Harvard’s Faustian Bargain

The news from Harvard could hardly be less promising. What the university needed was to put the sad tale of Larry Summers, whose tenure was destroyed by harpies, behind it. Instead it selected the woman who led the Taskforce on Women Faculty, created to grovel to feminists after Summers raised (merely raised, I remind you) a question about how intelligence is distributed in the one percent or so of folks able to do the highest of high math and science. Alison has already noted Heather Mac Donald‘s excellent piece on Harvard’s “Faustian bargain” (HM was writing before the choice was announced. but, since it’s the best thing I’ve seen so here goes again): 

“The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard’s Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university’s Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers’s all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.

“Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. At Radcliffe, Faludi argued that 9/11 had triggered yet another ‘backlash against feminism,’ while Ehrenreich lectured on ‘Weird Science: Challenging Sexist Ideology Since the 1970s.’ It is received truth among Radcliffe Institute lecturers that obstacles throughout American society block women’s progress. Radcliffe speaker Rebecca Walker, for example, has created the ‘I Spy Sexism’ initiative, which asks young women between the ages of 15 and 30 to keep logs of the ‘sexism, racism, and homophobia’ that they see as they walk down the street or go to a movie.

“With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness.”

With the ascension of Faust, Harvard may have reached the tipping point. How long before sane parents wonder if the cachet of a Harvard education is worth the financial cost and the obeisance to political correctness?

reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard’s Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university’s Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers’s all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.

“Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. At Radcliffe, Faludi argued that 9/11 had triggered yet another ‘backlash against feminism,’ while Ehrenreich lectured on ‘Weird Science: Challenging Sexist Ideology Since the 1970s.’ It is received truth among Radcliffe Institute lecturers that obstacles throughout American society block women’s progress. Radcliffe speaker Rebecca Walker, for example, has created the ‘I Spy Sexism’ initiative, which asks young women between the ages of 15 and 30 to keep logs of the ‘sexism, racism, and homophobia’ that they see as they walk down the street or go to a movie.

“With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness.”

With the ascension of Faust, Harvard may have reached the tipping point. How long before sane parents wonder if the cachet of a Harvard education is worth the financial cost and the obeisance to political correctness?

powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism. Typical guest speakers include left-wing journalists Susan Faludi and Barbara Ehrenreich. At Radcliffe, Faludi argued that 9/11 had triggered yet another ‘backlash against feminism,’ while Ehrenreich lectured on ‘Weird Science: Challenging Sexist Ideology Since the 1970s.’ It is received truth among Radcliffe Institute lecturers that obstacles throughout American society block women’s progress. Radcliffe speaker Rebecca Walker, for example, has created the ‘I Spy Sexism’ initiative, which asks young women between the ages of 15 and 30 to keep logs of the ‘sexism, racism, and homophobia’ that they see as they walk down the street or go to a movie.

“With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness.”

With the ascension of Faust, Harvard may have reached the tipping point. How long before sane parents wonder if the cachet of a Harvard education is worth the financial cost and the obeisance to political correctness?