Do you remember the other day when everybody on the 'intellectual left' was diminishing the value of a degree from the Harvard Extension School (HES) as a weak attempt to stick it to Conservative writer and professor Christopher Rufo, who has boasted in the past of having received his Master's Degree from Harvard despite having attended HES? They were all so gleeful to diminish Rufo by diminishing one of the institutions from which he earned a degree that none of them stopped to think about what this implied about the students that had earned their degrees there and the value of the institution itself... not to mention what it might mean to Harvard, who has in the past advertised a degree from the HES as being a 'Harvard Degree'.
If you were keeping up on this as it played out you may have noticed that one of the people who jumped into this frenzy of denigrating the institution was Jennifer Hochschild, who is herself a teacher at the Harvard Extension School. At the time it appeared that she must not value her employer much since she was happy to diminish the quality of the students there and, implicitly, her employer itself in the name of dunking on Chris Rufo:
On Rufo: what do integrity police say about his claim to have “master’s degree from Harvard,” which is actually from the open-enrollment Extension School? Those students are great - I teach them- but they are not the same as what we normally think of as Harvard graduate students
— Jennifer hochschild (@Jenniferhochsc2) January 5, 2024
'You know, HES student are fine and all but they're... lesser' seems to be what she decided to go with here. Wouldn't you just love to take a class from her?
Shortly after her post went viral people started pointing out that if a degree from HES wasn't a 'real' Harvard degree that would be news to the people who earned a degree from HES and were, at the time, under the impression that it was a Harvard degree. Talk began to swirl about potential lawsuits in the future:
I expect bill ackman to get in on this and set up a potential lawsuit with harvard extension school graduates
— Flo (@Bswan1697) January 6, 2024
It will be dope when the FTC references this tweet in the lawsuit against Harvard extension school
— Sean Gabrus (@yogabbathegreat) January 7, 2024
Cool, cool.
— John Carter, Esq. (@martianwyrdlord) January 6, 2024
So the Harvard brand is false advertising?
Looking forward to the class action lawsuit from everyone who attended the extension school. https://t.co/wiDxwzWqWl
Was this talk something that needed to be taken serious? Well, given what's happened now we can most likely assume that the people at Harvard were taking it seriously, because Prof. Hochschild today began back peddling from her previous position as fast as she possibly can it looks like.
I was asked to clarify, and am glad to do so: HES courses are Harvard U courses (often the same as in FAS, as for my courses). HES bachelor’s and master’s degrees are Harvard U degrees. HES is a school in Harvard U analogous to other schools. HES students are Harvard U students
— Jennifer hochschild (@Jenniferhochsc2) January 12, 2024
She 'was asked to clarify' huh? It doesn't take Hercule Poirot to figure out who it was the likely 'asked' Hochschild to clarify her position here. This is a massive comedown from her previous position, one that seems likely to only be made by someone with such a clear amount of self-regard if the fear of God had been put into her by someone with the power to give her her walking papers. In other words, if our money was on the line we'd bet she got called on the carpet by the Harvard Corporation Board (and the legal department was probably on the line too).
Christopher Rufo was quick to do a victory lap in her replies:
This is awesome. You dumped on your own school in an attempt to delegitimize my degree, then turned around and said it is, in fact, a wonderful, rigorous, and bona fide Harvard degree. You made a fool of yourself not once, but twice. That takes commitment. 🫡
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 12, 2024
Amazing: The Harvard professor who trashed Harvard Extension School is now furiously walking it back, declaring that HES is absolutely part of Harvard, that its classes are often the same as those in the more prestigious faculties, and that its degrees are full Harvard degrees. https://t.co/Ih7hWu2s9S
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 12, 2024
Who doesn't love schadenfreude when its at the expense of someone who's made themself your enemy?
You got a talking to, eh?
— Damin Toell (@damintoell) January 12, 2024
Is that really a clarification.....or the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you said a few days ago? pic.twitter.com/kZz24HkplL
— Peter Henlein (@SwissWatchGuy) January 12, 2024
Somebody in doing the backstroke. Just apologize and admit you were wrong.
— Jason_FLMAN🐊 (@jason_flman) January 12, 2024
It's a rare person who's willing to come down all the way to an admission of being wrong, and we're not going to hold our breath waiting to find out if Professor Hochschild is that rare person because... she's probably not.
Your attempt is damage control is futile, Gennifer.
— JWF (@JammieWF) January 12, 2024
A complete and total reversal of your prior statement is actually a retraction (if one is kind) or a humiliating backpedal (if one is not) and not a clarification. "The steak comes with two sides" is a clarification; "the steak is actually a shoe" is not.
— Always Adblock (@alwaysadblock) January 12, 2024
“I’ve been informed that HES graduates are alums that donate money too”.
— Bleu Cheque (@VERBAL_CHANCLA) January 12, 2024
FIFY.
Yes, this is probably a more accurate reading of the situation.
extremely reading from a prepared statement while two masked men in fatigues stand directly behind you holding rifles voice: https://t.co/CBk53e8Klo
— eigenrobot (@eigenrobot) January 12, 2024
Watching Harvard professors utterly be-clown themselves in the service of insulting Christopher Rufo is equal parts hilarious and depressing. https://t.co/alfzas8QvT
— Arturo Boremano (definitely NOT “Arthur Boreman”) (@ArthurBoreman) January 12, 2024
Why do superior "real" Harvard grads keep getting owned by lowly Harvard Extension School grads?
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) January 12, 2024
At some point, people who claim to be elite need to show some evidence. https://t.co/jPvR19bw6S
Perhaps they were only elite because they told us they were 'elite', and we were fool enough to believe them. Who knows?
Paging @RadioFreeTom https://t.co/OVygKwESzq
— Noam Blum 🚡 (@neontaster) January 12, 2024
This in reference to Tom Nichols (himself a sometimes teacher at HES), who had been a big booster of Prof. Hochschild's perspective at the time that she first tweeted it out as our own justmindy wrote about here.
This is an epic faceplant by someone who by educational pedigree would normally be considered by much of society to be 'smarter' than the rest of us by dint of her scholastic training and her job. In her haste to use her position at HES to provide heft to the argument that Rufo wasn't worthy of being associated with Harvard she made an absolute fool of herself and, one has to think, perhaps made some at Harvard begin to question whether she is worthy of being at Harvard.
Nah, given Harvard's recent track record on hiring decisions and the way they allow their student body to act on campus she probably fits right in.
***
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy Twitchy's conservative reporting taking on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth. Join Twitchy VIP and use the promo code SAVEAMERICA to get 50% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member