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dotcom-jillionaire OP t1_isbyxu6 wrote

Reply to comment by corbomitey in Penn students face disciplinary hearings for campus protests by dotcom-jillionaire

what are you talking about? these protests on upenn's campus were covered extensively by the inquirer and other media. they even made national news

https://www.inquirer.com/news/university-city-townhomes-penn-protest-gentrification-20220830.html

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/12/2128340/-Housing-activists-and-residents-fight-gentrification-in-West-Philadelphia

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corbomitey t1_isbz1bl wrote

Anyway this is what it looks like and you’re seeing it now because it’s in the university’s best interest.

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dotcom-jillionaire OP t1_isc044l wrote

the inquirer article is from august! the daily kos one is a repost that was published earlier this month. every article written about the townhome encampment mentions penn's connection to the issue (by way of the protestors rhetoric). penn's erasure of information that you're saying exists, doesn't.

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corbomitey t1_isc2cwk wrote

Penn has more money, in endowment - sitting there making more money, than the GDP of like 80 countries. They have more money at their disposable than more than 10x the GDP of almost every state.

They have a literally unimaginable amount of wealth AND INFLUENCE.

If kids are doing something that will hurt the university - or the donations to it - they use that influence to make it go away. Their interests are aligned.

If kids are doing something antithetical to Penn’s financial or reputational interest, the university will weaponize that money, power, and influence against them.

We don’t see the first piece. by design.

We do see the second piece. by design.

I am saying, watch how this entity operates over the next few days and weeks and months and it will give you a glimpse into how this operation works.

Do they stay on top of every single story all the time? No. Neither do most countries.

So either 1) the protest’s media narrative genuinely got the jump on them or more likely 2) they let the news cover these protests without any interference because it would eventually be in their best interest.

I genuinely don’t understand why so many people in this sub will cape so hard to protect institutions that will refuse to protect you.

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dotcom-jillionaire OP t1_isc4dzr wrote

step 1. penn has a lot of money

step 2. ?????

step 3. penn is CENSORING our media DON'T YOU SEE??

i don't think people are defending penn when they say your claims don't hold water. you're not filling in the blanks about how or to what end penn is doing what you say they're doing. you've forgotten to include the actual information that backs up your claim. just having a large endowment isn't evidence of anything.

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corbomitey t1_isc6gyh wrote

Because I’m not allowed discuss details of cases involving students without risking future employment or my professional license. I gave examples of when I was a student - which I have no limitations on - yesterday and that comment got downvoted too.

You know what, I got mine. I have the fancy papers with the Penn emblems. I get invited to the to elitist dinners at the Union League and the exclusive cocktail hours at the Art Museum. I get asked to sit in rooms at city hall where policy is hammered out.

And I get to continue doing that because of the letters after my name and the institution that gave them to me. And I risk getting to continue to do that when I stand up for all the people I love and who love me who don’t have the fancy papers with the right combination of letters. And there’s certainly no reason to do that here.

They’re great. They’re all great. Go Penn. Evict the whole neighborhood. Back the Blue. Wawa’s right. Fuck them kids. Lock em up. Etc. Etc.

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dotcom-jillionaire OP t1_iscfgtu wrote

ohhh ok i see. that makes total sense then. penn has eyes and ears all over this city and enough money to finish the job. stay safe, friend

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corbomitey t1_isch06b wrote

You’re right. I already admitted that.

I see the light now. The real threat to me are the children. How could have I been so misguided?

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aguafiestas t1_isd81dn wrote

> Penn has more money, in endowment - sitting there making more money, than the GDP of like 80 countries. They have more money at their disposable than more than 10x the GDP of almost every state.

Penn's endowment is $20.7 billion. That is a lot.

The lowest GDP of any state is Vermont, at $40.2 billion

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corbomitey t1_isd9wvq wrote

Okay I misread the factor of states’ GDP as I scrambled to write this before the first pitch of the Phils game. You got me. My point was made in the sentence before which I just double checked is correct.

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theyoungtired t1_iscxfsa wrote

I don’t think Penn is going to pay for Reddit bots lmao. Also, that’s simply not how endowments work. Large endowments come with very specific instructions for how they are to be used (e.g. research in XYZ lab, building XYZ lab/dorm, funding a professorship, updating library computers, etc.). Even when you get calls/letters from a university asking for a donation, your money doesn’t go into a savings/checking account- it has a specified fund in the request, like an alumni event fund, scholarship fund, etc. Funds from tuition are also mapped out in a budget released by the University every fiscal year and made public to all university students and staff. It is illegal for them to use donations outside of the specified endowment purpose.

Also, consider the cost of running a world renowned research university with ~20k students. They have to recruit and pay the world’s foremost experts in hundreds of fields of study, accommodate 20k students daily (dorms, meal plans, etc.), pay for state of the art research labs (many of which are quite expensive, think nano-tech), renew technology yearly, pay thousands of non-academic personnel, and this is all before we get to costs associated with PennMedicine.

They are a fucking machine, and I’m sure there is a very effective and well budgeted PR team. I just don’t think it’s quite as big-brother as paying for downvotes or being able to control the national media.

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corbomitey t1_iscxt29 wrote

I did not say either of those things lol

Edit: dotcom said the ‘whole city / national media’ stuff. I said an 11-figure entity has a strong lock on everything that happens on their 10ish-block campus, including their employees. And that the children of literal billionaires and international statesmen and diplomats have a financial buffer between them and law enforcement that the children of Philadelphia do not. And I truly can’t believe any of that’s so controversial.

And I didn’t mean to imply Penn was paying for downvotes. I was deliberately insulting the members of this subreddit, like a Philadelphian.

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