We wrote last week about the wave of snobbish attacks leading Critical Race Theory critic Christopher Rufo was hit with in the aftermath of the resignation of now-former Harvard President Claudine Gay.
Rufo is one of three conservative writers whose documentation of alleged plagiarism they say was committed by Gay has been credited for the outcry that led to her decision to step down.
At the center of the elitist attacks on Rufo and his Harvard education was Harvard Professor Jennifer Hochschild. Though she teaches at Harvard Extension School (HES), which is where Rufo obtained his master’s degree, she nevertheless proceeded to stick her foot in her mouth by insulting every HES student by agreeing with the opinion that between Harvard University and Havard Extension School, Harvard U. had the better, smarter students.
Here were some of the lowlights:
There was more, but you get the picture.
It had some folks questioning whether the professor who taught at the HES was saying degreees from the HES didn’t hold the same academic value and weight in comparison to Harvard U. degrees, which goes against what the HES website states:
We are a fully accredited Harvard school. Our degrees and certificates are adorned with the Harvard University insignia. They carry the weight of that lineage. Our graduates walk at University Commencement and become members of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Here we are a week later and Professor Hochschild, who went quiet for several days on the Twitter machine after digging quite the hole, suddenly had a change of heart, or perhaps was urged by the Harvard legal department to take back what she said.
From the Harvard Crimson:
In an emailed response to [Harvard Extension Student Association] shared with The Crimson, Hochschild apologized for the way her posts were construed.“I am sorry that my comments were understood to imply a ‘sentiment . . . that undermines the value and reputation of our institution,’ and that they caused HES students and staff distress,” Hochschild wrote. “That is far from my views; Harvard is rightly proud of the quality of and access to education manifested every day by HES.”In a follow up email, she reiterated her admiration for HES students, writing that their degrees show “gumption, commitment, passion for learning, desire to use education in the service of their job or family or self.”My point, which was clearly phrased badly in the original tweet, was that students should proudly state their HES degree,” she wrote. “I have apologized to HES staff and students for inadvertently involving them in a silly debate (of course an HES degree is a real Harvard degree—who said otherwise??) and in an inappropriate challenge to what they should be proud of.”
Hochschild also took to the Twitter machine to “clarify” things:
In another tweet, written just after 4 a.m. Saturday, she addressed the students and staff whose education and work she had previously devalued all in an attempt to own the cons:
Rufo, as one might imagine, was not inclined to believe that the prof’s convenient backtracking was in any way genuine:
And no shame, either.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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