As an alum of the Kennedy School of Government, I shouldn’t be surprised by new evidence of Harvard’s extreme liberal bias. But I was still shocked to find out that KSG is an exhibitor at NOW’s upcoming conference for Young Feminist in Albany, New York. I sent this open letter to the Dean of the Kennedy School asking for an explanation for KSG’s presence there. Presumably they are there to recruit prospective applicants, but if that’s the case, why have they never attended much bigger events, like CPAC? I think I know the answer….
I first sent this email on June 23 and have yet to get a response. The text of the letter is below. If anyone wants to encourage Dean Ellwood to write back with an explanation, please email him at: [email protected].
Dear Dean Ellwood,
My name is Carrie Lukas. I graduated from KSG with an MPP in 2001. I was one of the handful of non-Democrats in my class, and was fairly outspoken about my disappointment with KSG for its extreme political bias. My classmate, Frank Micciche, has often tried to convince me that KSG and Harvard generally are attempting to become more balanced and less hostile to other points of view. He has an uphill job: needless to say, almost all of the writing and research produced by KSG faculty is leftist, so Frank has mostly argued that KSG should be given the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to live up to your commitment to trying — really trying — to recruit more conservative students.
Frank is a dear friend, but on this matter, I can’t help but conclude that he is plain wrong. I just found that KSG is an exhibitor at an upcoming conference sponsored by the National Organization for Women in Albany, New York. Take a look at the company KSG is in at this conference: https://ex03.mindshift.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.now.org/organization/conference/2006/exhibitors.html. KSG is one of a handful of organizations, other than NOW affiliates, that so far have registered to take part in this conference.
It is interesting to me that KSG is taking the time to appear at this conference in Albany, I assume to join the Socialist Worker’s Party in reaching out to prospective recruits. It would be one thing if KSG appeared often at these types of events, but why wasn’t KSG at CPAC?
You are probably unfamiliar with CPAC: it is the main, annual, conservative convention in Washington DC. Hundreds of college students come to hear prominent conservative speakers (I believe VP Cheney and Sen. Frist spoke in 2006) and visit the booths in the exhibition hall. You can see the list of exhibitors at CPAC here: https://ex03.mindshift.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cpac.org/exhibitors.asp I am confident that in terms of numbers, CPAC is a much bigger event than the NOW’s event in Albany. Clearly criteria other than number must be used when deciding where to invest KSG’s resources.
I’m not writing to try to convince you to attend CPAC: honestly, I could not in good conscious recommend to any fellow conservative or libertarian that they ought to apply to KSG based on my experience, so I do not feel it is of any lost to the conservative movement to have KSG go unrepresented. Needless to say, I regret that I paid money to attend KSG and support its activities.
But you have claimed in the past to care about correcting the perceived bias at KSG. Is there any explanation other that the obvious for why KSG is at this NOW conference and not at something like CPAC?
Thank you for reading this email.
Sincerely,
Carrie Lukas