Radio War Nerd EP #442 — University Power Structure & Campus Protest, feat. Jacob Bacharach
Guest: Jacob Bacharach, writer
Recorded: May 2, 2024
This episode we do something a bit different: instead of discussing kinetic wars, we interview writer & university administrator Jacob Bacharach about power — real power, financial and structural power — in elite US universities & campuses, a key battlefield today in the Israel-Palestine war.
Buy Jacob Bacharach's books: The Bend of the World, and The Doorposts of Your House and On Your Gates. Follow Jacob on Twitter.
Total time: 1:29:59
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (40)
thx for the dave emory/kfjc shout out only true south bay refugees will know
a fellow traveler!
Extreamly greatful that I fucked up my undergrad and had to become a postal worker.
Might the patience shown by the administrators in the 70's and 80's be in part due to them being a wartime generation? I'm aware of two UK universities that got rid of their Chemistry departments. One brought it back after a few years.
God, what Liberal Brain Rot, at 31:20 this guy claims that the police riots on campus are an attempt to preserve the autonomy of the university presidential autonomy. No, its an attempt to do exactly what the activist donors want.
as a current grad student weathering funding cuts to my program, I wish i hadnt listened to this episode. lol
Thirty five years ago my uncle tried to convince me to get a PhD in economics which would "set me up for life". Boy am I glad I didn't listen!
Funnily, I find it heartening that research in not practical programs is diminished because I hope that means there is less support of diversity, inclusion, and equality related fields.
Most Americans’ retirement accounts (IRA’s, pensions, 401(k)’s) are invested in things like index funds and ETF’s, fwiw
The notion of college presidents being caught between a rock and a hard place when activist donors pick fights with activist students is an interesting one, and the points about the encampment skewing bougie because only the children of the wealthy have the privilege to play chicken with campus authorities is a very good one that supporters of the camps rarely bring up. However, the guest seems to be willfully ignorant of how bad it is for the cause that some of these places were shaping up into new CHOP/CHAZ style sites, but his Twitter-progressive shibboleths explain quite clearly why he might not think that. Blowing off the House of Representatives as a gaggle of powerless boomers is also bizarre given that these campus crackdowns were carried out as a reaction to the harranguing from the House.
Is there any reason why the U.S. doesn't assassinate Netenyahu and wipe out the current Israeli regime, just to bring them in line? Why keep putting up with this criminal who's going to be arrested by his own country the second he leaves office and the other insane morons in the leadership? Surely they could find someone to take over who can conduct a genocide less ineptly. It's just so bizarre to me. Libya and Syria never annoyed the empire as much as Israel does, and we set those countries on fire. Why is America so indulgent of Israel's infantile tantrums and incompetence, and so harsh against people who couldn't harm the empire even if they wanted to?
Simple, as long as Netanyahoo keeps causing more orders for military equipment (by continuing the war), he has the US establishment blessing. That the president is "embarrassed" is irrelevant. The President is just a PR person for the US, he's not really in charge. The last two presidents to make that mistake JFK and Nixon got it explained to them.
Always punching down on royalty. Do better.
My own astounded frustration with all those supposedly progressive university presidents is that none of them had the brains or guts to correctly clarify that “from the river to the sea” or calling for the abolition of Israel is not a call for genocide. Fucking idiots. Unbelievable
Love the variety of topics, especially with the political cadres going far from public objectives. This puts a lot of perspective to their education.
I recommend the most recent episode of Columbia professor (and fantastic historian of European war and finance) Adam Tooze's podcast ("Ones and Tooze") for a more detailed review of university financials and a view from within the Columbia faculty.
Very interesting episode, I would have appreciated more discussion about divestment though. Jacob mentioned that university endowments are very different from in the 80s and said that divestment would be more difficult but didn't elaborate on how it could be done today.
I'm a stats phd dropout and I don't know if i'd say that statistics AI stuff is necessarily simplistic from a mathematical perspective https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02516. I would say that its remarkably easier to get a job if you did a doctorate in computer science or statistics as opposed to math or physics. As anecdotal evidence I went to a middling program 34th at the time of my application 30th currently and the lab i left has placed people at UNC biostats (tenure tract professor), UW biostats (postdoc), Rochester (tenure tract), JHU biostats (postdoc), UMass amherst (tenure tract professor in mathematics) just in the time that I have been here. It's pretty straightforward to be competitive for tenure tract roles if you want that outcome but a lot of talented students just get a sweet gig with the feds or in industry. You'd be lucky to get a postdoc at most comparable math or theoretical physics programs. My friend that is a particle physicist has over 40 papers and is on his third postdoc with no clear job leads. Meanwhile if I had just finished my damn degree my undergrad advisor had a job lined up for me. In any case I'm glad to hide in one of the federal agencies that doesn't do explicitly evil shit (Maryland side as opposed to the Virginia side). The Maryland side of the DC area is home to the CDC, NIH, FDA, census bureau, and some NOAA offices (outside of the iron triangle that exists between these bureaus and industry for some reason that feels less icky to me than the spook ones).
