April 30, 2025

Now, on to the news…

The American Association of University Professors claims to value faculty self-governance. Yet it has remained silent as one of its major donors, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, bankrolls the fellow-to-faculty model—a program that fast-tracks activist scholars into tenured roles and undermines professors’ ability to manage their own affairs.

In his latest exposé, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow John Sailer shows how universities use these fellowship programs to erode faculty self-governance. “Multiple professors told me how deans denied or limited their departments’ funds for regular hiring, while strongly encouraging them to hire through fellow-to-faculty programs,” he reports. This strong-arm tactic threatens not just professors’ autonomy but academic freedom itself.

Read the rest of his piece here.

As the Trump administration pauses billions of dollars in research grants to universities over their failure to address anti-Semitism and foster diversity of opinion on campus, all eyes are on what happens next.

James Piereson argues that instead of freezing payments, the administration should “use the leverage of prospective grants to induce institutions to abide by federal law and begin reforming their internal operations.” This approach would help avoid disruption in areas like medical schools and would be less likely to be overturned in court.

Still, Piereson contends, Harvard and other universities are in a losing battle against the federal government. Read his prediction for how it all plays out.

The tariff debate highlights a sobering reality: America lacks a true conservative party—one that would tread lightly rather than stretch beyond public consensus in pursuit of its goals. So argues Gregory Conti, who writes that, while the problems President Trump’s tariffs aim to address are real, they call for a careful rebalancing of priorities and targeted support—not a radical remaking of the economic order. Read his take here.

“I find it sadly ironic (and quite hypocritical) how many white men (and women) in positions of power claim that they are working to end injustice by denying opportunities to young white men who have busted their butts to earn their Ph.D. with distinction, even while said power-mongers continue to enjoy top dog position themselves.

If they actually believed in their professed convictions, they’d resign and hand over their privileged position instead of merely blocking the advance of somebody WAY lower on the privilege gravy train than themselves in the name of proving how ‘enlightened’ they are.

Phonies.”

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Manualman, commenting on Princeton University’s “anti-racism” policy

Photo credits: Bill Pugliano / Stringer / Getty Images News via Getty Images