I have to get writing soon, since the deadline is October 1. And it is clear that I have more material than I can possibly include to demonstrate why a Harvard diploma for this graduate is now an embarrassment and not to be celebrated. Another example was forwarded to me today.
A reliable blogger and respected lawyer with excellent ethics credentials tweeted that he had spoken with a man who had applied for a job at Harvard for which he was not only well-qualified, but one of the few individuals who was qualified. He had heard nothing for three months, and finally inquired, whereupon he was told via letter that he had been rejected because he did not have the requisite qualifications. By chance, the blogger knew the individual who had signed the letter, and called him up. Off the record, the individual informed him that not only qualified, but the only applicant qualified for the opening. However, he was a white, heterosexual male, and thus was rejected by the hiring committee for not meeting their demographic requirements.
[Note: the tweets did not mention the institution by name, and only alluded to the school’s address, leaving open the possibility that M.I.T., which is just down the street in Cambridge, could also be the school at issue. However. M.I.T. is not currently being sued for discriminatory practices, nor has it defended the same. My own inquiries have persuaded me that Harvard is the culprit here, but the lawyer-blogger did not break his “off the record” promise, though he came close.]
Ethics Alarms 
Higher education in this country is becoming a parody of itself.
Michael Tracey has documented how higher education pretends that COV ID-19 vaccines do not work. I summarize here.
They are hiding behind CDC advice that “strongly recommends” wearing a mask indoors despite vaccination status. They want to be seen as “following the science”, even thought this “science” is blatantly politized, and results in absurd situations such as a campus with 95% vaccination behaving like lunatics.
The science was telling us the vaccines work.
Related to this, Hawaii moved the goalposts.
I have read comments online blaming unvaccinated people for COVID-19 restrictions, on the argument that if those people got vaccinated, the government would lift these restrictions.
I wonder if they will reconsider their arguments given that governments have moved the goalposts.
HR in higher ed is a particularly strange beast. When Beloved Spouse applied for what is now her current position, the “rules” wouldn’t allow her even to be interviewed, precisely because (!) she was the only qualified candidate to apply by the stated deadline. She, and the office who wanted to hire her, had to wait until there were three applications from candidates who met the minimum criteria. The third application, from someone who clearly wasn’t really qualified, but could (barely) check all the mandatory boxes, came in several weeks later. From there, the whole process–contact, interview, offer–took less than a week.
“Strange beast” is a nice euphemism for “totally fucked-up”….
the lawyer-blogger did not break his “off the record” promise, though he came close
What about the person who signed the letter? How about his ethics? Continuing to draw a salary for a position requiring him to participate in a massive and ongoing fraud?