@evan
I voted 'qualified yes' and feel I owe you an explanation.
If I ruled the world, each university would host its own Mastodon instance.
The problem I foresee, a possible cloud - hence my qualification - is the practical business of finding/funding people to do the donkey work of hosting...
But assuming that - possibly minor and theoretical? - stumbling block could be overcome, my vote would be 'strong yes' 
@greeneralia I was with you until you called system administration "donkey work". That's not a term I'm familiar with but it doesn't sound particularly respectful.
@evan @greeneralia I don't think it's a bad term. One could also say "grunt work".
Maintaining, administering, and policing social media systems is exciting / interesting to the people who start it up. But the personnel at a university are constantly in flux. Six months after startup it's viewed as a "legacy system" by newcomers, it's boring, and consequently ignored until something bad happens.
Running a Mastodon instance is a thankless labor of love. I wouldn't expect that from university personnel. That's why I voted "qualified yes".
If one can get the trustees to buy into it, fund it, and make sure someone is responsible / accountable for it, then yeah. But the trustees will have to be convinced that a Mastodon instance is valuable to the university and not just a liability.
