We need them both: research universities and technical education

 Whether public funds should be used to support either publicly funded tech/trade schools or research universities is not a choice between the two. We need them both. One for research and development, and the other for the application of what universities have discovered and developed. 

Often, research efforts do not make a practical profit for years or fail in blind alleys, but are responsible for breakthroughs that separate us from "old school" to new, better, more efficient, and effective ways of doing things. Here are some R and D discoveries and inventions that originated in research universities: "the world wide web and Gatorade, to pivotal innovations, such as X-ray technology, birth control pills, and the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, famous inventions from higher education institutions"  https://blog.halo.science/modern-day-inventions-university-r

Someone needs to take the financial risk and still be funded while undertaking research and development. .Often, there is no profit generated while doing it.  That is what research institutions do so well. Still, they require investments by the government and the private sector for R&D. Without research and development for applications, technology would still be back in the nail, hammer, and hand wrench, and diseases would remain spreading, dependent on those who can treat the symptoms or watch patients die. 

 Those in trade-related education have the opportunity to be educated on how to utilize the latest tools developed by research upon graduation or certification. Usually, years of experience are required to hone their skills.  If they do not keep learning new things, they could be left behind by those who adopt them. 

For-profit trade schools are ever problematic. Some are certificate mills with no real value in the labor market, and others are worth the tuition. Apprenticeship programs like unions provide are winners.  Therefore, I only referred to those publicly funded tech/trade schools now mostly tied to community colleges, mostly locally and state-funded. That was the choice Trump, himself famous for fraud in Trump University, tried to make when he threatened to divert federal contract funds from Harvard R&D and allocate them to trade schools. https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/trade-school-advocates-cheer-trump-threatens-redirect-harvard-federal-funds    Let's just let other countries become the innovators and lead us into the new tech and scientific future, right? 

Here is what I learned from watching my own children and grandchildren learn and enter the workforce.

 My own children hold profession-oriented master's degrees, and all four grandchildren (and their spouses) are involved in or have completed higher education graduate degrees that will enhance their income and/or their pursuit of happiness throughout life. Some will be paying off student loans for years to come. I have both a Harvard and  2-year community college certificate holders in my very immediate family. The pursuit of happiness is a personal preference, and some individuals prefer the intellectual challenges of higher education and the higher salaries that accompany it. In contrast, others derive pleasure from a job well done, even if it is physically demanding. Within my family are now or have been physicians, other healthcare service providers, investment bankers, business consultants, marketing data services, a skilled transportation bus and airplane mechanic, an elementary school teacher, warehouse supervisors, nonprofit administrators, restaurant managers, culinary chefs, a mathematician, and a computer scientist.  

Those headed for higher education can think in abstract, deductive terms and/or deal with students and coworkers. Some are just born educators. Others are born to be analysts of complex things. Others, such as those who repair things and solve problems, are fascinated by how machines and systems function. Most possess the talent to apply their special skills, using tools and up-to-date knowledge, to what they know from experience.  Some individuals possess both kinds of talents, which is a blessing because they have such a wide choice of professional lives to pursue.  To each their own. All are able to make a living doing what they enjoy. In some instances, the skilled, tech-educated make as much or more than those with a more basic liberal arts higher education. They are the skilled ones who have received a trade education, learning how to keep up with new skills and advances in technology that have often been first developed in the research halls and laboratories of higher education. Learning new skills is a lifelong pursuit in an era of rapid discoveries and rapid obsolescence. They will be the ones who survive AI.

The smartest thing I did in mentoring young trade-oriented family members was to equip them early, over 30 years ago, with computers, and I insisted they become computer literate. This, in turn, enabled them to learn more effectively and efficiently and apply this knowledge to their trades.  Keeping up with innovations is key to success in the trades long after individuals obtain their community college certificates or even the school of hard knocks. 

How the White male backlash to DEI motivates Trumpist policies

 

One of the real quandaries facing American culture and politics today is the White male backlash against the past 60-plus years of the Black civil rights and women's equality movements.  Anti DEI measures are now  official government policy as the Trump regime attempts to force down the throat of education institutions, corporate America, and all of the executive branch of the federal government with their anti-DEI edicts and requirements. Trump and some of his advisors imply, if not openly in words, but in their political actions and policy goals, that White men are by their nature superior to any women and men of color. Publicly, this is not stated public policy, but by their deeds, we can deduct. 

Case in point: remember how quick Trump and his minions were to condemn the crash at the airport at the Potomic on diversity in the control towers? Trump rails against DEI after DC plane crash, but it doesn't apply to air traffic controllers - ABC News

 The anti-DEI movement has its roots in claiming that what we once called "affirmative action" discriminates against white men and therefore does not get us the best quality we need to run the government and the military... Hiring by "merit" standards is preferable to the DEI they now tout. It is a standard that Trump's appointees do not exemplify, but give their support to, anyway.

