July 31, 2025 • 41 mins
Brown University joins other Ivy League schools in making a deal with the Trump Administration. Will this improve the education?
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
You can hear NightSide with Dan Rea, Live! Weeknights From 8PM-12AM on WBZ - Boston's News Radio.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's nice with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I had hoped that we would continue our conversation about
the airlines using artificial intelligence in pricing going forward, try
to explain it as best I could. Not a lot
of interest, so we move on. All of you who
are sitting there saying, well, I'd like to talk about it,
but I really want to learn about it. Well, we're
(00:26):
not going to talk about it if there isn't enough
interest people to talk about it. However, I want to
move on because the Boston Globe tomorrow will be reporting
on I assume on the deal that the Brown administration.
Brown University has now apparently agreed to adopt some of
(00:53):
the Trump's administration's demands. They're also, I believe, going to
pay fifty million dollars. They announced an agreement late this
month to pay fifty million dollars to support Rhode Island
workforce development initiatives. I like that. That is something that
(01:15):
is good. I mean, it's going to help people in
Rhode Island. But then the Broad administration's agreement will adhere
to the administrations, meaning the Trump Administration's transgender athlete policies
and implement merit based admissions in exchange for the restoration
of frozen research funding. So let's let's go to the
(01:39):
Globe piece tomorrow in which current and former students at
Brown University expressed alarm on Thursday at the university's decision
to adopt the Trump administration's definition of male and female,
arguing its shuns transgender and non binary students on a
campus that is typically a beacon of inclusivity. Brown agreed
(02:02):
to adopt the definitions. By the way, I'm reading from
an article by Steph Machado and Alexa Gagauz the Globe staff.
This hit at about seven oh eight tonight. Brown agreed
to adopt the definitions from President Trump's executive orders on
quote restoring biological truth and keeping men out of women's sports,
(02:23):
as part of a sweeping agreement that restores millions of
scientific research dollars to the university and resolves an investigation
by the federal government into alleged anti semitism on campus. Now,
in the article, there is a I think there's a
picture that basically shows an encampment at Brown, the Gaza
(02:48):
Solidarity Encampment pro Palestinian encampment at Brown University in Providence
April twenty fourth of twenty twenty four, at the height
of most six months after the brutal attack by Himas
on the Kabbuzers in which men and women, older men
(03:09):
and women were slaughtered and children were also slaughtered. So
the concessions are all more notable on a campus where
nearly forty percent of students do not identify as straight.
According to a twenty twenty three survey published by the
school newspaper, The Brown Daily Herald, just over twenty two
(03:31):
percent of gen Z those would be everybody who's let's
see at Brown now would be members of gen Z
because gen Z were people who were born after nineteen
ninety six, between nineteen ninety six and twenty twelve. So
(03:56):
if you're a freshman, well no, actually, yeah, Well everybody
who would be eighteen years old and a freshman at
Brown right now would have been in school from twenty
fourteen to twenty eighteen. So yeah, all of these folks
who were at Brown would be gen z Ers. You
got to do that math, guys. So according to a
(04:19):
twenty twenty three survey published by the school newspaper, just
over twenty two percent of gen Z twenty two percent
of gen Z identifies as LGBTQ, according to a recent
Gallup poll in Taliu Reese, a co president of the
(04:40):
Planned Parenthood Advocates at Brown, said to have made an
agreement in the backs of our queer and trans friends
is really shameful. This is a student club that advocates
for reproductive rights and gender affirming care. Students want to
feel their identities are supported by the university. Recent co president,
(05:01):
Cara Hutton, both studying public health, to the group was
not immediately concerned about Brown's promise as part of the
agreement to provide gender affirming surgery or puberty blockers, not
to not provide gender affirming surgery or puberty blockers to minors.
Since the few students at the university are under the
age of eighteen, Brown has never performed set surgeries. Instead,
(05:22):
it would refer those students to outside medical care. The
agreement does not affect Brown University Health, the hospital system
known as Lifespan Corp. That now bears the university's name.
So what this shows me is a trend. Columbia University
has reached an agreement in late July to pay two
(05:45):
hundred million dollars, a two hundred million dollar fine, and
implement policy to restore federal funding, including overhauling its student
disciplinary process and adopting a federally backed definition of antisemitism.
The University of Sylvania has agreed to comply with White
House demands regarding transgender athletes and women's sports, and to
(06:05):
modify records relating to a transgender swimmer, settling a federal
civil rights case in July of twenty twenty five, and
that is the trensgender swimmert Lea Thomas and now Brown University.
Harvard is also reportedly in negotiations for a similar agreement,
and Harvard is the speculation is going to pay five
(06:27):
hundred million dollars based upon the Columbia settlement. And I'm
sure there's some correlation between what the endowment is at Columbia,
which is i'm sure is significant, but is very significant.
At Harvard, their endowment, i believe is over fifty billion dollars.
Maybe it's north of sixty billion dollars. So you've got
(06:49):
to look these in comparison. The administration is also target
at Cornell, Northwestern Duke, and Princeton University by freezing billions
of dollars in federal funding. Princeton has announced that dozens
of research grants were suspended without a clear rationale. But
it sounds to me as if in this fight with
(07:10):
colleges and universities, the Trump administration is winning. I'm surprised
by that, as they say they have gone after Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton,
amongst you know, Brown, et cetera. Additionally, the Trump administration
(07:31):
has been investigating more than sixty universities for alleged anti
Semitic demonstration, discrimination, and potential enforcement actions. That's according to NPR.
It's interesting. So I just want to give you an
opportunity here. If these reports are accurate, I think they are.
(07:52):
One of the things that the Trump administration has done
in the first six months is they have changed, at
least at some big time universities and colleges Ivy League
schools in Columbia. Hence you Pen, now Brown, and maybe
soon Harvard. They have extracted some concessions out of these schools.
(08:18):
You have to look at that, whether you like them
or not, as a victory for the Trump administration. So
my question is, are you surprised that the schools have
rolled over or are you not surprised that the schools
have rolled over. It seems to me that the schools,
who had plenty of options to fight legally, have made
(08:42):
a decision that discretion is the better part of valor
in this situation. And it leads me to believe that
maybe everything that the Trump administration was saying about some
of these, again more elite universities might be true. Because
(09:03):
if the allegations weren't true, why not fight him in court.
All of these universities have plenty of lawyers available. I'd
love to hear from you. This is These are no
matter whether you like Donald Trump or not. As these
universities fall into place, these are these are victories for
(09:25):
the Trump administration six one, seven, two, five, four thirty, six, one, seven, ninety.
If you want to talk about it, let's go. If
you don't, we'll move on to something else. We had
great success in our nine o'clock hour with doctor Sharok Julisi.
I thank all the callers during that hour. Last hour
of the airlines using AI and pricing not quite as active.
(09:49):
But this is one that should appeal to people across
the country. You can criticize the Trump administration or you
can pat them on the back, but I think they
are getting results to me quicker and more significant than
I thought they would achieve. Coming back on Nightside six
one seven, two four ten thirty six one seven, nine
(10:11):
three one ten thirty. We're back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
All right, I am going to at some point read
some of the specifics of the Columbia Settlement, which has
been characterized by some as what would be the blueprint
for other universities to follow. But in the meantime, let
me go to Bernie. Hey, Bernie, welcome back. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm lol, Dan you so I'm doing fine.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I'm doing absolutely fine tonight so far. But it's early.
