Money Forgives All Sins
I'd been following the recent Supreme Court case that dealt with several universities attempting to ban military recruiters from their campuses. Their hatred for anything to do with the US military shows itself quite openly in their lecture halls and now in this court case. The stated excuse of universities like Harvard was they did not like the military's policy of not allowing admitted homosexuals to serve.
The Supreme Court's stance was remarkably simple. "If you don't want military recruiters on your campus, and you're upset that the federal govvernmment ties strings to its money, then don't take it". How remarkably ridden with common sense that statement was, and how the universities involved did howl even louder at the thought.
It could be that some universities weren't really concerned about the military's policy against gays so much as just a genuine hatred for the military, though. Recently, as noted in the Federalist, Saudi Prince Alwaleed binTala bin Adbulaziz al-Saud donated $20 million to Georgetown and Harvard with its own strings attached. It had to be used to promote Islamic Studies. The two universities wasted no time in carrying out that directive and funneling the money to said functions. Well, it is a donation and the Prince, as a donor, is certainly within his rights to request such a stipulation. Again, they could've always said no. However, given that the Saudi government, of which the Prince is a part, openly promotes the execution of homosexuals (a rather severe form of discrimination), it is rather hypocritical albeit typical for said universities to stash their "principles" and take the cash.
One note of irony comes to mind. When the federal government first started debating funding private universities, Harvard was one of the leading opponents of such an idea. They felt (at the time), it would tie indpenedent institutions of learning too closely to the government, and that wasn't such a good idea. Must've been some indviduals with a few more scruples running those institutions at the time. They certainly seemed to have more common sense. Wish we still had some of those around today.
I'd been following the recent Supreme Court case that dealt with several universities attempting to ban military recruiters from their campuses. Their hatred for anything to do with the US military shows itself quite openly in their lecture halls and now in this court case. The stated excuse of universities like Harvard was they did not like the military's policy of not allowing admitted homosexuals to serve.
The Supreme Court's stance was remarkably simple. "If you don't want military recruiters on your campus, and you're upset that the federal govvernmment ties strings to its money, then don't take it". How remarkably ridden with common sense that statement was, and how the universities involved did howl even louder at the thought.
It could be that some universities weren't really concerned about the military's policy against gays so much as just a genuine hatred for the military, though. Recently, as noted in the Federalist, Saudi Prince Alwaleed binTala bin Adbulaziz al-Saud donated $20 million to Georgetown and Harvard with its own strings attached. It had to be used to promote Islamic Studies. The two universities wasted no time in carrying out that directive and funneling the money to said functions. Well, it is a donation and the Prince, as a donor, is certainly within his rights to request such a stipulation. Again, they could've always said no. However, given that the Saudi government, of which the Prince is a part, openly promotes the execution of homosexuals (a rather severe form of discrimination), it is rather hypocritical albeit typical for said universities to stash their "principles" and take the cash.
One note of irony comes to mind. When the federal government first started debating funding private universities, Harvard was one of the leading opponents of such an idea. They felt (at the time), it would tie indpenedent institutions of learning too closely to the government, and that wasn't such a good idea. Must've been some indviduals with a few more scruples running those institutions at the time. They certainly seemed to have more common sense. Wish we still had some of those around today.
posted by Rob Beck | 6:30 AM
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