No, I’m not kidding.
I probably should have done this much earlier, as when Harvard announced that it would defend its policy of discriminating against Asian-American college applicants in exactly the same fashion that it discriminated against Jews well into the 1960s. I would also have been justified in tearing up my alumni card when the College announced that it would punish students for belonging to single gender off-campus clubs, a decision that was their choice to make and that concerned the school not at all. An analogous policy would punish students for supporting Republican candidates, which I now realize may be Harvard’s next step.
When that off-campus club policy was announced (students are suing, and GOOD), I rationalized that this was a short-term problem resulting from a regrettable (and soon departing) college President, feminist Drew Faust, who regarded enforcing progressive agenda items at metaphorical swordpoint as a greater priority than such minor matters as giving students the liberal education they were paying for. Now I see that it was the canary dying in the mineshaft. How I wish I had been giving a lot of money to Harvard (which needs money like Hawaii needs sunshine) so I could now stop.
This is the final straw:
Harvard’s Dean of the College, Rakesh Khurana, has announced that he is firing Winthrop House faculty dean, Ronald Sullivan, because he is defending Harvey Weinstein against his New York prosecution, and the Winthrop House students are upset about it, poor dears. (I wrote about this controversy here.)
Also upset is Dean Khurana, who, shockingly, joined a sit-in in protest of a Harvard lawyer doing exactly what ethical lawyers are supposed to do: give all citizens access to the best legal representation possible. To be clear about how serious this is, by firing Sullivan, Harvard is endorsing and engaging in liberal fascism and directly opposing core democratic values, and even more revolting for an alleged “prestige institution of higher learning”, this is really, really stupid.
Lawyers don’t endorse the acts, beliefs or opinions of the clients they represent. I’ll publish this for the umpteenth time, from the Massachusetts Bars’ ethics rules…
Rule 1.2 (b):
A lawyer’s representation of a client, including representation by appointment, does not constitute an endorsement of the client’s political, economic, social, or moral views or activities.
This is a crucial principle. Fair trials and our criminal justice system depend on it; it is embodied in the Sixth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. But Harvard students found the principle insufficiently “woke,” and the college agreed. The fact that Harvard undergrads haven’t learned the importance of guaranteeing all citizens legal representation, and the fact that Harvard hasn’t taught it, apparently because its own leadership doesn’t agree with the principle itself, indicates what a sham institution Harvard has become, more left-wing indoctrination machine than liberal arts college.
Sullivan, a distinguished African-American legal scholar, should be praised, and his principled representation used as a teaching opportunity. Khurana ought to be rebuked by the Board of Overseers and run out of Harvard Yard on a tumbril.
I guess if enough professors and rich alums complain, it could happen, but I’m not holding my breath.Ironically, this astounding development is happening in Massachusetts, where John Adams made a brilliant stand for the principles of legal defense when he successfully represented the British soldiers who killed protesters in the Boston Massacre. I assume that pretty soon the students will be demanding that Adams’ name be removed from Adams House, since he obviously supported murderers and gun enthusiasts. At one time I would have regarded that prediction as a rueful joke. Not any more.
If there is any justice, Harvard will pay a big price for this, not that the last several years haven’t already seen the school disgrace itself and devalue its degrees repeatedly. Either Harvard pays a big price, or America will. Liberal fascism has an iron grip on the highest levels higher in academia, and the rule of law and democracy are in genuine peril.
Ethics Alarms 
And the Harvard Law School faculty’s position is….?
Boy, did the Professors Sullivan ever go OFF the reservation!
If you repudiate your undergrad degree, would that make all higher degrees null and void?
How do you figure? Is someone is admitted to law school because of a published scholarly work, is the later repudiation of that work a retroactive invalidation of the law degree? I’m not surrendering my accomplishments in college—which were unusual, not my honors thesis, which is stored in Widener Library. Just the degree, which I will note in my curriculum vitae as a matter of disclosure, but with a note explaining that I do not consider it a credential and will no longer represent it as such.
