The following article, Harvard Financial Woes Mount as they Close the Wohlbach Library, was first published on The Black Sphere.
Harvard University is scaling back in the wake of its recent controversies. And according to the Harvard Crimson, the university will close the John G. Wolbach Library.
Holy Mother of Mindfulness, say it ain’t so. What will Harvard do without the John G. Wolbach Library. And who’s doing to tell Mr. Wolbach’s family about the closing. After all, didn’t they donate a lot of money to get their name on that library?
In case you’re wonder, Harvard has a few libraries. In fact, they have 28 libraries. And those libraries employee roughly 700 people whom Harvard describes as “expert staff”.
The combination of all those libraries contain 6 million digitized and publicly available items, 20 million books, 1 million maps and spatial data sets, and finally 400 million rare items including letters, photographs, and manuscripts.
Quite the collection.
Why was John G. Wohlbach’s library singled out? Is it located on a bad part of the campus? Perhaps the library didn’t meat Harvard’s strict DEI standards? Was Wolbach a JEW?!
I know from research that The Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory collections are housed at the library. Guess now those two collections will need to find new homes. And according to the Harvard Crimson, the “core operations” of the library will be folded into the Harvard Library.
That sounds rather generic. The library artifacts will go to “Big Daddy” library, and have to work its way back up the ladder.
Why close Wolbach’s library?
Harvard Center for Astrophysics Director Lisa J. Kewley wrote in an email to the outlet that the decision was driven “primarily by financial considerations.”
Kewley announced the decision in an email to some Harvard staff on Jan, 23. She stated that the library was facing financial pressure after the Harvard College Observatory’s budget was reduced, and a decision was made to refocus those funds.
“To minimize the impact on CfA science, technology development, and telescope operations, we need to reduce positions where there can be increased efficiencies or broader institutional support from Harvard or Smithsonian,” Kewley said.
Impact
I openly cheer with the woke or those who don’t fight woke must face the real world. Choices create consequences. And due to the decision to close the John G. Wohlbach Library, Kewley said that five library staff members will lose their jobs.
“We want to express our deep gratitude to the library staff for their exemplary support to the CfA community over the years,” wrote Kewley. “SAO and HCO HR staff are providing support to them during this challenging time.”
I’m almost positive that library’s budget was rounding error when compared the university’s budget. Budget notwithstanding, Harvard has taken a significant hit financially, losing millions in donations due to former Harvard President Claudine Gay.
How many more libraries will close? What other impact will the bailing of funders create?
While I have no answers to those questions, what I do know if I want to see more of it. William “Bill” Ackman wrote:
“President Gay’s failures have led to billions of dollars of cancelled, paused, and withdrawn donations to the university. I am personally aware of more than a billion dollars of terminated donations from a small group of Harvard’s most generous Jewish and non-Jewish alumni.”
A place for those donation that will yield stellar results
I say to anybody who donated to Harvard, consider donating to Seeking Educational Excellence, a 501c3 dedicated to promoting meritocracy. Moreover we extol Israel and the Jewish people. And we understand how the plight of Jews and that of blacks aligns in multiple ways. Team together, Pro-Israel blacks believe we can change the views the world has of Jews in one generation.
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