1/ Neither of Trump's packages nor Biden's proposal has money for academic research or graduate education. I take the absence of federal money for research / graduate education as an indicator of the political disfavor of research relative to 2009. Here is why I think it matters. https://twitter.com/BarmakN/status/1350218112189296643

2/ Since the Great Recession ('the stimulus' had a decent research funding component) public universities have become substantially more tuition dependent, including at public research universities.

3/ Tuition dependence, coupled with increased competition from other research universities in the US, and growing international competition, has in many public research universities to partly use rising tuition revenue to support their research mission.

4/ I think most agree that universities that do not have substantial research capacity already should probably not try to compete in the research arena (as was popular in the 1990s and early 200s), but for well-established research universities its more complicated.

5/ Consider Univ of Pittsburgh and Penn State, the 14th and 21st largest research performing universities in the country. PA provides such limited support they are considered "state related." Both spend about a billion a year on research and 15-20% comes from "institioanl funds"

6/ The economic crisis means that funding the undergraduate education mission and research mission are in tension. By not providing funds for research and graduate education the research mission is a political hot potato for public research universities.

7/ Raise tuition and or redirect more general fund money to support it, and run the risk exposing yourself as indifferent to what most people care about: affordable access for undergraduates. Or, let the research enterprise wither relative to national and global competition.

End/ A difficult choice for individual cmapuses, many of which might not navigate it well. But also an indication of the extent to which research in public - even our great public research universities - has lost political support.