I think it was a joke, such as when I joke that they might foreclose on my JD if I default on my student loans.
-Jut
It’s all in the delivery…
American higher education has been headed this way for three decades if not longer. The thing is those of us who were conservative then and remain conservative now never were in a position to do anything about it. Back when we were students we were just told “keep your heads down, your noses clean, and your mouths shut, get your degrees, and go out into the real world where you’ll fit better.” Once we got out into the real world, unless we were donating buildings, we were told “your only connection here is that you went here, past tense.” So we did. It’s just too easy for professors who don’t agree with you to plausibly mark you down a grade and too easy for accusations that you said something or did something that you didn’t but can’t prove you didn’t to ruin you. Higher education would rather they didn’t have to teach conservative students in the first place, or that the conservative students would stay in the business/finance schools, the engineering schools, and the military academies, so that the liberal students can later get elected and tax the first almost, but not quite, out of existence, use the second’s technology to brainwash others, and order the third around.
Just to clarify, unless I have read it wrong Harvard is not firing Sullivan. His position at the Law School is not affected. They are removing him from his responsibilities as an onsite faculty dean.
Doesn’t make it right.
I’m guessing the women in the dorm didn’t feel “safe” having a man (of color???) who defends rapists and doesn’t believe women in such close proximity to them. Why hasn’t anyone said to them, “Time to grow up.”
The College is firing him. That’s a paid position, and one that includes housing.
To explain for the benefit of those unfamiliar with how this august institution operates: upperclassmen/women apply to “Houses.” which are like “colleges” in other places. Each has its own administration, and each is overseen by resident members of the faculty or other role in the university. They have maintained residences, special privileges, and are paid for the services. Some stay in these roles for decades. It is, however, a job.
Instead of repudiating the institution before it lost its way we should compile a list if academic institutions that have discarded the concept of academic freedom in favor of political correctness or wokefullness. Publish the list and suggest that degrees of these institutions may not be worth the salaries demanded by the graduates. If the SPLC can have a list of organizations that are deemed hateful why can’t we have a list of organizations that teach the young to be mindless authoritarians? There should be a graduation cutoff date which would protect degree holders before the institution abdicated its educator role and adopted the SJW mantle.
When people stop getting big bucks for entry level positions from these universities then things may find some semblance of balanced perspectives and the critical thinking skills demanded of professionals.
I stopped sending money to mine for exactly this reason.
“I Hereby Repudiate My Undergraduate Degree, As My Alma Mater Has Rendered It A Symbol Of Hypocrisy, Ignorance, And Liberal Fascism”
Might be you’re getting out while the getting’s good, because it gets worse.
Who says “you can’t go home, again;” another Harvard alum, Jennifer Cheatham, will being jonesing a Welcome Back Kotter moment in the near future.
And after a disastrous stint as the Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent, which saw a league-leading Achievement Gap get even worse.
On her watch, School Board meetings were reduced to “Lord Of The Flies” moments, a White Lefty Guilt suffused Behavior Education Program “metered” discipline/suspensions through a race-based lens (degrading classroom comportment even more), and had/have teachers/staff operating with their hands tied behind their backs while hopping on one foot.
Families with school age children are fleeing (with their education funding $ in tow) like cockroaches when you turn on the lights while outlying districts recently passed ~ 1/3 Billion $ in school funding referenda. Coincidence? You be the judge.
And Cheatham leaves the scene of the crime with a high falutin’ gig in Cambridge; what’s wrong with THAT picture?
Finally the truth can come out about John Adams and all the work he did towards American independence, founding the American republic, service as America’s first ambassador to Britain, and two terms as president. If the people of his age were woke they would’ve realized that Adams was no patriot. His defense of the soldiers from the Boston massacre demonstrated the work of someone who wanted a new imperialist, colonizing, enslaving empire.
(satire)