Well There's Your Problem | Episode 74: The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education

[@soccch]

It's not that Alice has been murdered, or that she isn't feeling well - as we all know, any LGBT+ people cease to exist on July 1, and is why she will be gone until June 1st when she is revived as part of the annual Pride Month ritual.

[@raycearcher5794]

If only she were black, she could manifest for TWO months a year.

[@grmpEqweer]

I don't exist right now. ... It's great savings on the bills, but my job still expects me to show up.

[@memomorph5375]

I thought July was Gay Wrath month, immediately following Pride lol

[@rertnerfurtheng3771]

@@raycearcher5794 Only half-manifest, actually. Common misconception

[@effluviah7544]

@@memomorph5375 Real answer, it's actually Disability Pride Month right now. I'm trans, asexual, and disabled, so I get two months in a row. One month I get to celebrate the multiple types of hate crimes and microaggressions I experience, and the next month I get to celebrate the state-supported eugenics that continue to lead to the suffering and deaths of many hundreds of thousands of people globally every year while everyone else continues to pretend like we don't exist in the first place. Fun fact, if you combine trans statistics and disability statistics, my average life span expectancy is only 32 years. Happy fucking pride!!!

[@williamsprestong]

Alice has been replaced by discord notifications, Liam will be replaced by local ham radio interference, Justin will be replaced by infrasound, and we will finally know peace.

[@PobortzaPl]

Yes! United Earth Government run by Alice, Liam and Roz will bring peace to our troubled planet!

[@CaptSocrates]

@@PobortzaPl Only rigid bridges and trains. Go birds!

[@paulab2242]

Glad I finally looked at the comments, I've been going nuts trying to figure out which discord server I needed to mute.

[@bassybossy]

@@CaptSocrates Go Rigid Birds!

[@TheScottWolcott]

So first, we have to talk about "what is infrasound"

[@cas013500]

Whenever Alice isn't on the microphone all of the other podcasters should be asking "Where's Alice?"

[@semirrahge]

"24 years just waiting for a chance to tell her how I feel and maybe get a second glance but now I have to get used to not living next door to Alice..."

[@PobortzaPl]

@@semirrahge "Who da hell is Alice? She's a podcasting person known from Kill James Bond, Trash Future and Well There's Your Problem podcast, but that's not important right now."

[@semirrahge]

@@PobortzaPl TIL there's a source for the Happy Hardcore sample lol

[@beannathrach2417]

Running her restaurant? You can anything you want there.

[@nitehawk86]

@@semirrahge We grew up together, two kids in the park We carved our initials, deep in the bark

[@doyleharken3477]

i like that only alice has access to the goddamned news drop

[@iamjustkiwi]

Its too powerful to be left in the hands of mere mortals.

[@pelicans456]

Get a job and make yourself essential, then they can't fire you.

[@FWAKWAKKA]

@@pelicans456 learn to code tbh.

[@pelicans456]

@@FWAKWAKKA *Angry Trillbilly noises*

[@Raw774]

that's how you make yourself un-fireable

[@Theoddert]

A sad departure of Activate Windows Logo replaced by the comforting sounds of Continuos Discord Pings

[@jonne7725]

This is true

[@Huddy52]

We must return to traditon

[@SivakAurak]

We've seen an episode without Liam, and an episode without Alice. All we need now is an episode without Roz. I can't wait to see what flavor of unhinged chaos they will achieve without his grounding the podcast.

[@SportyMabamba]

The hallowed 4-hr episode

[@ultimatehamsandwich734]

Positive Podcastor Negative Podcastor and Neutral Podcastor

[@_oe_o_e_]

Saving my “Yay Alice” for when she’s feeling better

[@BvG_Venom]

We'll get to that

[@Xxx_EvilSmurf_xxX]

If there’s no Alice, then who will say that it needs to be made more ridged?

[@semirrahge]

Rigid?

[@Myrea_Rend]

@@semirrahge Or ridged, or both, depending on what you're into

[@bk8282]

Shake hands with danger

[@patrickmattin9609]

@@bk8282 We can't do that because Alice has all of the drops

[@tompain9735]

@@Myrea_Rend make the ridges more rigid

[@gliscameria]

I'd like to think that California PA was founded by 5 guys from Philadelphia who left their families to get a stakehold out west. They got to the Monongahela, said fuck it, named the town California, opened a post office and started sending victory mail to their families 'back east'.

