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What Is the Mellon Foundation Doing to Higher Education?

  • Tyler Austin Harper--The Atlantic
  • published date: 2026-02-12 12:00:00 UTC

Its role as the country’s preeminent funder of humanities research has granted the foundation—and its president—enormous influence over American arts and letters.

In 1964, an influential report identified a disquieting trend in academia. “Increasingly during the past few years,” it began, “concern has been expressed about the condition, in this country, of tho… [+36218 chars]