Universities are falling short again

By not having honest debates about the NIH funding, University are failing the social bargain.

During the covid-19 pandemic, universities made one big mistake. above all else. They refused, consistently to host any debates on the most important policy issues of the day. For instance, no university debated school closures in 2020 or 2021 to my knowledge. There are only a handful of debates about lockdown, largely outside of universities. No University had a debate on mask mandates or masking in 2020 or 2021. No University had a debate on whether or not vaccines should be mandated, including to people who have already had covid, and that those who don't comply should be terminated.

These are some of the most consequential public policy decisions of the 21st century and universities did not host debates. They did so at their peril, and now popular opinion of universities is in the toilet.

Against this backdrop comes reforms to the NIH funding system. Universities are making the exact same error as before. They refuse to host debates on what the right indirect cost rate should be. They refuse to debate whether or not the current system of study sections is optimized.

Instead, they are putting out a steady stream of propaganda. They say things like " a generation of scientists will be lost". What does this even mean? Each year we train far more PhD students than there are science faculty positions. There are so many phds waiting in the wings who finished a few years ago. The status quo is losing multiple generations of scientists each; a small pause and study sections is inconsequential in comparison.

Another propaganda point university's make is that each dollar in NIH spending earns back $2. Even someone with a grade school education can see the problem with this argument. If we reform the system, maybe it'll earn back $5 or $10.

You can farm 100 acres and grow tomatoes. But if you come back with 200 tomatoes someone might say maybe you can grow 2,000 tons instead.

There is a huge public appetite to reform the NIH. Universities should take the lead and host debates on different strategies, and methods to improve the efficiency of the NIH. They should invite people with different ideological points of views, including those who are staunch critics of the status quo.

Universities right now are in panic mode. They are suing the Trump administration, and they think the courts will save them. The courts will not save them. NIH indirect rates are not set by Congress; they are exclusively within the governance of the executive branch. And, they will be cut. The only question is how deep, and how fast.

Universities should be hosting panels on how they can improve their efficiency. This is a strategic move so that they can dampen any year to year challenges they face. Instead, they have chosen to fight against the populist movement.

Most people who work at universities talk to people who work at universities. We sit around the water cooler and we all complain about NIH funding cuts.

They're not talking to the average person in the street. The average person in the street is wondering, “ why is my taxpayer money going to fund those people who kept my kids out of school for 2 years, and forced my 2-year-old to wear a cloth mask”.

“ why is my taxpayer money going to people who lied about the origin of the virus, and deleted my Facebook posts where I tried to raise the issue”

The average person in the street thinks extremely poorly of the university. That perception is accurate. Universities failed completely in the social bargain. Universities get public funding because they're supposed to allow the full breadth of public ideas and understanding, but during the pandemic, they actively squelched policy views that are probably held by the majority of Americans. We don't even know. Because they didn't even survey anyone .

Now universities are trying the same tactic. They just want to use propaganda to prevent NIH cuts. That is completely misguided. They need to accept that there's going to be massive reform, and they should at least try to channel that into the most productive way possible.

If your University leader or a department chair, start hosting debates on how to reform the NIH constructively. Reform is coming. The best you can do is have a say in it.

Something tells me universities might be too far gone to see this is the only sensible course of action. Suing the Trump administration on this issue is a fool's errand. You're eventually going to lose. There's no constitutional guarantee to fleecing the taxpayer out of 75% indirects. And if you pull another covid, i.e. refuse to host debates on these topics. It's just going to backfire.