[@nitehawk86]

You might be right. From California PA's wiki page: "Founded in 1849, the borough was named for the territory of California following the Gold Rush."

[@mushroomc0re]

that's the story that ppl on campus tell each other

[@dylanchouinard6141]

To respond to the whole gladiator thing: gladiator fights rarely were to the death. Sometimes they were and accidents did happen, but for the most part the fights in Roman gladiator games were to either first blood or to whoever yielded first. Because the Romans knew that spending all that time and money on training a gladiator only for them to die in their first game would be stupid. Gladiators were essentially treated like a mix of professional football players and race horses.

[@nathaniellindner313]

Also the literal merchandising sponsorships they set up on some of the more famous gladiators could get devalued if they died. That being said, sometimes you get a little crazy, replace your stadium floor with a lake, and have a literal boatload of war captives kill the bejeezus out of each other to commemorate some naval victory or another; this is still Rome we're talking about.

[@PobortzaPl]

@@nathaniellindner313 And sometimes you have a bunch of political prisoners from some kind of weird doomsday cult slash leftist activist group that really have to be blamed for some disaster that befallen on the empire and be killed by wild animals...

[@shadowmaster1313]

@@PobortzaPl Christians killed by lions doesn't even show up in the historical record until well after the empire was officially Christian so they've been doing that fake martyr thing for basically as soon as the real martyr thing ended

[@PobortzaPl]

@@shadowmaster1313 Yeah, I know. But I'm still glad you've decoded "doomsday cult slash leftist activists".

[@danielkorladis7869]

yeah, training a gladiator was a pretty big investment.

[@Saito232005]

Every time I hear chancellor, I think Palpatine sitting at the head of table just saying, "Good, Good" as they destroy higher learning like it's the Jedi

[@davidl6558]

We finally have the opposite of the first episode: no Alice, maximum Liam, maximum notification sounds, and a guest!

[@justinokraski3796]

but no "Activate Windows" :'(

[@VinceWhitacre]

I want to say I appreciate Liam (somebody's gotta, right?) for remembering that the correct plural is Xboxen.

[@devinfaux6987]

The Discord notifications are all Alice trying to contribute in absentia and nothing will convince me otherwise.

[@seanomatopoeia]

Just Alice constantly trying to interrupt through Discord, but unable to cut through. Sadge.

[@uilsoum875]

"sometimes we can still hear her voice..."

[@drventure100]

Please do a LEEDS episode! I’m trying to get into a green energy career and I NEED to be thoroughly jaded first.

[@LordMangudai]

Leeds isn't a nice city or anything but it's a tad harsh to call it an engineering disaster

[@angelrose641]

That picture of Bill and Melinda Gates is giving off serious "we saw you from across the bar and just love your energy" vibes

[@SyntheticParanoia]

I just finished week and a half long binge listening of the podcast back from Silver Bridge and seeing a new episode posted just 33 minutes ago is the lavish splurge I needed. This made me happyer than a rigid HSLA steel I-beam dipped in fish viscera

[@colonelgraff9198]

Horse viscera

[@duralate]

They should have called it PSPSPSPS the Pennsylvania State Post Secondary Public School Provision System. Kid tested, cat approved.

[@kazmark_gl8652]

As a Roman historian I would like to correct something Justin said in the God damn news. gladiator deaths weren't actually all that common. to my mind this is one of the only good things the profit motive ever did, Gladiator slaves were an expensive investment so fights were often organized with understandings that gladiators would not try to kill each other. although the lethality of matches changed from time period to time period as Roman history evolved however.

[@g--stef4756]

Not a Roman historian, but they also had their own specific training schools, right?

[@kazmark_gl8652]

@@g--stef4756 yes

[@mahj]

Get well soon, Alice

[@midgetwthahacksaw]

No Alice? Well, shit. Now who will make all the high quality tier sex jokes? Give me Alice or give me death! That aside, I hope she gets to feeling better soon. We all send our love!

