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Alex Hurd

@ahurd.bsky.social

98 followers 101 following 19 posts

Band geek, sci-fi/fantasy nerd, and goofball

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PMC Vanguardist @tylerboschert.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I am extremely fucking angry I decided to let Henry Bienen know why and I hope you will, too

An email from me to interim Northwestern University president Henry Bienen, with the subject line "Why did you do this? How could you think it was acceptable?":

"Dear Interim President Bienen:

I have never been so ashamed to be a Northwestern alumnus.

I find it difficult to express the disgust and fury with which I read the message to NU alumni your office sent out this evening. Against the nearly unanimous wishes of its own faculty, Northwestern University has disgraced itself. It has joined the list of actors that have capitulated to an authoritarian administration hell-bent on forcing every aspect of civil society to either accede to its whims or be destroyed. That administration does not have the power to achieve that goal, unless and until powerful private entities--like elite universities--choose to give it that power."

"Your office's message tries to emphasize what the federal government has "agreed" to do in the way of ending its institutional harassment of NU. It was while reading this part of the message that I had to stifle bitter laughter. I would not have taken you or the university's trustees for fools or rubes, which is why I literally cannot, and do not, believe that you actually think an administration led by Donald Trump, which during its ten months in power has not dealt in good faith with anyone, anywhere, will hold up its end of the bargain. Whatever assurances the federal government has given you are not so much ephemeral as imaginary. They can be, and will be, capriciously rescinded the next time Northwestern, or any of its students or faculty, expresses an opinion that does not fit within the insane reactionary worldview of the fascist freaks who run this country's government--and then those freaks will try to extort still more concessions from you.

But even if the federal government does, or refrains from doing, all it has promised--which it will not, and has no intention of--it will still be unconscionable for you to have agreed to its deal. You have signaled that Northwestern can be successfully bullied. You have emboldened some of the worst people on Earth to go after other, less powerful institutions that cannot defend themselves in the way Northwestern might have. You have explicitly made Northwestern's campus and culture less safe and less welcoming for, among many others, trans women. And you have done severe and probably permanent damage to the trust, pride, and indeed love that I and many other alumni feel for the place that means so much to all of us."

"Perhaps the cruelest irony is that this was all so unnecessary. The administration is deeply unpopular. It is floundering and failing. The people at its head know it is doomed, headed for electoral annihilation and a place in history as one of America's great villains (and if they do not know that, they are in denial). Against this backdrop, Northwestern could have been an inspiring beacon of resistance, refusing to bend to this band of thuggish criminals and traitors, motivating others to do the same. I do not have so little confidence in my alma mater's resilience as to believe that it could not have withstood the administration's assault against it.

That resistance could have been your legacy. Instead, you and the trustees have betrayed many of Northwestern's core values--or, at least, what I thought Northwestern's core values were.

You have chosen the path of cowards and quislings."

"I refuse to support an institution that will marginalize and abandon its trans students, its Palestinian students (or even those that simply express pro-Palestinian sympathies), and its own faculty. I refuse to allow any of my money to go to what is in every relevant respect a protection racket. I will encourage other alumni to withhold their money and support as well. And while it breaks my heart, I will not--because I cannot, in good conscience--encourage bright young people to attend Northwestern, which was one of the greatest joys and honors of my life.

Shame on you.

With profound regret,
Tyler J. Boschert
McCormick class of 2011"

Alex Hurd @ahurd.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Had a fantastic time playing with the Notes of Dissent at No Kings today! @notesofdissentmb.bsky.social

Thousands of protesters gathered for No Kings in Denver.