U. of Penn. Donors Attempt Reform of Ivy League School

Heather Mac Donald at the City Journal documents a revolt that seems to be going on behind the scenes at at least a couple of the Ivy League schools that have been in the headlines of late.

Apparently the donors have been chafing for some time at the direction the university has taken.

“University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill would not have been forced to resign last weekend had Penn’s donors and alumni not been organizing against her for two months.

…

The Penn rebels have now upped the ante. They have drafted a new constitution for the school that makes merit the sole criterion for student admissions and faculty hiring. The new charter requires the university to embrace institutional neutrality with regard to politics and faculty research. The rebels want candidates for Penn’s presidency to embrace the new charter as a precondition for employment.”

Could such a thing happen?  Would the federal government allow it?  I’m sure everyone reading this would be highly skeptical of such an outcome.  If nothing else it would require the un-employing of hundreds of DEI commissars that fill the corridors of the ivy-covered halls of Penn and Harvard.

And what of the grievance study departments?  How could such organizations fit into a merit based regime.  Other than employment for the “professors” what merit exists in what they do?  No meaningful purpose is served by what they do.  In fact, everyone is harmed by it; society, the students and the parents who have to pay for it.  Could this be the beginning of a revolt against the degradation of academia?  Hard to believe.

But when the ox being gored is that of the rich and powerful, things can happen.  Well, isn’t that how most revolutions occur?  Antisemitism has collided with progressive privilege and this has awakened the donors to the monster they themselves have fostered.

We’ll have to see.  After all you can’t turn a ship on a dime.  And the academic world has been corrupted for not decades but generations.  The only thing that favors reform is the sheer crushing weight of the bloated bureaucracies that have been created in these woke places.  America can no longer pay for the cost of the parasites sucking at the lifeblood of these dying schools.  Especially since they’ve almost stopped teaching anything meaningful.

Will the reforms at Penn happen?  Stay tuned and I’ll comment as information becomes available.

Update:

I just read the ZMan’s post for today.  He addresses this incident and he says that nothing will come of it.  Well, we’ll have to see.  Maybe a Festivus miracle is in the offing.