Throughout the presidential campaign, Democratic front-runner Barack Obama has endured charges of being an elite, thanks in part to the fact that he graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, and his wife, Michelle, went to Princeton University and Harvard Law.
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas wrote earlier this month: “The McCain team sees an opportunity to paint Obama as an out-of-touch elitist, a Harvard toff who nibbles daintily at designer salads while the working man, worried about layoffs at the plant, belts another shot.”
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Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson recently wrote in The Washington Post: “Humble roots have never been a guarantee of intellectual humility, especially when a mind comes to flower at Columbia and Harvard.”
Even Michelle Obama had to concede in April: “Sometimes they look at Harvard and Princeton and that’s all they see. But let me tell you who we are.”
So, what do these Ivy League schools think about all this?
Harvard’s representative went the, well, snooty route and declined to comment. But professor Jed Shugerman said he “was not surprised at all” that Harvard is considered elite because “well, it is.” Accordingto him, “there have been many attacks on elitist eggheads in the past,” but he wouldn’t put Obama in that category.
His Righteousness, Columbia Law professor Richard Briffault, was most definitely above having to dignify with a response our inquiries about the effect of the presidential campaign’s elite charges on his university. “This question is silly,” the bombastic Briffault said. “I refuse to answer these questions. Why are you calling me?” (Was that the sound of clanging tea china we heard in the background?) Professor Robert Scott defended his university. “I don’t think we are elitist,” he told us. “We are a very diverse institution.”
Princeton professor Marta Tienda didn’t like all this talk of “elites.” “I have a big problem with this discussion,” she said. “What’s wrong with beating the odds?” But professor Richard Falk said, “I think it’s fair to call us elite. It’s not inappropriate to call us that.”
Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt added that “Princeton is a selective institution that educates a diverse body of talented students from a full range of socioeconomic backgrounds.”
Columbia’s Stephanie Quan, a student on the 2009 Class Council, added a bit of humor to the “elite” charges.
“Requiring every student to swim three laps and understand Renaissance art is not elitist. It’s essential for any person.”
