As I've written about before, my daughter is in her senior year of high school and has been looking at colleges and at this point has already been accepted into multiple schools ... all with scholarships. Sorry, had to drop that mom brag here, I'm just so proud of her.
Anyway, at one point Harvard was actually sending her information about signing up and encouraged her to apply for various scholarships. They went so far as to meet with her one-on-one about why she should consider attending. It was surreal to see our little preemie born over three months early sitting down and talking with an admissions officer from one of the if not THE most prestigious Ivies in the country.
And if I'm being totally honest, I was a bit starry-eyed even with all of my evil, cynical, conservative ideas. I mean, THIS WAS HARVARD. And they were interested in OUR DAUGHTER. Wow, right? This was all before October 7, and even though I should have known better (hello, they took David Hogg), it didn't hit home with me how far this institution of higher learning has fallen until the Claudine Gay news broke. Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive and I knew my very white daughter wasn't exactly their target student, but I had no idea how bad it really was.
Until Gay.
Seeing this letter from a Harvard Law Professor about how they allowed DEI to destroy the school is honestly very heartbreaking. I'd like to think that maybe there is still a chance for these schools to figure out it's about educating young minds, not indoctrinating them, but it just seems to get worse and worse.
Take a look at this:
Eloquent and heartbreaking. From Harvard Law Professor Mark Ramseyer's email to a Harvard list (with permission). I came for my PhD in '99, he came as a prof in '98. We were each publicly attacked for our views in '21.
— Carole Hooven (@hoovlet) December 18, 2023
"Harvard is a vastly less tolerant place than it was when I…
From the letter:
"Harvard is a vastly less tolerant place than it was when I arrived in 1998. The intolerance is a function of an increasingly large fraction of our colleagues. And we – the rest of us on the Harvard faculty – let it happen. The cancelling, the punishments, the DEI bureaucracy, the DEI statements, the endless list that we could all recite – all this happened on our watch. We saw it happen, but we did nothing. We were too busy. We were scared to speak up. We – we on the faculty – let Harvard become what it is. The Harvard that we have is the result of our own collective moral failure.
The alumni who are furious are not trying to turn Harvard into something we do not want. They are trying to rescue Harvard from what we let it become.
We as a faculty failed. That is why the alumni are speaking up. That is why we formed the Council on Academic Freedom in the first place."
Sadly, it's probably too little too late.
Luckily, my daughter decided for herself Harvard was not for her (when she saw what we'd owe even after scholarships she was a big fat NOPE), but even if she hadn't, I'd have tried to persuade her to go somewhere else. She has narrowed it down to about four schools and I'd be lying if I said I'm not worried about each and every one of them for different reasons. But I also know I can trust my daughter, I trust her to rely on her upbringing, her ability to think for herself, and her unwillingness to go along to get along. Perhaps she and others like her, free-thinkers who refuse to play the progressive game, can help save higher education.
Can succeed where this law professor has failed.
