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It would, I think, be genuinely useful if Chuck Schumer were politically ruined after last week.
There’s a limit to how useful it actually is to direct our energies specifically at elected politicians right now. Politicians aren’t going to save us. BUT: institutional leaders of many stripes (.gov, .edu, .org, and .com alike) are still acting much, much more afraid of the consequences of •fighting• than they are of the consequences of •compliance•.
We can change that. Make compliance ruin some high-profile careers. Make examples out of a few people. Schumer. Newsom. The Columbia admin. Tar and feather them. https://flipboard.com/@vanityfair/top-stories-ur1oga9sz/-/a-CUoIJMw5TYa3em_8zTUjJg%3Aa%3A3195374-%2F0
Speaking of which:
What’s going on at Columbia? What’s the state of the resistance there?
Columbia just •rescinded• degrees they’d granted. This wasn’t even just a politically motived expulsion, which would already be utterly horrifying. They ••revoked diplomas•• already granted.
That means if you get a degree from Columbia, you might suddenly, at the political whim of any random president, not have a degree anymore. All that money you paid, all that work you did? Poof! It can disappear overnight!
Can you imagine?! Can you imagine what that does to the expected value of a Columbia degree??
If I were a prospective student, I would really think twice about accepting an offer from Columbia now. Nope nope nope.
And if I were a current student, an alum, faculty…well, I’d be out for administrators’ heads on pikes (figuratively speaking), because everything I’ve invested in that place is going up in smoke.
An elite college degree is an investment with a payoff horizon of 20 or 40 or 60 years. It’s costly — not just in money, but in time, energy, years of life. People are only willing to invest in it because they believe the investment will endure.
If a Columbia degree is like a cheap roof that might just leak or collapse at any time, what’s their case? “Give us four years of your life, drain your savings, go into debt! Everything you worked for •might not• suddenly collapse!! Our degrees are just cheap paper anyway, right??”
Yes, strategies like this from @jhlibby:
https://newsie.social/@jhlibby/114179160299839205
You don’t even have to sue them out of existence. You just have to make the administration believe that they •could• face a devastating lawsuit.
Make them more afraid of complying with fascists than they are of fighting fascists. Make compliance existentially dangerous.
And look, in the unlikely event that anyone reading this actually thinks this was a reasonable thing for Columbia to do, if you think “oh, •those• students deserved it“…
…I want you to ask yourself, honestly, whether you can imagine the Trump administration ordering Columbia to rescind the degrees of — say — trans graduates. Because I can.
And I want you to ask yourself, honestly, whether you can imagine the current leadership of Columbia refusing that order. Because at this point, I sure can’t.
@inthehands If they can just revoke degrees, where does it end? What's to stop them from retroactively revoking scholarships? Or from modifying the authorship of papers? Why not revoke the enrollment itself? If a president, or a donor, or a regent just doesn't like you or your politics, it seems that Columbia thinks they can just obliterate any portion of your life that has touched that university.
@jenniferplusplus @inthehands Not to diminish any of this, but it looks like the degree revocations are temporary, and for “students” (not alumni), with some kind of process for reinstatement. I can’t tell if this means they’ve revoked the potential to earn a degree, or revoked already-earned undergrad degrees from current graduate students, or what. But these details seem to have been overlooked by everyone posting about it.
https://communications.news.columbia.edu/news/university-statement-regarding-ujb-determinations
@dwineman @inthehands I'm not sure how that detail changes the fundamental dynamic, though? It sounds like a veneer of process laid over arbitrary self proclaimed authority.
@jenniferplusplus @inthehands The only thing it would change in my mind is the notion that it devalues a Columbia degree because they can claw it back once you’re no longer affiliated with the university, perhaps studying somewhere else or years into your career. Instead it seems to apply only to current CU students. It’s possible that those students are already under a code of conduct that allows this to happen.
But yes, either way it’s a very bad line to see crossed.
@dwineman @inthehands that doesn't make any actual difference, though. This is a power they gave themselves, and used arbitrarily. Whatever restriction they've self imposed can also be self removed. It's just an illusion make this seem more palatable to you.
@dwineman @jenniferplusplus @inthehands
Let's make a fucking example of this shithole university with a heart of ICE. Nothing crosses a red line more than throwing a student to ICE.
First pressure point is to get a boot on their economic air hose by harassing donors until they stop giving money. Then campaign against their funding everywhere else. Create a scenario where they are being simuiltaniously punished for complying with Trump and for being ineffective in doing so.
@dwineman @jenniferplusplus
AIUI, the degrees were •already granted•. In what sense that means “not alumni,” I’m not sure.
And yes, it’s “temporary” as in “we’re gauging the reaction and trying to figure out what we can get away with.” Executives tend to be profoundly fear-driven people, especially at large institutions; they’ll hedge and waffle until the end of time.
That’s why pushback now is so important. If this blows up in their face, I’m sure they’ll have been “just reviewing” and never mind; if it buys them favor, then of course the “temporary” part was just a bit of perfunctory due process on the way to permanent recovation.