[@ajbianchi85]

More Liam good, no Alice bad

[@saturnlabouff6168]

the amount of faint discrod notifications in this podcast is making me go slightly bananas, otherwise good and interesting

[@lunalangton5776]

"faint" 🍌 🙃 🍌

[@saturnlabouff6168]

@@lunalangton5776 they were fainter at the start but seem to get louder as we go :pensive:

[@someidiot4570]

those are the sounds alice makes when her voice is absent from the podcast

[@maglorian]

I liked the improvised sound effects edition of today… but, yeah, I miss Alice. If anything this is the proof that all three are needed together for optimal podcastery 😁

[@VinceWhitacre]

EXACTLY. Any other podcast I listen to, I have a favorite. Or if not a favorite, a least-favorite. 🤣 But while I absolutely understand them going ahead while Alice is under the weather - they had a guest after all, and they do keep a pretty consistent upload schedule - her absence was keenly felt. Just like when going back to the very first episode, the one on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, before Liam came on board: just wasn't as good. I adore all three of these internet strangers. They make the world better (by telling us what's wrong with it).

[@SebisRandomTech]

Never thought I'd see an episode about one of the schools I used to go to.

[@anthonycondon5833]

Given that the stuctural disasters under investigation have now expanded to include sociological 'structures', may I suggest some healthcare episodes? I'm really enjoying the whole planning/engineering problems that lead to pedagogical problems thread you've got running here. We live in environments. They have an impact on us.

[@TalkingSoup]

I like this recent trend of bringing on people to talk about local problems, starting discussions and even response videos and all that. Feels like a really nice direction for the podcast.

[@TheRealE.B.]

My spouse went to one of these schools, and there were a couple miniature real engineering disasters on campus.

[@pamdemonia]

Please please please do a LEED episode! As a construction worker, I would love that!!! I'm so early!!!!

[@mysteryshrimp]

If you do a LEED episode, you are automatically morally obligated to do a Fair Trade episode.

[@DeltaFish11]

im scared to do research now, oh boy.

[@hannahvickery4683]

I swear this podcast has desensitized me to the sound of discord notifications XD

[@mortimerpenguin]

me unfortunately not, and I'm slowly going insane over here.

[@Hypocrite-ical]

@@mortimerpenguin Same - every time I hear it I think I'm being asked a question.

[@Nyxsayeth]

This episode really shows how important Alice is to anyone who says the podcast would be better without her

[@Nyxsayeth]

No offense to Roz or Liam, love them both but Alice is needed to round everything out

[@PobortzaPl]

Alice! Get well soon! Also: Train good, car bad, horse chaotic neutral.

[@patrickmattin9609]

Our old friend activate windows has been replaced by the disgrace that is discord notifications

[@atn_holdings]

Oh! Lions Led by Donkeys ep 128 has some deets about the typical lifespan of a roman gladiator

[@ajshell2]

I really hope that this episode will cover the dumpster fire that IUP has been for the last few years: "Let's build a giant convention center/arena, even though we know really well that our town is too small to properly support it!" "Let's build a bunch of new dorms!" "Let's make tuition costs dependent on the number of classes that you're taking! This will make us more expensive to attend than most other similar schools, but whatever!" "Oh no, our enrollment rate is going down year after year, and we can't fill our brand new dorms! Let's build some more buildings and knock down some older ones!" "Oh no, we're still operating at a loss, maybe if we just ignore it for a while things will get better!" Which brings us to now, where a bunch of faculty have been let go/will be let go, and many programs are being cut due to budgetary reasons.

[@Blowfeld20k]

13:00 Maybe am weird, or maybe its because i used to be a pro photographer. BUT .... why is it political photographers of the 60's and 70's seemed incapable of raising their tripods or shot height above crotch level? I have noted this with so many political shots from that period, truly bizarre shot composition since it results in other weird visual effects such as the slight converging verticals issue (how the scene kinda looks like its slightly toppling over towards the observer), making the observer seem about the head height of a seven year old, and the "great men" pictured appear to be 20` titans. hmmmm maybe i just answered my own query.

[@emarci6009]

The constant discord notifications drive me up the wall

[@aprilk141]

But aren't they part of your life? Embrace them.

[@semirrahge]

A guest was completely overwhelmed in this episode.

[@10-AMPM-01]

"like, you know..." I don't have the experience to carry an hour of facts while interjecting with comedy. It doesn't seem like Nick Marcil does either. However, public speaking mindfulness ain't easy for some people. Hopefully he will have more experiences podcasting or otherwise doing recorded speech. That way he can complete the critical cycle of doing, then observing his own actions/language. If he is able to really listen and criticize his own performance, he'll get better... Or not. Some people just aren't cut out for it.

[@mathhomework4209]

@@10-AMPM-01 yikes whats your podcast?

[@10-AMPM-01]

​@@mathhomework4209I was a guest on a podcast. It can take days of prep. Some people prefer to do it live. Some subjects are harder to do live. There are often more hosts to a podcast for that reason, to carry the conversation.

