Elvis Pushkin
@elvispushkin.bsky.social
Pushkin soul, Elvis sneer.
Politically homeless, morally stubborn.
Politically homeless, morally stubborn.
This isn’t austerity. It’s strategic defunding. And it’s just the beginning..
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
This isn’t austerity. It’s strategic defunding. And it’s just the beginning..
4. Everyone: Contact your reps. Ask them to oppose this policy and support full-cost funding.
5. Speak up: Social sciences, policy studies, and the humanities matter. This is about more than research infrastructure—it’s about who shapes the national conversation.
5. Speak up: Social sciences, policy studies, and the humanities matter. This is about more than research infrastructure—it’s about who shapes the national conversation.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
4. Everyone: Contact your reps. Ask them to oppose this policy and support full-cost funding.
5. Speak up: Social sciences, policy studies, and the humanities matter. This is about more than research infrastructure—it’s about who shapes the national conversation.
5. Speak up: Social sciences, policy studies, and the humanities matter. This is about more than research infrastructure—it’s about who shapes the national conversation.
What you can do:
1. Faculty: Demand your admin speak out—publicly and forcefully. Silence = complicity.
2. Students: Organize. This affects your tuition waivers, your departments, your future.
3. Admin: Refuse to quietly absorb the cuts. Coordinate with other institutions.
1. Faculty: Demand your admin speak out—publicly and forcefully. Silence = complicity.
2. Students: Organize. This affects your tuition waivers, your departments, your future.
3. Admin: Refuse to quietly absorb the cuts. Coordinate with other institutions.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
What you can do:
1. Faculty: Demand your admin speak out—publicly and forcefully. Silence = complicity.
2. Students: Organize. This affects your tuition waivers, your departments, your future.
3. Admin: Refuse to quietly absorb the cuts. Coordinate with other institutions.
1. Faculty: Demand your admin speak out—publicly and forcefully. Silence = complicity.
2. Students: Organize. This affects your tuition waivers, your departments, your future.
3. Admin: Refuse to quietly absorb the cuts. Coordinate with other institutions.
This is the front line of a deeper effort to reshape the purpose and structure of American higher education. If you care about science, education, or the civic role of universities—pay attention.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
This is the front line of a deeper effort to reshape the purpose and structure of American higher education. If you care about science, education, or the civic role of universities—pay attention.
Bottom line: The 15% cap isn’t just a budget cut. It’s a reallocation of power—away from universities, shared governance, and intellectual pluralism, and toward a more centralized, ideologically selective research agenda.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Bottom line: The 15% cap isn’t just a budget cut. It’s a reallocation of power—away from universities, shared governance, and intellectual pluralism, and toward a more centralized, ideologically selective research agenda.
National labs and scientific agencies will feel this too. Collaborations with university partners will slow, break, or never start. Some projects may face stop-work orders until institutions can renegotiate terms or absorb the overhead losses.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
National labs and scientific agencies will feel this too. Collaborations with university partners will slow, break, or never start. Some projects may face stop-work orders until institutions can renegotiate terms or absorb the overhead losses.
STEM research is the target, but the blast radius hits liberal arts, policy schools, and interdisciplinary centers—the parts of academia most often framed as culturally oppositional.
This is strategic defunding of the university as a civic institution.
This is strategic defunding of the university as a civic institution.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
STEM research is the target, but the blast radius hits liberal arts, policy schools, and interdisciplinary centers—the parts of academia most often framed as culturally oppositional.
This is strategic defunding of the university as a civic institution.
This is strategic defunding of the university as a civic institution.
The timing and framing make the intent clear: This isn’t just fiscal policy. It’s ideological restructuring. Undermine the administrative + financial base of universities, and you reshape what kinds of ideas they can afford to sustain.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
The timing and framing make the intent clear: This isn’t just fiscal policy. It’s ideological restructuring. Undermine the administrative + financial base of universities, and you reshape what kinds of ideas they can afford to sustain.
Indirect cost recovery is one of the few tools universities use to cross-subsidize departments that don’t get big federal grants. These include social sciences, policy, and critical studies—the intellectual core of many public debates.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Indirect cost recovery is one of the few tools universities use to cross-subsidize departments that don’t get big federal grants. These include social sciences, policy, and critical studies—the intellectual core of many public debates.
What gets cut?
- Tuition waivers for grad students
- Research admin jobs
- Shared services used by less-funded departments (e.g., social sciences, humanities)
- Interdisciplinary initiatives
- Long-term research capacity
- Tuition waivers for grad students
- Research admin jobs
- Shared services used by less-funded departments (e.g., social sciences, humanities)
- Interdisciplinary initiatives
- Long-term research capacity
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
What gets cut?
