Universities are failing the social bargain once again by not having honest debates about the NIH funding.
During the covid-19 pandemic, universities made one big mistake. above all else. They refused, consistently to host any debates on the most important policy issues of the day. For instance, no university debated school closures in 2020 or 2021 to my knowledge. There are only a handful of debates about lockdown, largely outside of universities. No University had a debate on mask mandates or masking in 2020 or 2021. No University had a debate on whether or not vaccines should be mandated, including to people who have already had covid, and that those who don’t comply should be terminated.
These are some of the most consequential public policy decisions of the 21st century and universities did not host debates. They did so at their peril, and now popular opinion of universities is in the toilet.
Against this backdrop comes reforms to the NIH funding system. Universities are making the exact same error as before. They refuse to host debates on what the right indirect cost rate should be. They refuse to debate whether or not the current system of study sections is optimized.
