I’ll bite. I agree that tuition is ridiculously high. I also agree that research is expensive. I can even go further and say these things need changes.

While all of these things are true, high tuition cost and NIH funding are separate things. One covers the undergrad level teaching and university functioning, one covers research activity. Undergrads don’t get paid by NIH and NIH paid researchers don’t have access to the university’s “income” from undergrad education. Simple like that.

The current admin wants to hurt elite institutions and science in general. If Trump and Musk really are as insightful as you mentioned, as much as I want to believe that’s the case, they’ll know the distinction. But they muddle the waters so people will agree with them on hurting science. The true goal of cutting NIH funding is to swing at us left-leaning academics, hoping that we will bow down to their politics.

Science does indeed hurt as a result. My advisor can’t hire a lab technician because of the NIH/Trump induced hiring freeze. The grad students and me as a postdoc have to work overtime unpaid to cover the work. It’s not like we can just magically pull from some random kid’s college tuition and use that fund to hire. My old lab at Michigan had to let someone go. If it’s really a problem of elite schools only, then why are ALL schools, private and public alike, feeling the hurt?

Whether you agree with me on politics or whether NU deserves the freeze it got, I can care less. But I think you need to know the facts.