Whatever you think of their ideological purity, incompetence was never the main thrust of criticism of any Democratic or Republican appointees to important cabinet posts in my memory, and it was particularly diverse in the Obama and Biden years.  If Trump was out to prove the superiority of his race over others, he just illustrated the opposite with some of his very unqualified cabinet appointees, most of whom got his attention as FOX commentators or outspoken MAGA boosters in other positions of power or campaign contributors.   

Touting meritorious hiring as the better standard supported by those so opposed to anti-DEI is, in reality, a deceptive cover for racial and sexist attitudes, as the practices of the Trump administration and appointments in the first 100 days exemplify. Merit was not the characteristic of excellence for these appointments to positions of great power. 

Watching the very white across-the-board appointees to positions of power, cabinet and staff appointees of the Trump executive branch, is visual evidence of Trumpist inclinations. Women are included if they meet a certain standard of being ready for FOX TV types.  Other than that deviation from the white male supremacist attitude, women are still not the preferred hire throughout today's US society. Per a very balanced and down the middle discussion by USA Today of the anti-DEI ideology of Trumpist rule, and not necessarily the rule of law. "Today, white men still dominate the corridors of power.Even with recent gains, Black Americans are outnumbered 12 to 1 by white people in executive roles."  https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/03/04/trump-dei-backlash-explained/81170427007/.Still, white males feel discriminated against, having to compete for power with women and men of color.

Given the constant reports of ignorance of laws and the agencies Cabinet members were appointed to lead,(looking more like they were chosen for a TV reality show), the first 100 days do not prove the point that White people were superior just because of their White race. ( Being a billionaire was also a criterion for appointment approval, as well.) Incompetence was right there to observe on TVespecially exemplified by  Homeland Security Secretary Kristi  Noem's feigned or real lack of understanding of the, fith and 14th amendments of the Constituion regarding due process and deportations, and stumble bumble Defense Secretary  Pete Hegseth's abuse of his cell phone for reporting very sensitive military operations in real time. Anti-science Robert F Kennedy Jr, as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a frightening example of quacks determining what citizens should believe about immunizations and other issues. Heaven help America if we are faced again with a COVID-like crisis because RFK, Jr. will not be trusted to help. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s FDA Commissioner Marty Makarty Wants Diabetics to Get Cooking Classes Over Insulin is his newest quackery.

  Topping the charts was Elon Musk's total lack of understanding of the mission of government agencies when he took his chainsaw to them without any regard to what services they provided people needed.  If there was a pattern, those that got the brunt of his DOGE act were those right wing conservatives had been trying to axe for years that provided "socialist" safety nets to the least of those able to care for themselves or protections against corporation practices that screw consumers and the environment.  Musk's incompetence was his lack of knowledge of the wheels of government. This was coupled with self-serving motivation of subversion of agencies of which he disapproved, or harmed his businesses, with the protection of consumers from bad business practices. While he never found large quantities of abuse, feeding kids who are hungry any place in the world, those who are too sick or too old, who need health care, were a de facto waste of money, worthy of his chainsaw.

Above, all uppity women of any color or white need not apply for a job in the Trump administration. They should be especially targeted for retribution by using or abusing the power of the executive branch, calling for their impeachment and jail, particularly if they are judges ruling against Trumpist edicts. Especially singled out for revenge by using abuse of power are educational institution that permits the expression of divergent views on racism and DEI.  Only one view is to be taught: anti-DEI.  

Using Harvard as an example of their revenge against a powerful center daring to stand up for their rights on teaching DEI and anti-DEI both (academia has a way of permitting debate and a variety of views ), has fortunately been temporarily restrained by a federal judge. At stake are First Amendment rights and due process requirements of contract law, research rights and funding of disease causes and cures,  and the denial of foreign student visas. It is as if every foreign student were a Hamas supporter, as anti-Semitism was used as a pretext for their crackdown on Harvard.  This over-the-top abuse of power will probably not stand in courts, but it will serve to put every other institution on notice that they, too, could be Harvard. From the Trump administration's view, public opinion will be on their supporters' side. Anti-pointy heads have been a streak of the political right as long as I can remember, dating back to the Adlai Stevenson campaign loss in the 1950s. Yes, I am that old.

(Note: I am a white  Christian woman who has lived long enough, born in one of the reddest states in the union, served in public office, to be sensitive to certain smells emitted by certain public administrators and elective officials.)