Go ahead, Bernie, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I mean this is just my opinion. I don't have
a lot of facts and knowledge about Harvard University.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
My opinion on that is their model veritas, which is true.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You would think that they would stand on principal. I'm
a man that stands on princival and I made a
lot of mistakes and always having to be right when
you don't always have to be right. But this seemed
like a very important topic that they they were fighting
for right and then you know, and then when I
heard they had the two lawyers that lead in their
case against against the Trump administration of kind of pro
(11:24):
Trump lawyers, you know, they picked it. Listen, like you said, Harvard,
like that's what they do. They produce lawyers the best
in the world, the best, and they picked through that
were kind of pro Trump because maybe there was some
true to it. I mean, there was, we know there
was some true to it. The administration got a little
(11:46):
carried away with some of the limen politics that they
allowed to infuse into their university. And they nowadays they
with discretion being the better part of that. As you said,
they known it. There's some truth to it, and it's
no the battle has to be one are at least settled.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of conservative professors,
not a lot, but there are some conservative professors at
Harvard who have urged Harvard not to fold. But at
this point we know Columbia has agreed. Now Brown has agreed,
and the University of Pennsylvania have agreed. Those are three
(12:30):
Ivy League schools. There are only eight Ivy League schools,
so right now, Trump's batting average is about three seventy five,
which you know is pretty good. And if Harvard falls
in line, and these are some substantial changes. This is
the Columbia deal. Okay. Colombia has agreed to pay two
(12:51):
hundred and twenty million dollars for alleged violations of federal
anti discrimination laws. That's a big amount of money. Okay. Now,
the agreement does clear the way for Columbia to keep
or to get about four hundred million in grants that
have been canceled. So they're getting back there grants. Okay,
(13:13):
but what have they done. They're paying two hundred million.
They're also paying twenty one million to settle alleged civil
rights violations against Jewish employees that occurred following the October seventh,
twenty twenty three Jimas attack on Israel. Twenty one million
dollars to settle civil rights violations against Jewish employees. We're
(13:36):
not even talking about students. A pledge to end diversity programs.
Colombia has agreed to review its Middle East curriculum and
appoint new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish
Studies who contribute to a robust and intellectually diverse academic environment.
To further support Jewish students on campus. The agreement calls
(13:58):
for a new administrative to serve as the liaison on
anti Semitism issues. Colombia has also agreed to new vetting
for prospective international students. The agreement calls for introducing questions
designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in
the United States and establish processes to make sure all
(14:21):
students are committed to civil discourse. I think that's eminently reasonable,
to be honest with you. They also agree to the
administration's interpretation of Title nine, the federal law barring sex
discrimination and education. The Trump officials have used the law
to force the removal of transgender athletes from women's sports.
(14:44):
The deal calls for Columbia to abide restrictions it agreed
to on campus protests, including a ban on face coverings
used to conceal demonstrators' identities. It says protests inside academic
buildings are not acceptable under the university's Code of Contact.
There's a lot of changes that are going to be taken.
I think Columbia University will be a better place for
(15:07):
students to be really honest with you.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh, absolutely, Dan, And that's what my opinion. A lot
of colleges that are leaders, as we well know, but
they still have to produce students and of the future
of America. And America is starting to lean more conservatives,
you know, and maybe the Trump is trying to nudge
(15:33):
that along. And it's not a bad thing. And we
went so far left that everything was wrong everything everybody.
If you stated your opinion and someone didn't agree with it,
you're You're wrong, You're bad. It was like you weren't
entitled to your opinion anymore. And I think middle of
America had enough of that and said, let's be reasonable here.
(15:53):
We can all be entitled to our opinions. As long
as I don't impose my will upon you, I'm entitled
to it.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And by the way, the Trump administration has been very
specific in how they have done this. They have used
federal dollars as leverage, okay, but they have They have
gotten three of the big Ivy League schools, three of
the eight two. I don't want to use the word
(16:24):
capitulate because that's too strong a word, but they have
agreed to the proposals and the changes that the Trump
administration is looking to impose and I think that from
what I can see is it's going to lead to
a more vigorous campus life for students, simple as that
you'll have hopefully a more diverse student body in many ways,
(16:50):
but also including a diverse philosophically of student body. This
more diverse philosophically so which I think.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Hopefully, hopefully that trickles on down into high school and
middle school and elementary because the teachers, you know, I
know when my my children were in school, my childs
were in school, they they tried to put values into
my children that my wife and I did not agree
with them. My children did not. They were raised on
(17:19):
basic Christian principles and the school didn't think that that
was okay. They wanted them to believe like everything's okay,
and that's not true. My children are entitled to their
belief They're not children, they're young adults.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Were these public schools in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, they were. Yes, there was a public schools and
my daughter just real quick, my daughter, there was like
this whole uh transsexual thing or whatever. This one girl
or boy one day you had they wanted this name
and that name and and my daughter wouldn't do it.
She called them by her real name, and the teacher
called her in. They called me in, and and and
(17:59):
I said, listen, I got to say to learn, you know,
to be educated. She's not here to remember everybody's name
that they choose for any given day. She's entitled to
call them by their name.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And the school was very upset about that.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
They did the school threaten your daughter or you or
did they go along.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
With They treated my daughter very poorly from then on,
and there was a sad situation. But that's the way
it was five years ago, six years ago. And now
I think people have gained their senses.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Well I think I think they got so silly. They
said to students, and you know in communities, well you
can't have you know, green and red cup These are
like second grade students, you can't have green red cupcakes
at Christmas because we don't we don't celebrate Christmas. We'll
do a winter celebration. And you know, kids in the
(18:56):
second grade, they're all, it's got nothing to do with religion.
For at that age, they're thinking about Santa Claus and presents.
And you know, as they were taking it almost as
if they wanted to take the joy out of a
holiday that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
They and the innocence. It was the innocent, and they
wanted to remove the innocence and make them believe their
what they're belief for and instill them and the children.
And that's the parents job in this country. It should
be the parents.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Absolutely, Absolutely, some of these schools, if if a child
goes in and says that they want to you know,
you know, dress up in a an the gender different
from whether it's assigned it at birth, I think that
that the parents have to be incorporated in that. But
some of the schools basically said, uh no, the child
(19:48):
can have you know, whatever type of clothes they have here,
and we're not going to tell the parents. So wage
you know that. Okay, I got a screwed because.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I gotta get got Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Again. Those of you who think that the universities have
I should stand stronger. I'd love to hear why give
me a call, we can have a civil conversation. I
think these universities will actually be better. Now. I know
a lot of you aren't going to agree with me
on that, but I think that that these universities are there.
(20:23):
It's it's not really a social experiment. I mean, if
somebody is is gay or transgender and they want to
go to a school and they're accepted, that's great, no
big deal. But I don't think that when you have
men competing in women's sports. I agree with Seth Molten,
(20:44):
the Democratic congressman from the North Shore, that's you know,
if you want to have uh, you know sports. For example,
there's a there's a football game called tag football flag
football that doesn't include contact uh, and that's going to
(21:05):
be like a co ed type sport. Great, no problem,
No problem. Anyway. I want to focus not so much
on the the issues at hand, although I'm more than
happy to talk about them. I want to focus on
the fact that three Ivy League universities, now Brown, first Columbia,
then you Penn, and now Brown have acquiesced to the
(21:27):
demands of the Trump administration. Now, the Trump administration was
leveraging federal dollars, but I think that the Trump administration
has made has had some successes here which I didn't anticipate.