[@petermcarthur7450]

The lettering on the Safety Third Crane 安全第一 translates as Safety First.

[@The5lacker]

I really hope Alice replaces her drops with your imitation of her drops on the board.

[@adamwhite2364]

Hell. Yes. They need to play the full cut of Liam misunderstanding the direction of the shake hands with danger drop every time

[@Jetsetlemming]

Would really like to hear that guy define what the actual factual difference is between "employment reduction" and "layoffs" is.

[@lyndonwesthaven6623]

Civility, of course

[@EmyrDerfel]

5 people taking a 20% hours cut vs firing 1 of the 5?

[@angelodimetrius5009]

i was really intrigued on the sampoong disaster and stumbled upon your episode on it, i become really invested in your podcast and now its basically all i listen to while doing school work and other shit. you guys, whether for better or worse are truly inspiring me into doing engineering. keep up the good work im looking forward to wasting more time on your videos

[@ThugShakers4Christ]

I didn't go to any of these schools, but I do have two BAs, a MS, and a JD....I work as a butcher now.

[@julielavia6611]

Always nice to see notifications for this podcast !

[@jgulner]

I heard Indiana University of Pennsylvania and California University of Pennsylvania are merging to become ICUP

[@sunnohh]

Can’t believe you monsters replaced Alice with the discord beep

[@zacharytolbart5215]

As an IUP Alumni, it depresses me how much that college is laying off good profs and consolidating depts while spending ungodly amounts of money on giant ugly buildings

[@Lkease]

We're not even going to have enough professors to fill up our shiny brand new science building that's being built right in the middle of campus at this rate, lmao

[@zacharytolbart5215]

@@Lkease Bums me out hearing the Geology Dept hasn't done so hot lately, the profs there are so nice (graduated in 2013); Walsh kind of sucked tbh

[@kuronosan]

Between here and Regular Car Reviews, I sure am learning a lot more about PA than I thought I ever would, and I tele-marketed AT&T long distance to PA for 6 months back in 2000.

[@GretchenDawntreader]

29:00 when the slide of this person went up my first thought was Betsy DeVos. And sure enough, you went on to describe the kind of person of wealth with no background in education who got a position because they are well connected.

[@GretchenDawntreader]

doesn't matter if it's a party "listening tour" or a public comment period or hearing, they are all a formality and a joke. They already know what they plan to do and I wonder if there are any examples where such an entity considered public comments and changed their plans. Ever.

[@GretchenDawntreader]

Columbus OH we have the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) for the city bus system, and every once in a while they put up a paper in the bus about planned route or schedule changes and some meetings for public comment. I wonder if anyone goes since you may as well consider it to be an announcement that they are doing a change and the meeting is when you can vent.

[@shuttheheckupkarl6153]

I saw "the Penn" as my notification and thought it was going to be about the Pennsylvania Railroad.

[@SebisRandomTech]

Would love to see some content about that!

[@brianbaggart8898]

I like their new strategy of negging their guest so that they don't ask to be paid for this appearance

[@lasschesteven]

Listening to this made me check Discord several times because the notifications made me think I'd received messages.

[@willhinchman5796]

thought i was going crazy.

[@savanacampbell2986]

I want to save my yays for Alice's return, but then I wouldn't be able to say "Yay! Liam!"

[@norphar]

i can respect the 50/50 split but remember once liam or rocz ices the other one the survivor can get an even more favorable patreon split if you cut off your legs. fewer limbs=less body mass to split the money between

[@theryanbard]

The whole ocean is Cleveland now

[@1121494]

Tacoma Narrows Bridge coming up next? Quelle suprise! Very much looking forward!

[@mysteryshrimp]

I JUST finished listening to Liam on Lions Led by Donkeys: racist genocide edition (Pancho Villa), only to find new Liam on youtube!

[@Porterhaus94]

My Great grandfather was a part of that expedition to track him down. Then he followed Pershing into the Argonne.

[@Myrea_Rend]

Yay Liam!

[@chrollo0427]

Liam cracking a beer and slurring Roll Tide was so perfect.

[@chumbucket6989]

the banners in the warehouse photo ( 1:23:00 onward ) say "SAFETY FIRST" in Chinese

[@kuronosan]

Safety 3rd picture says Safety #1 - 安全第一

[@Gh3095]

I assume this was recorded a while ago and hopefully Alice is already feeling better, otherwise I hope you get well soon!!