- Tuition waivers for grad students
- Research admin jobs
- Shared services used by less-funded departments (e.g., social sciences, humanities)
- Interdisciplinary initiatives
- Long-term research capacity
- Tuition waivers for grad students
- Research admin jobs
- Shared services used by less-funded departments (e.g., social sciences, humanities)
- Interdisciplinary initiatives
- Long-term research capacity
DOE claims this will save $405M/year and improve efficiency. But the real effect? It shifts the cost of federal research onto universities—many of which can't absorb that hit without cutting elsewhere.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
DOE claims this will save $405M/year and improve efficiency. But the real effect? It shifts the cost of federal research onto universities—many of which can't absorb that hit without cutting elsewhere.
By capping this at 15%, the DOE strips away the financial scaffolding that research universities depend on to run labs, support students, and keep infrastructure afloat.
This isn’t trimming fat. It’s pulling out ribs.
This isn’t trimming fat. It’s pulling out ribs.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
By capping this at 15%, the DOE strips away the financial scaffolding that research universities depend on to run labs, support students, and keep infrastructure afloat.
This isn’t trimming fat. It’s pulling out ribs.
This isn’t trimming fat. It’s pulling out ribs.
The policy affects all DOE-funded research at colleges and universities—more than $2.5B/year. Indirect costs (facilities, admin, compliance, etc.) usually sit around 30–60%, negotiated based on actual institutional costs.
April 14, 2025 at 1:14 PM
The policy affects all DOE-funded research at colleges and universities—more than $2.5B/year. Indirect costs (facilities, admin, compliance, etc.) usually sit around 30–60%, negotiated based on actual institutional costs.
A fabricated mass-scale military conflict is incoming next.
April 7, 2025 at 6:21 PM
A fabricated mass-scale military conflict is incoming next.
If we don’t write the future ourselves, it will be written for us.
Settle for nothing now,
And we will settle for anything later..
Settle for nothing now,
And we will settle for anything later..
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
If we don’t write the future ourselves, it will be written for us.
Settle for nothing now,
And we will settle for anything later..
Settle for nothing now,
And we will settle for anything later..
Build local power: labor unions, cooperatives, tenant councils. Reclaim economic agency before it’s auctioned off in the name of patriotism.
Demand transparency. Who writes the policy, who benefits, who pays? Until those answers are public, democracy is theater.
Demand transparency. Who writes the policy, who benefits, who pays? Until those answers are public, democracy is theater.
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Build local power: labor unions, cooperatives, tenant councils. Reclaim economic agency before it’s auctioned off in the name of patriotism.
Demand transparency. Who writes the policy, who benefits, who pays? Until those answers are public, democracy is theater.
Demand transparency. Who writes the policy, who benefits, who pays? Until those answers are public, democracy is theater.
To combat it, first reject the narrative. Cheap slogans don’t build solidarity—organizing does. Recognize the tariffs not as protection, but as consolidation.
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
To combat it, first reject the narrative. Cheap slogans don’t build solidarity—organizing does. Recognize the tariffs not as protection, but as consolidation.
And at home? Labor gets disciplined. With globalization choked off, low-paying jobs return. Bargaining power vanishes. Wages flatten. Dissent gets branded as unpatriotic. It’s not a blunder. It’s a blueprint. And the ad says: “You asked for this.”
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
And at home? Labor gets disciplined. With globalization choked off, low-paying jobs return. Bargaining power vanishes. Wages flatten. Dissent gets branded as unpatriotic. It’s not a blunder. It’s a blueprint. And the ad says: “You asked for this.”
Foreign competitors get priced out. The EU, Japan, Mexico, even Canada—collateral damage. The fewer alternatives, the stronger the monopoly.
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Foreign competitors get priced out. The EU, Japan, Mexico, even Canada—collateral damage. The fewer alternatives, the stronger the monopoly.
Tech oligarchs backed Trump knowing tariffs would follow. Not despite them—because of them. Vertical integration becomes easier when imports are punished. Build fabs, data centers, warehouses—capture the whole stack. Government foots the bill under “reshoring.”
April 7, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Tech oligarchs backed Trump knowing tariffs would follow. Not despite them—because of them. Vertical integration becomes easier when imports are punished. Build fabs, data centers, warehouses—capture the whole stack. Government foots the bill under “reshoring.”