I'd love to know your thoughts. Six one, seven, five,
four ten thirty, six one seven, nine, three ten thirty Again,
(21:49):
this is a national story. So feel free wherever you're
listening to give us a call. We're back on night
Side Run after the News.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Night Side, Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
So we're talking about the Trump administration winning agreements with
three Ivy League schools, Columbia, U Penn and Tonight Brown.
And I'd love to know if you think that is
a good development or a dangerous development and why. I
think the fact that these schools have agreed as quickly
(22:27):
as they have done indicates that they feel that there
probably was some substance to the complaints that the Trump
administration brought to their door. I think that they could
have withstood the challenge if they chose. Jay is also
in New Hampshire, two for New Hampshire to start us off.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Go right ahead, Jay, Yeah, Dan, I think the straw
that broke the camel's back was definitely the Palestinian guys
of protest, if you recalled. Some of the presidents did
put up a fight for a little while. I think
a couple of them just refused to, uh, you know,
(23:09):
make the corrections or just in any way they resigned.
But I think it just well right.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
There were the three college professors who were embarrassed, including
the president of Harvard, who eventually resigned her position professor.
There were I think it was U, Penn, M I
T and Harvard, and it cost the president of Harvard
(23:35):
her job. There's a there's a new president Harvard now.
So yeah, I just I think I think the Trump
administration put a stake in the ground and they said,
we're going to get these folks to change. Now. They
had the leverage of millions of dollars of federal funds.
Some people might say, you know, it was unfeared to
(23:57):
use that leverage. You could you could you that, but
it was you know, you know Claude Deine Gay is
now the former president of Harvard because of her performance
in front of that House committee in December of twenty
twenty three. It was it was the ploor. It was abysmal,
an abysmal performance.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Yeah, I think they they definitely saw the writing on
the wall after all that took place, and I think
they I think they're starting to realize that, oh, we're
gonna in the It was if the school's further, you know,
they they they had to kind of stop realizing. I
(24:41):
would I would assume you know, they came to their
senses and started to say to themselves, all right, we're
gonna we're gonna get back to reasonableness here.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, and they did. And now we're going to see
how this plays out. Obviously, the three schools in question,
three of the eight Ivy League schools. What do you
think Harvard's going to do? I mean, Harvard has been
actually negotiating. My understanding is with the Trump administration, and
(25:11):
the Trump administration has doubled down and going after Harvard.
And I think that's a mistake on the Trump administration's behalf.
That if there could be changes made that they feel
would be helpful to the safety of students and also
diversity of opinion philosophy at Harvard, you know, fine, that's great.
(25:35):
I don't know anybody who would be opposed to that.
I mean, how can you be opposed to safety of students?
I mean, how can you possibly take that position? And
whether the Jewish students or not, but particularly if they
are Jewish students. And then in terms of having a
little more philosophical diversity on campus, what's the problem with that?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I mean, yeah, it seems to be like and also
you now in harvests case, they're going to to pay
about five hundred million dollars and they can afford it.
But that's that's gonna be. That's a half a billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the money behind Harvard. I mean
you're talking to talking to enigma. I mean from the
little that I've seen, and you know, I guess it
gets a little conspiratorial. But I mean there's just a
lot unline as far as money, where it comes from,
(26:39):
how much they have different sources. I mean, they have
kind of a scary background if you ask me personally
as far as what's going on, you know, behind the
scenes money wise. But you know, they they've have had
all these situations with Chinese nationals. I mean, I mean
(27:01):
they've had they had.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
One professor or one professor over there who now is
teaching in a Chinese university who was convicted here I
think of espionage. I don't have the the the indictment
in front of me or the plea.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
But but Harvard. Look, I have two kids who went
to Harvard. Okay, it's a great university. It's probably the
most prestigious university in the world. I think that, uh,
the the admissions. People at Harvard do their best to
attract as many different people as possible, different points of
(27:38):
view as possible, and kids from different backgrounds that you know,
there are some kids who come out of, you know,
very prestigious private schools, and then there are kids who
come out of some of the the largest public schools
in major American cities. I think the concern with Harvard
is that it became everybody's thinking the same way, and
(27:59):
now they probably have, as my friend Harvey Silvergle used
to say, too many administrators. They had more administrators than
they had professors. I think they lost their way in
that regard a little bit. And maybe this will make
Harvard a better university. That's that's what I think should
be people's hope.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Appreciate, appreciate you taking the time to call and please
call again. Okay, thank you much.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Oh yeah, absolutely, damn thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Have good Okay, good night. I got some open lines here,
which is frustrating. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. If
you feel the universities have surrendered in agreeing with the
Trump administration, I'd love to hear that perspective. If you
feel that the Trump administration found a way found in
(28:51):
Avenue in which they could force these universities to get
back on course to what is going to be a
better academic experience for students and for faculty, make that
point as well. I'm going to go to Bill in Pennsylvania. Bill,
you next on Nightsiger.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Right ahead, Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call. Hey,
I think there's a couple of different factors involved here.
I agree with you, uh with your assessment, but I
can tell you pen okay down there in Philadelphia. Now,
I know some people down that way, there was that
then when they when when when they uh uh capitulated
(29:28):
and and and and uh and did what Trump told
them to do. There was absolutely hardly any pushback at
all to that down there at Philadelphia. I figure I
figured out, now they're gonna raise a holy kine about that.
But you know, there was a couple of days that
they said a few things, but there was no pushback.
And I can tell you I think that these I
(29:50):
think these universities are they have they're a little bit
afraid of not so much Trump, but Trump has a
has a cagre of of really smart people doing this
stuff for him.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, I think they are.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And and that obviously plays as well the fact having
leverage as the president of the United States and being
able to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars. That's going
to get the attention of the administrators, that's for sure.
Some people will say that's unfair, but that's that's one
of the tools in the toolbox that Donald Trump had here.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
And and and and the other thing was, you know,
there was a lot of there was a lot of uh,
television coverage of the protests and the anti Semitic stuff
that was going on. I mean we saw that on
on the on the television for you know, quite quite
a long time, and people could tune it in. Is
that what the heck? These kids should be studying, They
(30:50):
shouldn't be doing all this protesting and uh. And the
other thing is we have a feeling out here where
the rubber meets the road, Dan, that, uh, these professors
are all elitists, all right, some like you said, the
Harvard's a great school and they got really good professors there.
But when we see what's going on, we just get
the feeling down here in the hinterlands. You know, these
(31:15):
elitists are running these schools. And then the other thing
is Trump keeps winning at the Supreme Court, so they're
thinking to themselves, why fight it, because he'll take it
all the way to Supreme Court and we'll lose it
to Supreme Court.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Well, I guess you threw a lot on the table
there to converse about. I don't agree with the term elitist.
I mean, I think that people who are at the
top of their game. You could say that Major League
Baseball players, NFL players are elitists because they are the
(31:49):
best at what they do. So that doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is that at a university, at whatever level,
whether it's the University of Harvard, Harvard University or the
University of Pittsburgh near where you live, you want you
want kids to be able to go there and listen
(32:12):
to professors, be exposed at different points of view, be
forced to confront the fact maybe that their point of
view is going to be challenged. Oh, I mean, it's
it's not as if when you get accepted to Harvard
or you Pen you have all the truth on your side.