[@Torsomu]

consolidation is a gut job. Oklahoma had a new Oil overlord made chancellor to OU and he was hired to gut the university. he stayed for 8 months and quit when the job was done.

[@Tomartyr]

I heard that gladiators were only meant to kill when the emperor or whoever was holding the battle actually commanded it, otherwise it was a first blood thing.

[@stevesassaman]

Blaze the Vulcan should host the episode entitled the "Phallusies" of LEED Design!

[@jbZahl]

I don't get why so many countries manage their academic instutions so bad. They can be such a good tool for teaching and doing research, if done right. Here in Germany they also tried to attack these systems over the last decades. They instituted tuition fees around 2005-2013. Like 500€ max per Semester. Every Bundeland is responsible for it's own educational system, so the exact dates vary. Students started sit-ins and at times occupied the classrooms for weeks. Police got involved, too. It's mostly forgotten now, but in the end we mostly succeeded. Of course older conservatives lamented the for-free culture of todays youth (while conveniently forgetting that they themselves graduated completely for free, while getting a Marshal plan stuck up their asses, at least in West Germany). To this day I regret not getting louder back than myself (I was way to afraid back then), but I did a little bit of protesting and I'm forever thankfull for people that organised and went the extra mile. I was able to pay the fees, because my parents are rich enough, but I consider easy accessible education for the masses an essential part for democracy. There were and are still some fees per semester and they increased from around 50 Euros to 200 Euro in the last decades. Afaik the main cost factor is the non-optional public transport ticket that is included in the Student ID. Having said that, children of non-academic parents were and are still underrepresented in german universities. There is financial aid for students by the state depending on the income of the parents. But that doesn't seem to be enough, or still is not acessible enough. (Housing for example gets more expensive especially for students) They still gutted the universitiy fundings. The brunt of this is felt by postdocs. ATM you can't really get a good and stable research position below professor in german universities. Even top-tier young scientists are leaving Germany or are switching to privatly owned corporate research institutions. So even if it might seem boring, you have to organize and you have to be able to get a large amount of people to protest loud and physically block things. Voting alone doesn't seem to be enough, to advance or even just protect the status quo. Best of luck to the people of PASSHEDefenders. Keep it up.

[@tomcapon4447]

Subjugation of the educated classes is a central part of populist authoritarianism. It's been creeping up on us all over the world for decades.

[@AgingScallywag]

That vocal rendition of the guitar from "Shake Hands With Danger" sounded more like the intro to the old Grange Hill theme

[@pancakehiatt]

Alice desperately trying to communicate on the podcast through frantic discord notifications

[@ceninant]

I have the engineering disaster called traffic court today. A really pleasant surprise to wake up to this at the top of my feed!

[@TheRealE.B.]

Usually its used to claim speed limits are too LOW, but it seems that people have success in traffic court by proving that the road was designed by idiots who did it wrong.

[@Shen986]

The phantom Discord notifications are subtle and maddening.

[@TheRealE.B.]

Is Stephanie welding in a tank top and capris? That's a good way to get sunburn in February.

[@grizzly3793]

Well There's Your problem Episode 75: Alice Isn't Dead.

[@DylanWintersteen]

Discord noises be fucking with my Pavlov

[@scorchedearthdj]

I was happy to hear you be introduced to the Powell Memorandum. Another publication from the political class around the same time is called The Crisis of Democracy published by the Trilateral Commission. Both of these represent the perspectives of the right and left wing of the ruling classes. You don’t need to read the books to know how they feel about us peons however both publications are from the source and are excellent material to use against the GOP and Democratic bootlickers.

[@beannathrach2417]

Sounded so empty without Alice. My California university is in San Jose; I can write to the farmers in Sacramento, but I don't think it will do you much good. When I attended CSUSC, it was $200 a semester, $100 tuition, $100 books, which when considering inflation was still darn cheap. We inflicted Nixon and Reagan on ourselves before rest of the country. We got a sneak preview of how Reagan would cope with higher education.

[@noxyburd]

When I left San Jose State University they were doing a bunch of those fancy building projects, meanwhile the tuition was continuing to go up and the actual buildings where learning happened were starting to fall apart. This certainly reminds me of the CSU and UC system in California. Probably a bit more accountability but not enough to reign in the exploitation of students and staff.