How much of this anti-DEI stuff is Trump himself just being a racist? It was he himself ranting against brown migrants on one hand and welcoming white migrants from South Africa and Norway on the other.  In campaigning in New England and Iowa in the presidential campaign of 2024, it was Trump himself who condemned immigrants at the border for "adultering our blood," straight out of Mein Kampf.  At Iowa rally, Trump doubles down on comments about immigrants poisoning the nation’s blood | PBS News

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: What Trump's actions reveal about him    Is Trump himself a white nationalist?  A white supremacist?

At Iowa rally, Trump doubles down on comments about immigrants poisoning the nation’s blood | PBS News

Civil rights leaders warn DEI rollbacks could erase hard-fought gains in the workplace.

Without DEI, "we risk reverting to environments where homogeneity is the norm, bias and discrimination go more unchecked and the status quo remains unchallenged, where our nation will increasingly default to the belief that competence and privilege lie first and foremost with white men," said Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, president of the Christian nonprofit Sojourners.

Fascism in action: Trump takes retalitory action against Harvard update tp 5/27/25

 

Trump administration says Harvard can no longer enroll international students

Trump again blasts Harvard over international students as judge blocks revocation : NPR

Trump cuts all federal contracts with Harvard: Harvard president urges school to stand 'firm' against Trump as prez yanks all federal funding    $3 billion dollars worth

Fascism in action: Trump administration takes retaliatory action against Harvard for ideological reasons...they refused to bow down to demands to purge faculty and course instruction that reflected Trump's anti-DEI ideology. A quarter of Harvard students are international. Harvard's ability to conduct research is likewise being crippled. Harvard will take this to court...but the lesson for the rest of US universities Trumpism sends is loud and clear. Fold, or you too will be Harvard.

Fascism and soviet communism have in common some of the same dictatorial methods. The last time I saw that happen was in communism. Communism and fascism use the same techniques to control the heart and minds of their citizens. I was a first-hand witness to how communists gained control of universities in Berlin and in Yugoslavia when I was a student in Berlin in 1958. The result was a brain drain as the best and the brightest fled East Germany for the academic West, and it is why the Wall was built a couple of years later.

Harvard hits Trump administration with lawsuit after DHS bans international students

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Totalitarianism: another term for fascism

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Bravo Harvard, my late husband ,schooled in a Communst dictatorship ,would have been proud of you

msn.com

Trump administration says Harvard can no longer enroll international students

Totalitarianism: another term for fascism

 There is an old term, a leftover from WWII and the Cold War. It refers to Nazis, Soviet Communists, and other full blown dictatorships regardless of ideology. It is totalitarianism. The Trump administration's war on Harvard is an example of what could be a beginning. Totalitarianism means not only control over the function and public policies of government, but control over what individuals and nongovernmental institutions should think, do, believe, speak about, and promote. If the edicts are not obeyed, there will be consequences ranging from defunding to closing them down, if not sending the non-compliant on a trip to a gulag or the ovens. Academic freedom is no longer, nor are First Amendment rights. The purpose is not only to promote the ideology of the dictator, but also to control the minds and bodies of their citizens so that there is no opposition to the dictator's power.

The original demand letter from the Trump administration was to virtually take over the curriculum, the appointees to the teaching staff, and the ideology(anti-DEI?) to which the University was to be loyal.Read the Trump Administration’s Letter to Harvard - The New York Times The pretext was anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas demonstrations; they (the Trump administration) deemed them out of control ...The violator was the president of Harvard, in particular, who is Jewish. Upping the threat, Trump now threatened to remove the tax-exempt status of Harvard and announced the freezing of 2 billion in federal funds and grants, which Harvard countersued. Then, Trump escalates fight against Harvard - POLITICO threatening to yank tax-exempt status and control foreign student admissions.  This is not just Trump's war on Harvard but also an attack against all other private universities in the US if Trump succeeds with his threats. Most of his threats are unlawful or unconstitutional, but likely popular with some of his base elements who resent intellectuals,  creative and critical thinkers, and even reject science.  

