Cutting funding to scientific diseases and why do that?

Well, because, uh, the Trump administration is, uh, making war on civil society.

They've gone, gone after entertainment, uh, uh, shows, they've gone after newspapers, they've gone after law firms, and they've gone after schools, not because they're trying to protect Jews or because they're upset about free speech.

They want loyal institutions.

And, uh, so to protect Jews at Harvard, they, uh, cut, uh, scientific research.

Uh, to make, uh, Brown do more, uh, work with the community, they fine them, uh, tens of millions of dollars if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

And I, I think the point is, we can push you around and make you obey our rules.

They know the risk

Uh-huh.

At Wesleyan, we've tried very hard to bring lots more conservative voices onto campus.

We have lectures from, uh, the, uh, editors of Christianity Today or from former members of, of Republican administrations, and we have a veterans program, but I think we have to be very intentional.

I wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal a decade ago calling for affirmative action program for conservatives on college campus, and everybody hated this op-ed.

They thought, uh, the conservatives thought we just need a meritocracy, and the liberals thought we, "We don't like affirmative action connected to conservatism." I think we have a real problem of bias, and we have to correct that, but it'll only get worse if the government tries to correct that for us.

It was the professors who were out there cheering it on.

Now, of course, most people in most colleges and universities are studying sciences, e- economics, business, communications.

I don't think any of this stuff is happening in those fields.

Do you think AI is an existential threat to the idea of college? And how is Wesleyan grappling with that notion?

Well, I think AI is a threat to how human beings are going to relate to each other.

in general.

There's a very interesting professor from Princeton and a public intellectual named Graham Burnett.

And I just heard from him a day or two ago, because I turned to him when I'm really puzzled about AI, because he understands the history of technology in a deep, sophisticated way.

And he doesn't mince words.

So he talks about AI as human fracking.

What are some of the other pressures and how are you tackling them?

They're for protecting thought.

thought.Well, they are, but, you know, the...

I think the trade-off that any school has to go through is that the endowment is supposed to be there forever and so if you spend it in a sustainable way, it keeps up with inflation and with your spending.

So, uh, you could give a, a $1,000 gift and you spend a couple of bucks every year, it's still $1,000...

It's still generating a couple of bucks every year.

If you spend 500, all of a sudden, you get through a rainy day, then you're not gonna ever recoup that initial gift.

So I think that schools do have a trade-off.

I mean...