"The Science Coalition, which grew out of an initial concept at Harvard and at MIT, has now grown to an informal group of about 60 research universities"
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That careful double “grew” is doing political work. Vest isn’t just reporting an origin story; he’s staking a claim about legitimacy. By naming Harvard and MIT up front, he borrows their prestige as a kind of institutional seed capital, then pivots to scale: what began as an “initial concept” has “now grown” into something broader, sturdier, harder to dismiss. The line reads like administrative prose, but the intent is quietly strategic: to reassure funders, lawmakers, and the public that this isn’t a boutique initiative or a coastal cabal. It’s a network, and networks speak the language of durability.
Calling it an “informal group” is equally tactical. Informality sounds nonthreatening, collegial, nonpartisan - the opposite of a lobbying machine. Yet “about 60 research universities” signals real heft: budgets, labs, alumni, regional footprints, electoral relevance. Vest is threading a needle between influence and innocence, suggesting coordination without seeming coordinated. It’s a way to normalize collective advocacy for science without triggering suspicion that academia is acting like just another special interest.
The context matters: Vest, as MIT’s president and later a public champion of research, operated in an era when federal R&D funding and public trust were recurring battlegrounds. The Science Coalition’s very existence implies a perceived threat - underinvestment, short-term politics, the need to translate discovery into jobs and national competitiveness. Under the mild tone is a firm message: the research university system is learning to speak with one voice, because it has to.
Calling it an “informal group” is equally tactical. Informality sounds nonthreatening, collegial, nonpartisan - the opposite of a lobbying machine. Yet “about 60 research universities” signals real heft: budgets, labs, alumni, regional footprints, electoral relevance. Vest is threading a needle between influence and innocence, suggesting coordination without seeming coordinated. It’s a way to normalize collective advocacy for science without triggering suspicion that academia is acting like just another special interest.
The context matters: Vest, as MIT’s president and later a public champion of research, operated in an era when federal R&D funding and public trust were recurring battlegrounds. The Science Coalition’s very existence implies a perceived threat - underinvestment, short-term politics, the need to translate discovery into jobs and national competitiveness. Under the mild tone is a firm message: the research university system is learning to speak with one voice, because it has to.
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| Topic | Science |
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