Today I was reading a piece by Robert F. Graboyes PhD who is advocating the destruction of his Alma Marta Columbia University in order to save the University System in a piece titled Columbia Delenda Est.
Cato’s entreaty—“Carthago Delenda Est”—was intended not only to punish the Carthaginians, but also to warn other states from behaving as Carthage had. Laying waste to Columbia’s prestige would send a chilling message to other institutions choosing to tolerate, appease, and celebrate threats and acts against Jews.
While the entire article is worth your time I took note of a specific bit of it that I think speaks volumes (Emphasis Mine)
For states and morally upright colleges, make it easier for those students to transfer to your institutions. For example, in January, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered his state’s universities to waive usual transfer requirements for Jewish students facing “well-founded fear of religious persecution” elsewhere and urged Florida’s universities to offer in-state tuition and scholarships to financially disadvantaged transfer students.
Now I’ve always been a believer that the right thing is also the smart thing and this is a perfect example because doing the right thing: Giving Jewish students in fear of their safety a refuge is the smart thing: Attracting students who are interested in actually learning rather than protesting and are from an ethnic/religious group that despite being 0.2% of the population of the world accounts for 22% of the Nobel Prizes which is a rate of 11,250% above average.
But even more important than that fact DeSantis did this in JANUARY the same month that the president of Harvard resigned. He was smart enough to see that it wasn’t the end, it was the beginning of what was coming and took action long before Columba descended into the pit.
That’s what far sighted leadership is. Anticipating a problem in the early stages and advancing a solution that both solves the problem and helps the organization you are leading.
DeSantis’ move is a godsend for Jewish students who no longer feel safe in the Ivy league but it will be a bigger godsend for the Universities in Florida who will get an influx of hard working motivated students, donor dollars from the families of those hard working students and with a little luck end up hosing a future Nobel Prize winner who will of course attract more high level scholars and thus dollars to the state.
Thus Ron DeSantis’ decision to do the right thing will benefit the people of Florida long after he is out of office, perhaps even long after he is dead and gone.
That’s why is was my first choice in 2024 and will likely be my first choice in 2028 no matter what happens in November and it’s a reason why more than just Jewish students in fear of their lives are heading to Florida in droves.
Unexpectedly of course.
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