Is Harvard Too Far Gone to Save?
“The problem is Harvard itself, what it believes, and its commitment to an insidious ideology—best-recognized by its acronym, DEI, for diversity, equity, and inclusion—that is inherently opposed to the notion of free and unfettered exchange of ideas.”
Claudine Gay may have stepped down, but DEI and the ideology behind it has a firm grip on the school. Is it just too late?
Liel Leibovitz writes at City Journal:
Opportunity, Not Tragedy
If you’ve ever watched a monster movie, you know the scene. The triumphant heroes walk away, the creature they had just vanquished left for dead behind them. And then, in a furious flash just before the credits start rolling, it opens its eyes and pounces, assuring us that evil never truly dies and that the sequel is coming.
That was the vibe at Harvard University last week. No sooner was its purported plagiarist president, Claudine Gay, forced to step down after struggling to find fault with calls on campus for genocide against Jews than the haughtiest Ivy found itself in trouble again. The university had announced the creation of an anti-Semitism task force, but before it could even convene, some critics pointed out that its co-chairman, history professor Derek Penslar, wasn’t exactly the man for the job.
Penslar, wrote the university’s former president, Lawrence Summers, “has publicly minimized Harvard’s anti-Semitism problem, rejected the definition used by the US government in recent years of anti-Semitism as too broad, invoked the need for the concept of settler colonialism in analyzing Israel, referred to Israel as an apartheid state and more.” Harvard, Summers went on, would never appoint anyone who made light of racism, say, to an anti-racism task force, which only proved the existence of a “double standard between anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.”
Summers and Harvard’s other critics are right about the facts but entirely wrong when it comes to the bigger picture. The problem isn’t really Penslar or Gay, and it won’t be solved by a task force, however honest and well intentioned. The problem is Harvard itself, what it believes, and its commitment to an insidious ideology—best-recognized by its acronym, DEI, for diversity, equity, and inclusion—that is inherently opposed to the notion of free and unfettered exchange of ideas.
Consider another recent Harvard initiative, one receiving far less attention from the billionaires who worked to save Harvard by defenestrating Gay. The university’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights is now offering a three-week, intensive “Palestine Social Medicine Course” designed to “introduce students to the social, structural, political, and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease.”
Are you confused about that last part? Were you brought up to believe that disease is a medical condition caused by things like pathogens and therefore, you know, pretty much all about biology? No worries: the first aim of the course is to introduce you to “structural humility,” or the idea that you shouldn’t bother your teachers and fellow students with things like questions or facts.
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Comments
Harvard gave Lori Lightfoot a faculty appointment
Harvard gave Brian Stelter a faculty appointment
Harvard continues to employ Claudine Gay
Harvard has a plagiarist fraud as its DEI lady
Harvard forced a third jab on its 18-22-year-old-students (some of whom presumably were hoping to one day have the option of having healthy children
Evidently, for the right price, Harvard will say and do anything
Outstanding work, Harvardeers.
Seems to me if Harvardeers really had anything brilliant to offer the world, Harvardeers would have already turned Boston and New England into a real-life nirvana
— with low rates of poverty,
—low rates of crime,
—low rates of recidivism
-low rates of homelessness
-high rates of job growth
The schools would be terrific for the local children, the curriculum would be replicated around the world, and everybody would be moving to Boston. And Massachusetts
None of these things are the reality.
They laugh all the way to the bank
They laugh all the way back to Qatar
I left Harvard 50 years ago this June. What it has become now is unrecognizable. It used to be that SDS and YAF were opposing radical groups. Now, the former SDS members have become the administration, and opposing groups are harassed into oblivion.
Harvard is toxic woke trash dumpster fire burning out of control.
“You went to Harvard? Well, bless your heart.”
There are 3 kinds of Stupid: Stupid, Very Stupid, and, most of all, Harvard Ludicriously Stupid.
I don’t mind if it goes kaput, but it’s worth so much money it won’t. Anyway it’s not my job to save it nor to care. It’s known to be a very cynical place, undergrads getting underwhelming educations, grad students getting screwed out of the chance to finish their PhD’s. And people like Claudine Gay floating to the top, so it’s gotten even worse.
It’s like our government. It’s powerful but I have no love left for it.
Harvard, and the Ivies (including Duke, Stanford, Vandy, Northwestern and Chicago for that matter) always placed themselves into the “top drawer” elite of America’s higher education institutions. Now they are all damaged pieces of DEI-stinking garbage, overflowing with foaming-mouth administrators, faculty and insipid, vapid and brainless students just waiting for their daily dose of the latest sloganeering ala the “Cultural Revolution”. Cue the “struggle sessions” and public humiliations. Gee, isn’t that worth > $49,500/year in tuition/room/board for your kid? Decidedly NOT.