Something is rotten in the state of Massachusetts.
In the once-hallowed halls of Harvard University, there is now supplication to authoritarian China, adulation for leaders unwilling to defend the international order, and capricious disregard for equal justice.
I refer, in that last point, to Harvard’s decision to withdraw its offer of a place in its 2023 class to Kyle Kashuv. A survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, Kashuv is well known for his Second Amendment advocacy. But as Kashuv noted on Twitter on Monday, Harvard’s Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons recently withdrew the university’s offer on the basis of messages he sent at the age of 16, before undergoing the trauma of the Parkland shooting. Dean Fitzsimmons says that the messages show an absence of “maturity and moral character.” Asked to explain these comments, Kashuv wrote an eloquent apology letter, but it wasn’t enough.
Harvard says the decision is final. Its timing has left Kashuv without the opportunity to start college this year, as all the deadlines have already passed to accept other offers. And he says he passed up large scholarships to go to Harvard.
Any objective thinker would suggest that a university’s offer of admissions be based on the totality of person’s character at the moment of their application. And on that basis, Kashuv is clearly very far from the immature 16-year-old we can see in his earlier comments. On the contrary, he is a eloquent young man with the moral courage to articulate his views in a social and media environment that generally has little regard for them.
It gets worse, because Harvard’s decision also reeks of hypocrisy. Consider its comparative treatment of another Parkland survivor and successful admissions applicant, David Hogg. Hogg to this day frequently lobs profanity laden insults at political opponents. Hogg’s present day rhetoric does not immediately suggest the “maturity and moral character” Harvard says it so values.
But hear me out. Because I believe Hogg probably does deserve his Harvard place. He is passionate, intelligent, and has shown leadership qualities in galvanizing others around his views. I believe those qualities outweigh his continuing immaturity.
Fitzsimmons and his team, already being sued for discrimination against Asian applicants, were willing to treat Kashuv equally.
Perhaps Kashuv, who has brought up the university’s past association with slavery, should do a whip around. Fitzsimmons’ record suggests that he’s more friendly if you throw cash at him.
