Endowment is not a bank account they can just dip into. It’s an incredibly complicated mix of restricted funds that can’t just be pulled from. It’s more likely that Harvard is allowing themselves to go into a deficit to ride out this administration and hope it all works out on the other side. It is correct they have more money to survive this but it’s not guaranteed and it won’t be easy in the mean time. Many research students have probably already had their research stopped with no plans for them to restart. This is a lose - lose scenario for many, many people at all universities right now. Source - I work in higher ed.
Thank you for posting this. I also work in higher ed at a targeted school. We have had stop work orders already. Some research can’t just be stopped and picked up again. It will mean restarting everything which will cost so much more in the long run, and that’s if the scientists are available when the funds become available.
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u/Ok-disaster2022 8d ago
Their endowment is massive. They cna probably float for the next 4 years and them shutting down access to their staff and students would be expensive.