[Music] support for Donnybrook Last Call is provided in part by Design Aire Heating and Cooling Thanks for joining us for Last Call this is where we get to some of those important topics that we couldn't in the first 27 minutes and 48 seconds alvin I want to ask you about this WashU student who in Tish Park on the WashU campus unveiled a canvas triangle which was basically a pro Palestine uh message and it said uh abolish the Wu police department it said from the river to the sea and as opposed to ignoring it or allowing this speech the university said "Hey uh Max Shriber take this across the street to public property we don't want it on our campus now you know uh UCAL Berkeley was known years ago for having Spruel Plaza where in 1964 the students against the Vietnam War protested and protested and some people think it led to a leftist movement and the end of the war things like that it's now commemorated you know freedom of speech area Spruel Plaza should Wash Shu get rid of canvas artwork that's somewhat political well I would say no okay but I like I say I went to a public university and I could stand there and say regardless of what that states you know legislature might think it's a public university and I have a little bit more um space and grace for that type of you know display or demonstration it's a private university and tech by definition I think they can do what they want i thought they were a little heavy-handed you know back in the spring uh with the Palestinian uh demonstrators but in this case I I you know I just didn't it did not rise you know any kind of like really just displeasure with WashU maybe that's the easiest way to put it well the these are such perilous times for universities with the Trump administration threatening to withhold federal funds and it really takes a little more gumption than WashU seems to have to say we're going to take a chance but it isn't just WashU like I look at all all the law firms that Trump is after and I would think that all the other firms everywhere like the firms here in St lewis would say "We're going to file a friend of the court against the Trump administration in this."

But they haven't i mean everybody just said "Oh you know I don't want to put us on front street."

So so I think WashU is just doing the easy thing a lot of people are whether it's higher education or you know corporate uh corporate um being corporate citizens it's it's kind of a chilling thing to see but when you when you have a a piece of art that that uses the verbiage you know from the river to the sea I I I I bow to the NAACP when it comes to what is offensive to to their to their membership and I bow to the ADL when it comes to what is offensive to theirs and they believe that that is absolutely anti-Semitic and so if I'm Washington University take it across the street take it across Skinker and that's what that's what I'm saying like it's not necessarily just that it would be anything that might you might say like okay this that's a little bit we're not doing that on the campus okay whatever the cause is i get I always try to take whatever the cause is and just look at it just in general in general you're a private school you can act yeah but it's a switch cuz I remember what 15 20 years ago uh the students were protesting that the groundskeepers and others at WashU weren't making enough money and so for several days they took over one of the administration buildings on the Brookings quadrangle and I thought I'm surprised they don't kick them out you know they're trespassing but a different chancellor different rules he let them hang out for I don't know 48 or 72 hours something like that it just I don't think that they were afraid that if they kick him out if that the administration of Washington is going to take their funding away i I mean people are really afraid of Washington right that's right and just yesterday Northwestern University lost like $400 million in federal funding and you know what but that's what I'm saying take it you know like I said I I want schools to stand up and say that just take the money okay we're not bowing to the pressure washington University gets so much money from NIH and all that i understand it but at the same time never mind some kid with art on the campus you want to do something say like take it you know what take the money cuz we're going to do what we want to do you are not going to tell us how to run a institute of higher learning until colleges decide they want to do that then they're going to run scared and you would think that all the other colleges would join with them instead of what they're doing like "Oh I hope they don't come for me."

That's right it's It's really been a fight stay off the radar wendy uh across the street from Wu down Forest Park uh Lindle Boulevard is the history museum and it was announced this week that the history museum is going to lose 250,000 federal dollars which were used I think to digitize artifacts and prints that sort of thing so that people forever will be able to see some of these items from St louis the museum does have a $33 million budget so $250,000 is not that much um I'm also wondering if the federal government really has a role in helping a local history museum digitize its collection i They were very you know they were not they didn't seem to be alarmed they weren't ringing any you know warning bells or whatever uh they said you know we're going to be fine uh they would prefer I'm sure not to not to have to find uh the money for this type of preservation but I but I did I did appreciate that you know because they could have made a really big deal out of it but they didn't and I think they have enough I think they certainly have enough uh supporters to to bridge that gap um I I I I it's for you know greater minds and mathematicians than mine to come up with the the amount of money but I'm I have no problem at all with the federal government helping digitize museums archival materials that's where the $250,000 went to right so now the $250,000 will come I guess from someplace else in the budget so now let's watch where the $250,000 is not spent instead of the you know digital service or or whatever that's what you have to watch for because that you know like let's well let's see let's see who takes the hit for this now that they don't have the two usually comes out of the boss's pocket yeah and this this is just this is a budget problem i mean if if the federal government says hey we're going to tighten ourselves a little bit and not help the that's okay it's that's not academic freedom yeah like they're doing at Wu or going after law firms or anything i think the bigger problem is you know they said they were going to award all these different grants and people made plans based on those grants and now they're just cutting it off willy-nilly in some cases they're pausing them and then they'll like let it loose a couple months later and it's just put everybody in this state of you can't do anything and you you know they might have hired people to do this digitization now there's no funding for it i feel like if they wanted to cut the federal budget down there would be a way to do it that would be orderly and to say "Okay after this grant is over we're getting rid of this grant."

I don't know that any of us would be out there protesting that we need digitization grants but why cut it off in the middle of the cycle after it's already been awarded it just seems so shortsighted wendy there was a story at Channel 5 this week and Alred and others put together a a piece that uh concluded that in Missouri uh you can work a seven and a half or eight hour shift and there is no guarantee for lunch i know we work for a half hour and we have a guaranteed it's built in and we always get a birthday cake every birthday feeling yeah it was it was kind of a it was a it was a little kicker story it was just kind of interesting because in Illinois they do have a break right uh in Missouri we don't and I just think it's kind of an along these lines if you look at the you know the department of government efficiency and all it's like what's next you know we're going to have to have like bathroom breaks I mean you know is that going to be is that also going to be something that is considered to be you know too generous on the part of employers I I don't know apparently for the county jail in defense of this state of Missouri I don't think there's comes up much i mean Illinois has you know stepped up there and said whenever they did you know you need to give people a lunch break and I think in Missouri is just kind of think well of course people get a lunch break i don't know i remember my first job where you know one of these where you had to clock in and clock out they were like well under under the law we have to give you a lunch break and so I would have to sit back there in this little break room like bored out of my mind just wanting to get back out on the floor and get my job done and I wasn't allowed to do it because the law mandated I had to that was Ohio yeah so I kind of like the Missouri law get my job done i I was like you that you I took for granted like so so what it's not mandatory to get a lunch break but at the same time you know they had a raging debate over the last 5 years as to whether or not you know you could be 13 years old and get married in Missouri so why am I shocked that it's not law well that's all the time we have for this segment because we're off to have some cake as part of our lunch break cake by the Thanks so much we'll see you next week