The same was attempted on my alma mater, Northwestern, whose president is Jewish. Gov. Pritzger of Illinois, also Jewish, railed at his religion being used as a pretext. Gov. Pritzker blasts Republicans and ‘do-nothing Democrats' in fiery speech (FULL)(see minute 17.8-9)

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Bravo Harvard, my late husband ,schooled in a Communst dictatorship ,would have been proud of you

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Fascism is shaping youth to believe in the leader's ideology: it's happening

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/05/trump-harvard-grants

From my Feb. 8 blog post:

In modern times, dictators achieve their position and keep it, not by ovens, or even gulags. They do it by controlling the message: "The central goal remains the same: to monopolize political power. But today’s strongmen realize that in current conditions, violence is not always necessary or even helpful. Instead of terrorizing citizens, a skillful ruler can control them by reshaping their beliefs about the world. He can fool people into compliance and even enthusiastic approval. In place of harsh repression, the new dictators manipulate information. Like spin doctors in a democracy, they spin the news to engineer support. They are spin dictators. How Do Dictatorships Survive in the 21st Century? | Andrew Carnegie Fellows | Carnegie Corporation of New York

Taking a lesson from history, we have experience with dictatorships that do more than just control the mechanics of government: They control those they govern's hearts and minds, too.: Communist takeover in Europe post World War II followed another dictatorship in Germany, Hitler's. The ideology was different, but the techniques to get and maintain the hearts and minds of those they ruled were similar. It was more than just the form and practice of a government. One was "the dictatorship of the proletariat," and the other was fascism, but they both required ideological purity of the hearts and minds in all aspects of their subject's lives, not only in their daily work-a-d ay jobs and obeyance of laws but also in their heads and hearts, beliefs and arts. We called it "totalitarianism" once, a term that has not been used lately. It is not just control of the reins of government. It is the control by the government of thoughts, personal lives, who or if they worship, which news and what slant of the news they get, what music they hear, what literature they read, which kind of movies they see, and what kind of art is politically correct, all in service to the political leadership.  Diversity of thought and lifestyles are suppressed or access denied.  That is the worst kind of dictatorship, one that demands conformity of entire lives, or else. It is time to dust off the term "totalitarianism" as an extreme form of dictatorship and to recognize it as an evil to fear and to resist.  We are not there yet, but we could be.

Bravo Harvard, my late husband ,schooled in a Communst dictatorship ,would have been proud of you

 The attempt by Trump to require Harvard to only hire professors and teach a curriculum that Trump approves of reminded me of a story my late husband told. He was in medical school in his home university in Communist Yugoslavia, which was ruled by dictator Tito. In his final oral exams, he was asked by the committee of professors. His knowledge of medicine was not in question. Still, he was asked to explain the answer to a medical challenge in terms of the ideology: How does this fit into Marx's dialectical materialism? Mike was no dummy, and he passed, but it left him both angered and amused. Mike became a refugee in time and finished med school in Switzerland with both an MD and a Phd. Communist-controlled medical school degrees in the West were not honored and were considered no better than a pre-med undergraduate degree. He passed away a few years ago after our 52 year marriage and a highly successful life in the US, but often, he repeated the story of the absurdity of the oral exam question as an example of the absurdity of having any government demanding compliance to an ideology as a condition of getting degree from a univiserity and why he became a refugee. This letter to Harvard reminded me of the absurdity of Trump's actions, that was akin to what he experienced in a dictatorship. Bravo Harvard. It was a proud moment for Dr. Mike when he attended the ceremony when his son received his master's degree from Harvard. If there is a lesson to be learned, such actions by dictators lead to brain drain from their countries. It is already happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf1z0ggh32A

Update 5/1/2025 Trump says he's revoking Harvard's tax-exempt status: 'It's what they deserve!'

Update 4/22/2025 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/read-the-full-letter-from-universities-opposing-government-intrusion

reuters.com

After Harvard rejects US demands, Trump adds new 

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to strip Harvard of its tax-ex


Bravo, Northwestern. It will self-fund Trump's defunding of federal-funded $790 million in research projects . The projects will continue as the Big Ten schools join together in a self-defense pact to come to the mutual aid of Trump's anti-academia crusade. Northwestern, by the way, had already self-implemented a plan against anti-semitism, but still Trump took them on. To me that shows his real aim is to end academic freedom. His anti-Semitism crusade is a tool. The other takeaway: it makes no difference if a university voluntarily or under threat makes a deal to do as they are told by Trump regarding taking steps against anti-semitism. The Trump administration is still trying to hold Columbia to a consent decree even though Columbia "made a deal". He has a wider agenda/ It is to suppress academia which can challenge his agenda. He is power-mad. I am proud to say Northwestern is my alma mater. https://www.highereddive.com/news/northwestern-university-touts-decline-in-antisemitic-harassment-amid-lawmak/744137/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2025/04/18/northwestern-university-will-continue-funding-grants-frozen-by-feds/
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/04/16/columbia-appears-reject-consent-decree
A faculty revolt is brewing,.https://dailynions-on-academic-freedom-to-faculty-assembly/  https://dailynorthwestern.com/2025/04/15/lateststories/nu-aaup-to-bring-resolutions-on-academic-freedom-to-faculty-assembly/