[@TyPhyterEUP]

having taken calc I in edinboro *deep breath* Liam is right. I didn't even like walking from the commuter parking lot to it.

[@eelvis1674]

I thought the gladiator fights which weren't straight up executions usually ended when one guy got knocked down just like boxing, they didn't usually kill eachother if they could help it. That's why a lot of the fights were neutered with those blinding helmets and fighting with just a net etc in addition to making it funny obviously. I might be wrong though

[@annafellows9616]

Concerning the burning sea, I’m pretty sure a burning sea is a sign of the apocalypse in most doctrines

[@trevorcorey7910]

I hope Alice feels better. But not about living on stolen land.

[@cmarano]

Best wishes to Alice for a quick recovery. You know I always click the 'like' button before I watch the video. So far I've never been disappointed.

[@lunalangton5776]

Huh, funny, without the woman doing everything the podcast falls apart! No drops, no math, no things made more rigid! Also mute your Discord, cursed sound

[@lunalangton5776]

lol, breaking character for a moment: I actually enjoy this podcast, keep up the average work 👍

[@legoperson902]

Really enjoy your podcast. You all have great rapport and are so well informed on the topics you discuss.

[@spamviking]

Do the people in power make up stupid condescending terms for things (it's not a "layoff", it's an "employment reduction") because it makes them feel better for doing something bad, or because they think the working class are stupid enough to think it's not something bad?

[@Kirisame312]

Because they know that there's a certain percentage that are that stupid. It doesn't matter if 90% know it's bullshit, it's about the marginal improvement. Sort of like how coca-cola continues to blatantly lie about their product being the same everywhere when it demonstrably isn't. A lot of people really are that dumb/don't care

[@delilas2398]

Edinboro sounds like you ordered Edinburgh on wish

[@WaterMan416]

I don't want Alice or her sound drops to go away, but I also like Rocz and Liams analog sound drops.

[@TheScorpionStrike]

27:10 - So that's what Clover from Totally Spies is doing now...

[@AnodicCasserole]

For a podcast about engineering disasters, how could you let the vital infrastructure of drops to have a bus factor of one?

[@Myrea_Rend]

They need to make the drops more rigid!

[@Space_Reptile]

this episode is sponsored by the discord notification sound

[@EiriUesugiKun]

I wish these were longer. Not necessary EFAP-long, but still longer. Such good podcasts. Thank you. :)

[@N00N01]

1.New River valley and now Pennsylvania 2.wheres alice!!!? 3.The guy on the right looks like AVGN,but in 1970 lol

[@schnoodle3]

I graduated from Indiana, except it was in Bloomington when I attended

[@MisutaaAsriel]

So Liam whined enough about the first episode missing him that they FINALLY decided to do an episode without Alice, eh? ;P (Get well soon, Alice.)

[@CleverCrumbish]

There's been an episode without Alice before. I think it lacked Liam as well though.

[@kodiakbricks5821]

Best wishes and an expedient recovery to Alice, she's a rockstar. And stay healthy to the rest of you, too

[@TrentonGauthier]

Most surprising fact in this episode is that yal haven't already done an episode on LEED.

[@booti_boi6927]

Home looking like a king in the cargo shorts, wtyp merch, clip board and bullhorn in hand

[@kamatsu8]

They also need to open the Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania, not to be confused with UPenn of course.

[@Improbabilities]

It should of course be abbreviated as PAUPA.

[@hardave]

1:21:20 the crane in the picture in the safety 3rd segment reads "safety first" in either chinese or japanese 安全第一

[@ianhomerpura8937]

Probably Japanese. They're the ones who usually use the green cross as safety signs.

[@slytown]

Thanks Roz. I was just about to say that the Distinguished Daughters of Penn sounded like the DAR or UDC.

[@discontinuuity]

This episode made me almost as confused as when I learned about Miami University of Ohio and University of Nottingham Malaysia

[@johannageisel5390]

This thing reminds me to what was going on in 2013/2014 in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. They also wanted to cut funding to the universities and academies in the state and also combine parts of several of them. This triggered massive protests by students, but in the end there were still budget cuts. Not quite as severe as feared, but it still sucked. Some of us were sarcastically demanding: "Renaturalization of Saxony-Anhalt now!" to point out that the universities and academies are the only thing that bring some life into the state. Saxony-Anhalt has a high poverty rate, young people are leaving in droves, the villages are dying out and the fascists get between 20 and 25% in elections. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony-Anhalt