a

long-term erosion of public trust.

And I mean, you know, fundamentally we know that democracies require trust in government because when people don't trust, then they don't want to engage.

And if you don't engage, the other people do.

And the problem with that, you know, has been obvious and has played out over time.

The issue is, How to restore trust? Obviously, that's a complex question.

But the fundamental part of this is that the public has to believe that government institutions are competent, they're honest, there's some fairness, and that elected officials act in the public interest.

Do you think that some of the funding that has been frozen in the last few years could be restored? And what do you think the Washington administration attitude will be? I mean, will they double down on their policy of trying to weaken universities? Or will we see a little bit of a let up on that?

I don't want to put words in your mouth,

though.

No, you've got it correctly.

You know me long enough to know that that is my view.

And this is, you know what, you're getting at the heart of the problem for many of us now, which is that that, you know, the way the Trump administration has approached this, we believe, many of us, that it's wrong.

Of course, we should not be in any way allowing the federal government to infringe on academic freedom.

There's nothing in what the university agreed to that involves infringement on academic freedom.

Do you think that all of these things would have been done and announced around this time anyway, were it not for the $400 million that's being held over Columbia's