(32:35):
I just think that you have to be prepared to
to be challenged and to and to defend your your viewpoints,
whatever they might be, and find people on the campus
with whom you agree and disagree. That's what a college
education should be about. It's a petri dish of different ideas.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
That you know, and I don't know about. One number
that comes to my mind is could Harvard have as
many as seven thousand and foreign students there?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I don't think it was that high. They have as
an undergrad No, as an undergraduate university, they only accept
sixteen hundred students per year.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I know this.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
If you take the freshman, sophomore, undergrad, the four undergraduate
classes freshman, sophomore, junior, and seniors A, it's a total
of sixty four hundred students. Okay. They don't have anywhere
else to put him. They do have a law school,
there's graduate programs. They probably have ten thousand students there,
(33:45):
but it's a small percentage who are foreign foreign base students. Bill,
Thank you for checking and thank you for asking the question.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Well, can I ask you one other question? Dan?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Sure gotta be going go ahead.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
A couple of week weeks ago, the president okay, sign something, Okay,
I guess executive order saying that saying that churches, okay,
can uh, churches can uh endorse candidates. And I'm surprised
that that they get more pushback on it.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yeah, I am as well. In generally, if churches endorse candidates,
and and again that might that might be challenged in court.
If churches endorse candidates, you would expect that they would
lose their tax exempt status. I got to do a
little bit of research on that, and maybe we'll do
something with that. If not tomorrow night, some night next week.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I have a good evening.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
All right, thank you, Bill. I'm going to take a break.
Got a couple of open lines if you'd like to
join us six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
or six one, seven, nine three thirty. Are you I
can phrase this question in a bunch of different ways.
Are you surprised that President Trump has had more success
this quickly or has had success this quickly with Ivy
(34:59):
League Act academic institutions three so far, Brown, Columbia and
U penn Uh. And that you know the specifics of
all these cases are interesting, but they have all I
think conceded and agreed to comply generally with the demands
of the administration. Does that surprise you or does it
(35:22):
frighten you? Six one seven six one seven ninety Coming
right back to wrap the show.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Right after this, You're on Night Side with Dan Ray
on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Back we go to the callers who are on the line,
going to start it off with this. Laurie is in.
I know, hey, Laurie, thank you for calling in. How
are you tonight?
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Got warm? It's a nice here, but I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Is it warm out of Idaho? Well, it's been warm here,
but it's going to rain tonight and the weather's gonna break.
We're gonna have great days here in New England.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
Nice ninety five today and I think it's still ninety
But I am not complaining, okay, I you know, I'm
a little bit in agreement with you. I'm surprised that
Trump actually had success as quickly as he did. But
then I had a good friend of mine who always said,
always follow the money.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
So great line.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Yeah, money talks. And there's a lot of federal buckaroos
that go into these schools, which I, you know, I
guess I should have been aware of. I had no
idea how big it was. And so you know when
mister Purstring says, you know, you don't put your hand
in until you start acting more reasonably, that does not
scare me. I think it's it's it's reasonable, and you know,
(36:39):
the colleges need to sort of level our heads need
to prevail.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Well, I think I think this is a good sign.
And if they are happy with it, or if they
are at least our comply, are willing to comply with it, fine,
let's let's let's do it. Let's move on and let's
see if the schools become better places. Let's see if
the campus is become better for the students and better
for the professors.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Right, yeah, I think then there's I think somebody said,
if everybody's thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
That's a great line. I'm going to steal that line
from you, Okay, I that from you, simple as Laurie. Thanks.
I got three more. I'm going to try to. All
of a sudden, the lines are jumping here, so let
me get a couple more in as well.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
It's a real cookie. I'm good.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
All right, let me go next. Phil in Boston. Phil,
you gotta be quick for me because I got two more.
Go ahead, Phil.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I might be uh topic, but isn't it when you
go to college, I'm disupposed to you know, learn how
to speaking speak Latin whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
No nobody speaking Latin anymore. Trust there's probably some but
not many.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
When you go to college. You mean, I is also
want to do something like we want to be a mechanic.
You don't say, oh, only think about the loop bulls.
Why don't they just tease them what they're gonna do?
And I'm well have and is maybe the whole thing
will be clear up and it won't be happy. But
I mean, you go to school to learn be nice
(38:19):
to people, and.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, absolutely, just just like when you're in kindergarten, you know, uh,
follow follows rules, is kind to others, works well with others.
You know, all those things. You can learn a little bit,
and you learn that that you're not the You're not
the smartest person in the world. There's always gonna be
people small. It's one of the great lessons of college,
in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
But the A B C D just let me abc
ds be gentlemen, lady and do what you gotta do with.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
You gotta Phil, Thank you much. I appreciate if you
call earlier, I give you much more time. You know that.
Thank you, Phil, appreciate your call. I gotta get two
more in here real quickly, Dan and Topsfield.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
Dan next on Nightsiger, right ahead, I and thanks for
taking my call.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Three cars, three call, just have have comply with Trump.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yes, that's correct, Brown, U, Penn and UH and Columbia.
Speaker 7 (39:13):
That's Ivy League, right, all three, three of the eight ivys.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
That's right. There are only there are only eight Ivy
League schools.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
That's great.
Speaker 7 (39:21):
Anyhow, I got on my night side t shirt Ed
reads w b Z ten thirty news Radio night Side
with Dan Raid a voice of reason. Amen, I am.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
The voice of reason, no doubt about that. Thank you, dear.
I appreciate your call. Have a gone. Let me go
to Ron and Newton, RONN. I got about a minute left.
You're calling late, but I do appreciate your call.
Speaker 8 (39:43):
Okay, Dan. The question I have for you is is
this unprecedented? And I think about the president we had
who was known for the buckstop shear. There was a person,
an ordinary individual who came basically from this and stun
the world.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yep, Harry Truman, Yes, sir, Yeah, No, Harry Truman was
a was not a popular precedent in many respects, but
he he made some big decisions, some critical decisions, no
doubt how much. Tell me got here, Rob, tell me.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Okay, Rob, I'm ron final quick comment because I'm getting
tied on time. But you're right, maybe maybe Trump will
exceed expectations.
Speaker 8 (40:33):
No, I think historically it's not unprecedented and it doesn't
surprise me.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah. I think Ronald Reagan exceeded expectations, and I think
in some respects, yes, Bill Clinton exceeded expectations despite his
personal piccadillos. Let's put it like that. Thank you, Ron,
Thanks man talking to him. Okay, we're done for the night.
I am back tomorrow night. We'll have different topics, that's
(40:59):
for sure. But I want to thank everyone who called,
everyone who listened. I want to thank Rob, and I
want to thank Karen Buscemi, our producer tonight. And there's
always all dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven.
That's my pal Charlie ray Is, who passed fifteen years
ago in February. That's all your pets. Are who past.
They loved you and you love them. I do believe
you'll see them again. Hope to see you in tomorrow
night on Nightside. Hope you have a wonderful Friday, a
(41:22):
pleasant Friday. I will be on Facebook in a couple
of minutes. Join me on Nightside on Facebook, Nightside with
Dan Ray. Have a great Friday everybody. Thank you all
for calling.
