In defense of Harvard

I didn’t apply to Harvard. I wouldn’t have gotten in if I had. Even though I lettered in track and field and was captain of my high school cross country team, I was a B student in high school. I didn’t apply to Harvard for grad school either. The lab where I did my postdoc had recently moved to Washington University from Harvard, so I narrowly missed working there.

I’ve only had one or two friends who attended Harvard as undergrads. Some of my friends were Harvard PhD students and/or postdocs, and I know some folks who were on the Harvard faculty. I never felt disadvantaged by not being affiliated in any way with Harvard.

That said, there’s absolutely no excuse for the Trump Administration assault on Harvard. It’s not about fighting antisemitism or discrimination, it’s purely an exercise in dominance.

There’s an interesting essay in the Boston Globe from a recent Harvard grad defending her alma mater. She grew up on a dairy farm in rural Maine, so Harvard was a culture shock for her. She writes:

“I believed I didn’t fit in at Harvard because I wasn’t rich and/or a legacy and/or a private school grad. My issue, I thought, was social. But over time, I began to realize it was also political. I started telling this joke: “I thought I was far left until I got to Harvard. And then I realized — Mom, Dad? I think I’m a Republican.”

She eventually emerged from her social solipsism:

“[Harvard] is, genuinely, diverse. My roommate was from Iran. My best friend was a Black man from rural Pennsylvania. As a white rural (read: redneck) middle-class American woman, I was more of an outsider than some, less of an outsider than others.”

But what about the storied leftism at Harvard? Isn’t everyone a Marxist by the time they graduate, ready to abandon their trust funds and crusade for the socialist worker’s paradise?

“There are plenty of socialists on campus, but as Professor Steven Pinker mentioned in a recent New York Times piece, half of graduates go on to work in finance, consulting, or technology.

 

“In other words, when the Trump administration demands “viewpoint diversity” and decries the “woke” culture at Harvard, it either misunderstands the reality at the school or is intentionally flattening the narrative in a bid to achieve its own goals.”

Harvard has the resources to survive the Trump Administration attacks. Other universities with smaller endowments—and their alumni—need to join with Harvard to fight this senseless assault. 

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/28/opinion/harvard-versus-trump-diversity/