You do know what the NIH has been up to, right?
"They're going to cut funding to schools that criticize Israel, and every college is cutting Math and basic research so they can cram money into studying fake AI LLM and whatever other hot new vaporware we're throwing capital at" Holy shit, we're seeing the gold goose get killed in real time, aren't we?
counterpoint to statistics being mathematically simple https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02516
Folks this is a classic mixup. She was acting under her aegis as a baroness at the time she issued the letter to nypd. Totally different rules than role as Columbia pres. Same deal as when she invokes prima noctae. Might seem unfair to the peasants but its just how it is.
suggested reading for you guys: look into the UAE financed smear campaign that ended up targeting a random academic in Austria as being a member of Muslim Brotherhood. The Director of George Washington University’s “extremism” program took 3,000 euros from UAE to participate in the slander
Great episode, would love to share it with some people if you wouldn’t mind making it public!
I did my masters, and am now jobless. The whole cling to be right, even after school is even worse. I don't care about you IMF, or Chicago transparent trading philosophy. Starting a 7/11 over here.
The administrations didn’t wait the protests out because they really wanted to prove their “seriousness” (which in the US means willingness to use violence) to their crypto-authoritarian and outright authoritarian donors.
Super engaging and present episode. Thank you <3
This episode ought to be made public, if it isn't already.
I second that. Please.
The RAND building is like, one block from CMU campus. Underlines Jacob’s point.
No mention of Epstein and research donations?
Must be a conspiracy
Great episode guys! I graduated from Columbia as an undergrad a year ago. This is an anecdote, but a lot of my friends who still go there decided to demonstrate and learn about Palestine because of how the Admin handled the protest. There is a pretty good article in the Columbia Daily spectator called "Should Columbia’s President Resign?" Judging from some of the stuff in that article, Shafik has pissed off even a lot of the Pro-Israel students and professors. She and the president of Barnard(the women only undergraduate school) might go. They have alienated famous, tenured professors and a large percentage of the student body. If she is still in next year, she might not be able walk around the campus without getting heckled and filmed on video every week.
Rising costs are coming for the universities. Lecturers are also becoming a larger share of the teaching workforce
The next generation will be just as loyal to Israel and AIPAC’s money as Biden is. Just look at The Fucking Squad, save for the literal Palestinian refugee member and the other Muslim refugee from western predations.
The members are facing an onslaught of $100 million for simply advocating and signing onto a ceasefire legislation in October 2023. Cori Bush in Missouri's first district introduced the ceasefire resolution in October before any other member -- she absolutely stuck her neck out. In response she is facing a major challenge for re-election (not just the money, but these groups start leaking completely unrelated smear campaigns trying to damage the candidate). The Jamaal Bowman House re-election campaign is facing a $20 million onslaught. There are people who aren't even in Congress who are simply suspected of being mildly critical of Israel who are facing the onslaught (Susheela Jaypal in Oregon's 3rd -- not even formally a "Squad Member" -- just someone who will likely be a member of the progressive caucus, has had $3 million flooding into her race). Andy Levin a former Democratic House member from Michigan had $4 million dumped in his race for the sin of defending Rashida Tliab. The Squad Members have stuck their necks out on this issue -- and have been taking hits during their short-term in Congress. Obviously, if all these members get wiped out in this election cycle (or even a majority do), future members of Congress are more likely to be cowed in response. If these members survive the onslaught yet again -- I do not think beating AIPAC will make them more inclined to support AIPAC. If these members lose, yes, it will have an impact on future members. For context too, the spending campaigns against progressive candidates in this one election cycle are multiples more than AIPAC spent supporting Joe Biden's political career.
The American institutional legitimacy crisis ain’t going away!
Thank you guy very much for covering this
Great interviewee get and timely under the fucking circumstances. I've enjoyed Bacharach's writing for a while now. Really looking forward to the episode.
LFG!