It's nice with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
I had hoped that we would continue our conversation about
the airlines using artificial intelligence in pricing going forward, try
to explain it as best I could. Not a lot
of interest, so we move on. All of you who
are sitting there saying, well, I'd like to talk about it,
but I really want to learn about it. Well, we're
(00:26):
not going to talk about it if there isn't enough
interest people to talk about it. However, I want to
move on because the Boston Globe tomorrow will be reporting
on I assume on the deal that the Brown administration.
Brown University has now apparently agreed to adopt some of
(00:53):
the Trump's administration's demands. They're also, I believe, going to
pay fifty million dollars. They announced an agreement late this
month to pay fifty million dollars to support Rhode Island
workforce development initiatives. I like that. That is something that
(01:15):
is good. I mean, it's going to help people in
Rhode Island. But then the Broad administration's agreement will adhere
to the administrations, meaning the Trump Administration's transgender athlete policies
and implement merit based admissions in exchange for the restoration
of frozen research funding. So let's let's go to the
(01:39):
Globe piece tomorrow in which current and former students at
Brown University expressed alarm on Thursday at the university's decision
to adopt the Trump administration's definition of male and female,
arguing its shuns transgender and non binary students on a
campus that is typically a beacon of inclusivity. Brown agreed
(02:02):
to adopt the definitions. By the way, I'm reading from
an article by Steph Machado and Alexa Gagauz the Globe staff.
This hit at about seven oh eight tonight. Brown agreed
to adopt the definitions from President Trump's executive orders on
quote restoring biological truth and keeping men out of women's sports,
(02:23):
as part of a sweeping agreement that restores millions of
scientific research dollars to the university and resolves an investigation
by the federal government into alleged anti semitism on campus. Now,
in the article, there is a I think there's a
picture that basically shows an encampment at Brown, the Gaza
(02:48):
Solidarity Encampment pro Palestinian encampment at Brown University in Providence
April twenty fourth of twenty twenty four, at the height
of most six months after the brutal attack by Himas
on the Kabbuzers in which men and women, older men
(03:09):
and women were slaughtered and children were also slaughtered. So
the concessions are all more notable on a campus where
nearly forty percent of students do not identify as straight.
According to a twenty twenty three survey published by the
school newspaper, The Brown Daily Herald, just over twenty two
(03:31):
percent of gen Z those would be everybody who's let's
see at Brown now would be members of gen Z
because gen Z were people who were born after nineteen
ninety six, between nineteen ninety six and twenty twelve. So
(03:56):
if you're a freshman, well no, actually, yeah, Well everybody
who would be eighteen years old and a freshman at
Brown right now would have been in school from twenty
fourteen to twenty eighteen. So yeah, all of these folks
who were at Brown would be gen z Ers. You
got to do that math, guys. So according to a
(04:19):
twenty twenty three survey published by the school newspaper, just
over twenty two percent of gen Z twenty two percent
of gen Z identifies as LGBTQ, according to a recent
Gallup poll in Taliu Reese, a co president of the
(04:40):
Planned Parenthood Advocates at Brown, said to have made an
agreement in the backs of our queer and trans friends
is really shameful. This is a student club that advocates
for reproductive rights and gender affirming care. Students want to
feel their identities are supported by the university. Recent co president,
(05:01):
Cara Hutton, both studying public health, to the group was
not immediately concerned about Brown's promise as part of the
agreement to provide gender affirming surgery or puberty blockers, not
to not provide gender affirming surgery or puberty blockers to minors.
Since the few students at the university are under the
age of eighteen, Brown has never performed set surgeries. Instead,
(05:22):
it would refer those students to outside medical care. The
agreement does not affect Brown University Health, the hospital system
known as Lifespan Corp. That now bears the university's name.
So what this shows me is a trend. Columbia University
has reached an agreement in late July to pay two
(05:45):
hundred million dollars, a two hundred million dollar fine, and
implement policy to restore federal funding, including overhauling its student
disciplinary process and adopting a federally backed definition of antisemitism.
The University of Sylvania has agreed to comply with White
House demands regarding transgender athletes and women's sports, and to
(06:05):
modify records relating to a transgender swimmer, settling a federal
civil rights case in July of twenty twenty five, and
that is the trensgender swimmert Lea Thomas and now Brown University.
Harvard is also reportedly in negotiations for a similar agreement,
and Harvard is the speculation is going to pay five
(06:27):
hundred million dollars based upon the Columbia settlement. And I'm
sure there's some correlation between what the endowment is at Columbia,
which is i'm sure is significant, but is very significant.
At Harvard, their endowment, i believe is over fifty billion dollars.
Maybe it's north of sixty billion dollars. So you've got
(06:49):
to look these in comparison. The administration is also target
at Cornell, Northwestern Duke, and Princeton University by freezing billions
of dollars in federal funding. Princeton has announced that dozens
of research grants were suspended without a clear rationale. But
it sounds to me as if in this fight with
(07:10):
colleges and universities, the Trump administration is winning. I'm surprised
by that, as they say they have gone after Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton,
amongst you know, Brown, et cetera. Additionally, the Trump administration
(07:31):
has been investigating more than sixty universities for alleged anti
Semitic demonstration, discrimination, and potential enforcement actions. That's according to NPR.
It's interesting. So I just want to give you an
opportunity here. If these reports are accurate, I think they are.
(07:52):
One of the things that the Trump administration has done
in the first six months is they have changed, at
least at some big time universities and colleges Ivy League
schools in Columbia. Hence you Pen, now Brown, and maybe
soon Harvard. They have extracted some concessions out of these schools.
(08:18):
You have to look at that, whether you like them
or not, as a victory for the Trump administration. So
my question is, are you surprised that the schools have
rolled over or are you not surprised that the schools
have rolled over. It seems to me that the schools,
who had plenty of options to fight legally, have made
(08:42):
a decision that discretion is the better part of valor
in this situation. And it leads me to believe that
maybe everything that the Trump administration was saying about some
of these, again more elite universities might be true. Because
(09:03):
if the allegations weren't true, why not fight him in court.
All of these universities have plenty of lawyers available. I'd
love to hear from you. This is These are no
matter whether you like Donald Trump or not. As these
universities fall into place, these are these are victories for
(09:25):
the Trump administration six one, seven, two, five, four thirty, six, one, seven, ninety.
If you want to talk about it, let's go. If
you don't, we'll move on to something else. We had
great success in our nine o'clock hour with doctor Sharok Julisi.
I thank all the callers during that hour. Last hour
of the airlines using AI and pricing not quite as active.
(09:49):
But this is one that should appeal to people across
the country. You can criticize the Trump administration or you
can pat them on the back, but I think they
are getting results to me quicker and more significant than
I thought they would achieve. Coming back on Nightside six
one seven, two four ten thirty six one seven, nine
(10:11):
three one ten thirty. We're back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
All right, I am going to at some point read
some of the specifics of the Columbia Settlement, which has
been characterized by some as what would be the blueprint
for other universities to follow. But in the meantime, let
me go to Bernie. Hey, Bernie, welcome back. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm lol, Dan you so I'm doing fine.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I'm doing absolutely fine tonight so far. But it's early.
