has some cautionary advice for this new model of leadership.
Yale on the how and why of storytelling in non-profit fundraising. Read my thoughts on this from a previous Substack article here.
Baylor competes with Ivy League endowments.
But is it fair/do we need to compare Ivy League endowments?
I hope you enjoyed this new format, Weekly Intent. Let me know, and as the young people say, drop it a heart or restack if you found it useful so that more people can find Politics on Purpose.