City Journal and NY Post

A Harvard PhD student and MPP student argue that Israel hatred on Harvard’s campus, including some departments becoming “fortresses of anti-Israel ideology,” not only raises doubts around the quality of a Harvard eduction, but begs the question of whether Jewish students have a future at Harvard.

Crimson

Erika Lee is the second professor to be hired in Harvard’s Ethnic Studies cluster hire. As the Crimson reports, “After a nearly five-decade push from Harvard affiliates for an ethnic studies program, [FAS Dean] Gay announced a search for faculty specializing in Asian American, Latinx, and Muslim studies in June 2019." The Coalition for a Diverse Harvard’s co-founder added, “…a commitment to an Ethnic Studies Department should be a job requirement for the next President of the University.”

Common Sense

In honor of July 4th, Bari Weiss and her colleagues asked individuals whom they admire what they love about America. One of these individuals is Harvard’s Roland Fryer, who explains, “In one generation, whether you are an immigrant from Asia or a sharecropper’s grandson, America is a place where you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to.”

Crimson

The Crimson covers the new Title IX regulations, including “mixed reviews from higher education experts.” Most notably, Title IX attorney Miltenberg claims Harvard’s current procedures are “intentionally opaque” with “hearsay, gossip, and innuendo” allowed in trials. He warns the new regulations will only “further erode the ability of an accused to fairly and equitably defend themselves from allegations that are often life altering.” HLS professor emeritus Elizabeth Bartholet “raised similar concerns that the proposal would diminish the rights of the accused.”

Crimson

In a courageous piece, Harvard undergrad and Crimson editor Gemma J. Schneider ’23 expresses “a mix of sadness, disappointment and fear” about the decision of the Crimson to endorse the BDS movement and platform the “deceptive,” “wildly distorted” and “dangerous” declarations of BDS’s co-founder. Schneider explains that “BDS’s strategy of ideological warfare…has led some of the most decent, kind, and thoughtful people that I know at Harvard to become patrons and propagators of antisemitism.”

American First Legal

AFL has asked the EEOC to investigate Morgan Stanley, and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, and Federal Student Aid to investigate Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Michigan, for violating federal civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, or sex.

Fortune

Harvard professor Roland Fryer explains that corporate DEI programs have zero average impact and can even have a negative impact. He proposes a 3-step, data-driven approach—1) understand disparities, 2) fix the root causes of bias, and 3) evaluate. “It’s time to stop guessing and start using the scientific method… More corporate leaders should be trying to solve diversity challenges…through intelligent use of data, rigorous hypothesis testing, and honest inference about what is working.”

Politico

Pressure is increasing on universities to divest from entities engaged in human rights abuses in China and elsewhere. Most recently, Rep. Greg Murphy “sent a letter to the 15 private universities with the largest endowments… asking them to purge their investment portfolios of ‘entities that are supporting the imprisonment of Uyghur Muslims or aiding the Russian Federation’s horrific invasion of Ukraine.”

Crimson

Barghouti, co-founder of BDS, finds a platform in Harvard’s student newspaper to take aim at Harvard student and Crimson writer Natalie L. Kahn ‘23 for her May 2022 opinion piece about Israel, Palestine and BDS.

Multiple Sources

Harvard President Bacow has announced that he will step down next year. According to the Crimson, “Bacow, who announced his departure Wednesday afternoon, will be one of the shortest-serving Harvard presidents of the modern era, tying Lawrence H. Summers for the shortest tenure since the Civil War.”

RealClear Politics

Donors and alumni take note, Eisenberg warns. The reason Harvard Professor Roland Fryer’s well-funded lab remains closed even after he served a two-year suspension, he argues, is that the University does not support diversity of thought. Is Harvard trying to protect students from Fryer or students (and the world) from the inconvenient truths of Fryer’s research?

Crimson

The Crimson recently completed a survey of the Harvard College Class of ‘22. 55% of ‘22 grads are Democrats and 4% Republicans. 27% hold “very progressive” views while 2% “very conservative” views. 94% hold an unfavorable view of Trump and 30% an unfavorable view of Biden. 56% feel the country is on the wrong track. 68% favor race-conscious admissions while 14% do not. Many other findings of interest in the recap and full report.

Documentary and FAIR Event

This documentary exposes the reasons why Harvard canceled its own star economist, Roland Fryer, a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. On 6/14/22, FAIR will host an online Q&A with director Rob Montz moderated by Wilfred Reilly.

Spectator World

This investigative piece focuses on a $115 million pledge made to Harvard Medical School by Chinese real estate company Evergrande during a pivotal time in the pandemic response. The piece raises questions around foreign influence and collaboration, scientific integrity, and academic freedom.

The Harvard Gazette

At Commencement, NZ Prime Minister Ardern reminded the Harvard community that democracies can fall. “When facts and fiction have become a matter of opinion and the trust that underlies democracies is being eroded, blind faith in the resilience of democratic governance is shortsighted, she said.”

The Crimson

“Debate over the regulation of foreign money in academia…[exposes] a tension between the government’s efforts to remain competitive, and academia’s goals to promote innovation and the free flow of ideas.”

The Crimson

Harvard graduate school programs are split on the role that standardized tests should play in admissions. “As graduate schools ponder the future of standardized testing… some…argue that testing requirements impose financial and logistical hurdles that limit the diversity of applicant pools.”

In addition to the Class of 2022 Commencement on Thursday, May 26th and the Class of 20/21 Commencement on Sunday, May 29th, Harvard will host 6 affinity graduation ceremonies. These events “aim to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of graduates from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities.”

Uncommon Knowledge

In his 59th year at Harvard, at age 90, Harvard professor of government and alumnus (AB ‘53, PhD ‘61) Harvard Mansfield reflects on the role of religion in self-government, the necessity for men to feel a sense of self-importance, the danger of materialism to democracy, the state of universities today (including Harvard), and why the U.S. is still worth studying and fighting for.

Wall Street Journal

Harvard professor emerita Ruth Wisse ties Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Report with the Crimson’s editorial in support of BDS: “The initiatives…are eerily similar. Addressing genuine distress…both gestures misidentify the cause and, by misdirecting responsibility for the misery, make it impossible to ameliorate deplorable conditions.”