Harvard Prof.: It’s Not Like Harvard’s on Welfare

EXCERPT:

PINKER: "Well, it‘s not clear what the apology would be for, because the president of Harvard can‘t apologize for a statement made by some student groups. He has acknowledged that the university was too slow in shutting down the illegal encampments. And if it took an apology to restore the funding for cancer research and battery storage research and heart disease research, then fine, they could give the apology. But I think to take into account is that the federal funding, it‘s not like Harvard‘s on welfare. The funding that we‘re talking about is a scientist writes a grant proposal to study, say, aging or heart disease or Alzheimer‘s or Parkinson‘s, the grant is evaluated competitively. If it is good enough, then Harvard gives the scientists research to do the funding. If the funding is withdrawn, the research doesn‘t get done. Harvard is a conduit and a host. It‘s not support of Harvard, it‘s support of research. That has to take place somewhere."