Writing in Wednesday’s Washington Post, Charles Lane noted the hypocrisy of Harvard rejecting 95 percent of applicants while claiming to oppose “privilege and exclusion” — a stand the school has most recently chosen to demonstrate by banning members of single-gender social organizations from holding leadership positions in officially recognized undergraduate organizations.
Lane adds that, in pursuit of gender equity, applications for fellowships that require an official college endorsement will be off-limits to members of single-gender fraternities and sororities.
DUMB. On this basis Harvard should halt competitive admissions & admit anyone who wants to attend. https://t.co/QKbCHSa7cV
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) May 11, 2016
A ridiculously long letter defining and defending the school’s policy can be found on Harvard’s website; take the following excerpt as a trigger warning before taking in the entire text.
Discrimination is pernicious. Stereotypes and bias take hold, normalizing in a community behavior, which should be unacceptable. In this case, the discriminatory membership policies of these organizations have led to the perpetuation of spaces that are rife with power imbalances. The most entrenched of these spaces send an unambiguous message that they are the exclusive preserves of men. In their recruitment practices and through their extensive resources and access to networks of power, these organizations propagate exclusionary values that undermine those of the larger Harvard College community.
On the plus side, Harvard is offering to lend a hand to those “currently unrecognized single-gender social organizations transitioning to gender inclusive and open membership to identify opportunities to engage and support their positive functions of providing more inclusive social events, student leadership experiences and professional mentoring opportunities for their members.”
Harvard beclowns itself https://t.co/WPgFJIKhg2
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) May 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/KennethKirk1/status/730538331621101569
They've been a joke for a couple decades now.
— Zachary Ellinger (@zaqzilla86) May 11, 2016
This IS our brave new world
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) May 11, 2016
wait, so Harvard DOESN'T stand for privilege and exclusion? Really? Have they told the alumni yet?
— Jamie Abbott (@crashandannie) May 11, 2016
@EdWhelanEPPC In the Orwellian asylum, that is today's university, ownlife is increasingly suspect…and prohibited.
— smittelmann (@amajorityofone) May 11, 2016
https://twitter.com/BigHockeyPuck/status/730519997206925312
Haven't Ivy League schools installed automated beclowning systems by now
— phreshoneTX (@phreshoneTX) May 11, 2016
Harvard’s saving up for that, but money’s a little tight, with the Harvard Endowment currently falling a few million short of $38 billion.
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