Go ahead, Bernie, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I mean this is just my opinion. I don't have
a lot of facts and knowledge about Harvard University.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
My opinion on that is their model veritas, which is true.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You would think that they would stand on principal. I'm
a man that stands on princival and I made a
lot of mistakes and always having to be right when
you don't always have to be right. But this seemed
like a very important topic that they they were fighting
for right and then you know, and then when I
heard they had the two lawyers that lead in their
case against against the Trump administration of kind of pro
(11:24):
Trump lawyers, you know, they picked it. Listen, like you said, Harvard,
like that's what they do. They produce lawyers the best
in the world, the best, and they picked through that
were kind of pro Trump because maybe there was some
true to it. I mean, there was, we know there
was some true to it. The administration got a little
(11:46):
carried away with some of the limen politics that they
allowed to infuse into their university. And they nowadays they
with discretion being the better part of that. As you said,
they known it. There's some truth to it, and it's
no the battle has to be one are at least settled.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of conservative professors,
not a lot, but there are some conservative professors at
Harvard who have urged Harvard not to fold. But at
this point we know Columbia has agreed. Now Brown has agreed,
and the University of Pennsylvania have agreed. Those are three
(12:30):
Ivy League schools. There are only eight Ivy League schools,
so right now, Trump's batting average is about three seventy five,
which you know is pretty good. And if Harvard falls
in line, and these are some substantial changes. This is
the Columbia deal. Okay. Colombia has agreed to pay two
(12:51):
hundred and twenty million dollars for alleged violations of federal
anti discrimination laws. That's a big amount of money. Okay. Now,
the agreement does clear the way for Columbia to keep
or to get about four hundred million in grants that
have been canceled. So they're getting back there grants. Okay,
(13:13):
but what have they done. They're paying two hundred million.
They're also paying twenty one million to settle alleged civil
rights violations against Jewish employees that occurred following the October seventh,
twenty twenty three Jimas attack on Israel. Twenty one million
dollars to settle civil rights violations against Jewish employees. We're
(13:36):
not even talking about students. A pledge to end diversity programs.
Colombia has agreed to review its Middle East curriculum and
appoint new faculty to its Institute for Israel and Jewish
Studies who contribute to a robust and intellectually diverse academic environment.
To further support Jewish students on campus. The agreement calls
(13:58):
for a new administrative to serve as the liaison on
anti Semitism issues. Colombia has also agreed to new vetting
for prospective international students. The agreement calls for introducing questions
designed to elicit their reasons for wishing to study in
the United States and establish processes to make sure all
(14:21):
students are committed to civil discourse. I think that's eminently reasonable,
to be honest with you. They also agree to the
administration's interpretation of Title nine, the federal law barring sex
discrimination and education. The Trump officials have used the law
to force the removal of transgender athletes from women's sports.
(14:44):
The deal calls for Columbia to abide restrictions it agreed
to on campus protests, including a ban on face coverings
used to conceal demonstrators' identities. It says protests inside academic
buildings are not acceptable under the university's Code of Contact.
There's a lot of changes that are going to be taken.
I think Columbia University will be a better place for
(15:07):
students to be really honest with you.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Oh, absolutely, Dan, And that's what my opinion. A lot
of colleges that are leaders, as we well know, but
they still have to produce students and of the future
of America. And America is starting to lean more conservatives,
you know, and maybe the Trump is trying to nudge
(15:33):
that along. And it's not a bad thing. And we
went so far left that everything was wrong everything everybody.
If you stated your opinion and someone didn't agree with it,
you're You're wrong, You're bad. It was like you weren't
entitled to your opinion anymore. And I think middle of
America had enough of that and said, let's be reasonable here.
(15:53):
We can all be entitled to our opinions. As long
as I don't impose my will upon you, I'm entitled
to it.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And by the way, the Trump administration has been very
specific in how they have done this. They have used
federal dollars as leverage, okay, but they have They have
gotten three of the big Ivy League schools, three of
the eight two. I don't want to use the word
(16:24):
capitulate because that's too strong a word, but they have
agreed to the proposals and the changes that the Trump
administration is looking to impose and I think that from
what I can see is it's going to lead to
a more vigorous campus life for students, simple as that
you'll have hopefully a more diverse student body in many ways,
(16:50):
but also including a diverse philosophically of student body. This
more diverse philosophically so which I think.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Hopefully, hopefully that trickles on down into high school and
middle school and elementary because the teachers, you know, I
know when my my children were in school, my childs
were in school, they they tried to put values into
my children that my wife and I did not agree
with them. My children did not. They were raised on
(17:19):
basic Christian principles and the school didn't think that that
was okay. They wanted them to believe like everything's okay,
and that's not true. My children are entitled to their
belief They're not children, they're young adults.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Were these public schools in New Hampshire.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, they were. Yes, there was a public schools and
my daughter just real quick, my daughter, there was like
this whole uh transsexual thing or whatever. This one girl
or boy one day you had they wanted this name
and that name and and my daughter wouldn't do it.
She called them by her real name, and the teacher
called her in. They called me in, and and and
(17:59):
I said, listen, I got to say to learn, you know,
to be educated. She's not here to remember everybody's name
that they choose for any given day. She's entitled to
call them by their name.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And the school was very upset about that.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
They did the school threaten your daughter or you or
did they go along.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
With They treated my daughter very poorly from then on,
and there was a sad situation. But that's the way
it was five years ago, six years ago. And now
I think people have gained their senses.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Well I think I think they got so silly. They
said to students, and you know in communities, well you
can't have you know, green and red cup These are
like second grade students, you can't have green red cupcakes
at Christmas because we don't we don't celebrate Christmas. We'll
do a winter celebration. And you know, kids in the
(18:56):
second grade, they're all, it's got nothing to do with religion.
For at that age, they're thinking about Santa Claus and presents.
And you know, as they were taking it almost as
if they wanted to take the joy out of a
holiday that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
They and the innocence. It was the innocent, and they
wanted to remove the innocence and make them believe their
what they're belief for and instill them and the children.
And that's the parents job in this country. It should
be the parents.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Absolutely, Absolutely, some of these schools, if if a child
goes in and says that they want to you know,
you know, dress up in a an the gender different
from whether it's assigned it at birth, I think that
that the parents have to be incorporated in that. But
some of the schools basically said, uh no, the child
(19:48):
can have you know, whatever type of clothes they have here,
and we're not going to tell the parents. So wage
you know that. Okay, I got a screwed because.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
I gotta get got Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Again. Those of you who think that the universities have
I should stand stronger. I'd love to hear why give
me a call, we can have a civil conversation. I
think these universities will actually be better. Now. I know
a lot of you aren't going to agree with me
on that, but I think that that these universities are there.
(20:23):
It's it's not really a social experiment. I mean, if
somebody is is gay or transgender and they want to
go to a school and they're accepted, that's great, no
big deal. But I don't think that when you have
men competing in women's sports. I agree with Seth Molten,
(20:44):
the Democratic congressman from the North Shore, that's you know,
if you want to have uh, you know sports. For example,
there's a there's a football game called tag football flag
football that doesn't include contact uh, and that's going to
(21:05):
be like a co ed type sport. Great, no problem,
No problem. Anyway. I want to focus not so much
on the the issues at hand, although I'm more than
happy to talk about them. I want to focus on
the fact that three Ivy League universities, now Brown, first Columbia,
then you Penn, and now Brown have acquiesced to the
(21:27):
demands of the Trump administration. Now, the Trump administration was
leveraging federal dollars, but I think that the Trump administration
has made has had some successes here which I didn't anticipate.
