Trump demands admissions overhaul and control of academic department at Columbia University

[Prairie Gates]

17. Spoiler alert: Columbia is going to fold. Every university is going to fold

The ones who are still pretending they won't are clinging to "don't preemptively comply" like some weird mantra. This is mostly just academics making a virtue of their usual tendency toward institutional inertia. They will comply as soon as they are told to do so.

Most universities are already run by boards, presidents, and provosts who hide behind "fiduciary responsibility" as their shield and rationale for any sort of garbage decisions. The academics who are actually in the faculty governance side of things have mostly never been unemployed in their adult lives and are not about to risk that now in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Some will take the early buyouts that are coming. The others will fall in line.

It won't be long. The only real question is what face saving technique will they employ as they do exactly what they're told.