I'd love to know your thoughts. Six one, seven, five,
four ten thirty, six one seven, nine, three ten thirty Again,
(21:49):
this is a national story. So feel free wherever you're
listening to give us a call. We're back on night
Side Run after the News.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Night Side, Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
So we're talking about the Trump administration winning agreements with
three Ivy League schools, Columbia, U Penn and Tonight Brown.
And I'd love to know if you think that is
a good development or a dangerous development and why. I
think the fact that these schools have agreed as quickly
(22:27):
as they have done indicates that they feel that there
probably was some substance to the complaints that the Trump
administration brought to their door. I think that they could
have withstood the challenge if they chose. Jay is also
in New Hampshire, two for New Hampshire to start us off.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
Go right ahead, Jay, Yeah, Dan, I think the straw
that broke the camel's back was definitely the Palestinian guys
of protest, if you recalled. Some of the presidents did
put up a fight for a little while. I think
a couple of them just refused to, uh, you know,
(23:09):
make the corrections or just in any way they resigned.
But I think it just well right.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
There were the three college professors who were embarrassed, including
the president of Harvard, who eventually resigned her position professor.
There were I think it was U, Penn, M I
T and Harvard, and it cost the president of Harvard
(23:35):
her job. There's a there's a new president Harvard now.
So yeah, I just I think I think the Trump
administration put a stake in the ground and they said,
we're going to get these folks to change. Now. They
had the leverage of millions of dollars of federal funds.
Some people might say, you know, it was unfeared to
(23:57):
use that leverage. You could you could you that, but
it was you know, you know Claude Deine Gay is
now the former president of Harvard because of her performance
in front of that House committee in December of twenty
twenty three. It was it was the ploor. It was abysmal,
an abysmal performance.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Yeah, I think they they definitely saw the writing on
the wall after all that took place, and I think
they I think they're starting to realize that, oh, we're
gonna in the It was if the school's further, you know,
they they they had to kind of stop realizing. I
(24:41):
would I would assume you know, they came to their
senses and started to say to themselves, all right, we're
gonna we're gonna get back to reasonableness here.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, and they did. And now we're going to see
how this plays out. Obviously, the three schools in question,
three of the eight Ivy League schools. What do you
think Harvard's going to do? I mean, Harvard has been
actually negotiating. My understanding is with the Trump administration, and
(25:11):
the Trump administration has doubled down and going after Harvard.
And I think that's a mistake on the Trump administration's behalf.
That if there could be changes made that they feel
would be helpful to the safety of students and also
diversity of opinion philosophy at Harvard, you know, fine, that's great.
(25:35):
I don't know anybody who would be opposed to that.
I mean, how can you be opposed to safety of students?
I mean, how can you possibly take that position? And
whether the Jewish students or not, but particularly if they
are Jewish students. And then in terms of having a
little more philosophical diversity on campus, what's the problem with that?
Speaker 1 (25:59):
You know?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I mean, yeah, it seems to be like and also
you now in harvests case, they're going to to pay
about five hundred million dollars and they can afford it.
But that's that's gonna be. That's a half a billion dollars.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Yeah, yeah, I mean the money behind Harvard. I mean
you're talking to talking to enigma. I mean from the
little that I've seen, and you know, I guess it
gets a little conspiratorial. But I mean there's just a
lot unline as far as money, where it comes from,
(26:39):
how much they have different sources. I mean, they have
kind of a scary background if you ask me personally
as far as what's going on, you know, behind the
scenes money wise. But you know, they they've have had
all these situations with Chinese nationals. I mean, I mean
(27:01):
they've had they had.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
One professor or one professor over there who now is
teaching in a Chinese university who was convicted here I
think of espionage. I don't have the the the indictment
in front of me or the plea.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
But but Harvard. Look, I have two kids who went
to Harvard. Okay, it's a great university. It's probably the
most prestigious university in the world. I think that, uh,
the the admissions. People at Harvard do their best to
attract as many different people as possible, different points of
(27:38):
view as possible, and kids from different backgrounds that you know,
there are some kids who come out of, you know,
very prestigious private schools, and then there are kids who
come out of some of the the largest public schools
in major American cities. I think the concern with Harvard
is that it became everybody's thinking the same way, and
(27:59):
now they probably have, as my friend Harvey Silvergle used
to say, too many administrators. They had more administrators than
they had professors. I think they lost their way in
that regard a little bit. And maybe this will make
Harvard a better university. That's that's what I think should
be people's hope.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, definitely, yeah, but.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Appreciate, appreciate you taking the time to call and please
call again. Okay, thank you much.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Oh yeah, absolutely, damn thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Have good Okay, good night. I got some open lines here,
which is frustrating. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. If
you feel the universities have surrendered in agreeing with the
Trump administration, I'd love to hear that perspective. If you
feel that the Trump administration found a way found in
(28:51):
Avenue in which they could force these universities to get
back on course to what is going to be a
better academic experience for students and for faculty, make that
point as well. I'm going to go to Bill in Pennsylvania. Bill,
you next on Nightsiger.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
Right ahead, Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call. Hey,
I think there's a couple of different factors involved here.
I agree with you, uh with your assessment, but I
can tell you pen okay down there in Philadelphia. Now,
I know some people down that way, there was that
then when they when when when they uh uh capitulated
(29:28):
and and and and uh and did what Trump told
them to do. There was absolutely hardly any pushback at
all to that down there at Philadelphia. I figure I
figured out, now they're gonna raise a holy kine about that.
But you know, there was a couple of days that
they said a few things, but there was no pushback.
And I can tell you I think that these I
(29:50):
think these universities are they have they're a little bit
afraid of not so much Trump, but Trump has a
has a cagre of of really smart people doing this
stuff for him.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, I think they are.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
And and that obviously plays as well the fact having
leverage as the president of the United States and being
able to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars. That's going
to get the attention of the administrators, that's for sure.
Some people will say that's unfair, but that's that's one
of the tools in the toolbox that Donald Trump had here.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
And and and and the other thing was, you know,
there was a lot of there was a lot of uh,
television coverage of the protests and the anti Semitic stuff
that was going on. I mean we saw that on
on the on the television for you know, quite quite
a long time, and people could tune it in. Is
that what the heck? These kids should be studying, They
(30:50):
shouldn't be doing all this protesting and uh. And the
other thing is we have a feeling out here where
the rubber meets the road, Dan, that, uh, these professors
are all elitists, all right, some like you said, the
Harvard's a great school and they got really good professors there.
But when we see what's going on, we just get
the feeling down here in the hinterlands. You know, these
(31:15):
elitists are running these schools. And then the other thing
is Trump keeps winning at the Supreme Court, so they're
thinking to themselves, why fight it, because he'll take it
all the way to Supreme Court and we'll lose it
to Supreme Court.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Well, I guess you threw a lot on the table
there to converse about. I don't agree with the term elitist.
I mean, I think that people who are at the
top of their game. You could say that Major League
Baseball players, NFL players are elitists because they are the
(31:49):
best at what they do. So that doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is that at a university, at whatever level,
whether it's the University of Harvard, Harvard University or the
University of Pittsburgh near where you live, you want you
want kids to be able to go there and listen
(32:12):
to professors, be exposed at different points of view, be
forced to confront the fact maybe that their point of
view is going to be challenged. Oh, I mean, it's
it's not as if when you get accepted to Harvard
or you Pen you have all the truth on your side.
(32:35):
I just think that you have to be prepared to
to be challenged and to and to defend your your viewpoints,
whatever they might be, and find people on the campus
with whom you agree and disagree. That's what a college
education should be about. It's a petri dish of different ideas.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
That you know, and I don't know about. One number
that comes to my mind is could Harvard have as
many as seven thousand and foreign students there?
Speaker 4 (33:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I don't think it was that high. They have as
an undergrad No, as an undergraduate university, they only accept
sixteen hundred students per year.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I know this.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
If you take the freshman, sophomore, undergrad, the four undergraduate
classes freshman, sophomore, junior, and seniors A, it's a total
of sixty four hundred students. Okay. They don't have anywhere
else to put him. They do have a law school,
there's graduate programs. They probably have ten thousand students there,
(33:45):
but it's a small percentage who are foreign foreign base students. Bill,
Thank you for checking and thank you for asking the question.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
Well, can I ask you one other question? Dan?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Sure gotta be going go ahead.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
A couple of week weeks ago, the president okay, sign something, Okay,
I guess executive order saying that saying that churches, okay,
can uh, churches can uh endorse candidates. And I'm surprised
that that they get more pushback on it.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yeah, I am as well. In generally, if churches endorse candidates,
and and again that might that might be challenged in court.
If churches endorse candidates, you would expect that they would
lose their tax exempt status. I got to do a
little bit of research on that, and maybe we'll do
something with that. If not tomorrow night, some night next week.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I have a good evening.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
All right, thank you, Bill. I'm going to take a break.
Got a couple of open lines if you'd like to
join us six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty
or six one, seven, nine three thirty. Are you I
can phrase this question in a bunch of different ways.
Are you surprised that President Trump has had more success
this quickly or has had success this quickly with Ivy
(34:59):
League Act academic institutions three so far, Brown, Columbia and
U penn Uh. And that you know the specifics of
all these cases are interesting, but they have all I
think conceded and agreed to comply generally with the demands
of the administration. Does that surprise you or does it
(35:22):
frighten you? Six one seven six one seven ninety Coming
right back to wrap the show.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Right after this, You're on Night Side with Dan Ray
on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Back we go to the callers who are on the line,
going to start it off with this. Laurie is in.
I know, hey, Laurie, thank you for calling in. How
are you tonight?
Speaker 6 (35:47):
Got warm? It's a nice here, but I'll take it.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Is it warm out of Idaho? Well, it's been warm here,
but it's going to rain tonight and the weather's gonna break.
We're gonna have great days here in New England.
Speaker 6 (35:59):
Nice ninety five today and I think it's still ninety
But I am not complaining, okay, I you know, I'm
a little bit in agreement with you. I'm surprised that
Trump actually had success as quickly as he did. But
then I had a good friend of mine who always said,
always follow the money.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
So great line.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
Yeah, money talks. And there's a lot of federal buckaroos
that go into these schools, which I, you know, I
guess I should have been aware of. I had no
idea how big it was. And so you know when
mister Purstring says, you know, you don't put your hand
in until you start acting more reasonably, that does not
scare me. I think it's it's it's reasonable, and you know,
(36:39):
the colleges need to sort of level our heads need
to prevail.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Well, I think I think this is a good sign.
And if they are happy with it, or if they
are at least our comply, are willing to comply with it, fine,
let's let's let's do it. Let's move on and let's
see if the schools become better places. Let's see if
the campus is become better for the students and better
for the professors.
Speaker 6 (37:04):
Right, yeah, I think then there's I think somebody said,
if everybody's thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
That's a great line. I'm going to steal that line
from you, Okay, I that from you, simple as Laurie. Thanks.
I got three more. I'm going to try to. All
of a sudden, the lines are jumping here, so let
me get a couple more in as well.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
It's a real cookie. I'm good.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
All right, let me go next. Phil in Boston. Phil,
you gotta be quick for me because I got two more.
Go ahead, Phil.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
I might be uh topic, but isn't it when you
go to college, I'm disupposed to you know, learn how
to speaking speak Latin whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
No nobody speaking Latin anymore. Trust there's probably some but
not many.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
When you go to college. You mean, I is also
want to do something like we want to be a mechanic.
You don't say, oh, only think about the loop bulls.
Why don't they just tease them what they're gonna do?
And I'm well have and is maybe the whole thing
will be clear up and it won't be happy. But
I mean, you go to school to learn be nice
(38:19):
to people, and.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah, absolutely, just just like when you're in kindergarten, you know, uh,
follow follows rules, is kind to others, works well with others.
You know, all those things. You can learn a little bit,
and you learn that that you're not the You're not
the smartest person in the world. There's always gonna be
people small. It's one of the great lessons of college,
in my opinion.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
But the A B C D just let me abc
ds be gentlemen, lady and do what you gotta do with.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
You gotta Phil, Thank you much. I appreciate if you
call earlier, I give you much more time. You know that.
Thank you, Phil, appreciate your call. I gotta get two
more in here real quickly, Dan and Topsfield.
Speaker 6 (38:56):
Dan next on Nightsiger, right ahead, I and thanks for
taking my call.
Speaker 7 (39:02):
Three cars, three call, just have have comply with Trump.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yes, that's correct, Brown, U, Penn and UH and Columbia.
Speaker 7 (39:13):
That's Ivy League, right, all three, three of the eight ivys.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
That's right. There are only there are only eight Ivy
League schools.
Speaker 5 (39:21):
That's great.
Speaker 7 (39:21):
Anyhow, I got on my night side t shirt Ed
reads w b Z ten thirty news Radio night Side
with Dan Raid a voice of reason. Amen, I am.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
The voice of reason, no doubt about that. Thank you, dear.
I appreciate your call. Have a gone. Let me go
to Ron and Newton, RONN. I got about a minute left.
You're calling late, but I do appreciate your call.
Speaker 8 (39:43):
Okay, Dan. The question I have for you is is
this unprecedented? And I think about the president we had
who was known for the buckstop shear. There was a person,
an ordinary individual who came basically from this and stun
the world.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yep, Harry Truman, Yes, sir, Yeah, No, Harry Truman was
a was not a popular precedent in many respects, but
he he made some big decisions, some critical decisions, no
doubt how much. Tell me got here, Rob, tell me.
Speaker 8 (40:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Okay, Rob, I'm ron final quick comment because I'm getting
tied on time. But you're right, maybe maybe Trump will
exceed expectations.
Speaker 8 (40:33):
No, I think historically it's not unprecedented and it doesn't
surprise me.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Yeah. I think Ronald Reagan exceeded expectations, and I think
in some respects, yes, Bill Clinton exceeded expectations despite his
personal piccadillos. Let's put it like that. Thank you, Ron,
Thanks man talking to him. Okay, we're done for the night.
I am back tomorrow night. We'll have different topics, that's
(40:59):
for sure. But I want to thank everyone who called,
everyone who listened. I want to thank Rob, and I
want to thank Karen Buscemi, our producer tonight. And there's
always all dogs, all cats, all pets go to heaven.
That's my pal Charlie ray Is, who passed fifteen years
ago in February. That's all your pets. Are who past.
They loved you and you love them. I do believe
you'll see them again. Hope to see you in tomorrow
night on Nightside. Hope you have a wonderful Friday, a
(41:22):
pleasant Friday. I will be on Facebook in a couple
of minutes. Join me on Nightside on Facebook, Nightside with
Dan Ray. Have a great Friday everybody. Thank you all
for calling.
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