Tag: Harvard University

Vijay Jojo Chokal-Ingam, an Indian-American who pretended to be black to gain admission into medical school, discusses with CNN's Michael Smerconish a group's claim that Harvard puts quotas on Asian-American applicants and shows preference for black and Hispanic applicants.

The groups sowing climate doubt are more emboldened than ever before, sociologists and historians said. Their effectiveness in the era of President Trump is a reflection of a deepening polarization in U.S. politics and a normalization of climate skepticism on the right, they said. Democrats and Republicans have never been further apart on climate change, according to public opinion polling released last week by Gallup. They are proclaiming victories, and they keep pushing," Dunlap said. They fought against President Obama's climate policies for eight years. It goes beyond climate. Yet Pruitt has balked at going after the finding (Climatewire, Dec. 8, 2017). Pruitt may suspect that challenging the endangerment finding is a losing battle. The White House has rebuffed those efforts, to Pruitt's chagrin (Climatewire, March 14). "That might be, I think, the more long-lasting and pernicious effect of the Trump administration — is that they push out good people."

The student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who survived a school shooting last month and then used the harrowing experience to ignite a national debate on gun control, are scheduled to speak at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School next week. On March 20, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and several others will take part in a panel discussion called, “#NEVERAGAIN: How Parkland Students are Changing the Conversation on Guns,” according to event details. The discussion, which will be moderated by Meighan Stone, a fellow at the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, will detail the work the students have accomplished since Feb. 14, when 17 students and teachers at their high school were killed by a former student. Dustin Chiang, president of the IOP Student Advisory Committee, said the institute is enthusiastic about hosting the students, a group that has spearheaded a national conversation about enacting stricter gun-control measures in hopes of preventing yet another mass shooting. “The Institute of Politics is looking forward to welcoming students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to the JFK Jr. Forum,” Chiang said in a statement to the Globe. People who sign up for the event will be picked through a lottery system and notified via e-mail, according to organizers. In the wake of the deadly attack, several of the students have risen to prominence, making regular television appearances, rallying their classmates, and becoming ardent representatives of the activism that has spread to high schools across the country. On Wednesday, March 14, students nationwide are planning “walk outs” to draw attention to gun violence. And on March 24, the “March for Our Lives” will take place in Washington, D.C., with similar marches planned in other cities that same day, including Boston. Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com.

Cornel West, a Harvard philosophy professor and author of 20 books, speaks at Brown University on Tuesday. PROVIDENCE, R.I. — President Donald Trump is as American as cherry pie. He is an expression of “something deep in the history of this nation” and he “represents the worst,” too, but he “doesn’t have a monopoly on that role,” Cornel West told Brown University students Tuesday night, warning them that “the worst thing you can do is fetishize an individual like Trump.” “He just happens to be running the empire as a know-nothing narcissist,” said the author, political activist and philosopher. There’s a narcissism inside of us. No matter how learned you are.” West’s sizing up of Donald Trump came toward the middle of a lecture that challenged his Ivy League listeners to pay attention to their own faults and to resist “identity politics.” The Harvard philosophy professor and author of 20 books, including the well-known “Race Matters” published in 1993, lectured at Brown as part of the university’s “Politics in the Humanities” lecture series. Identity politics is supporting a politician based on the politician’s race or gender or sexual orientation. Some black supporters of former President Barack Obama, said West, were unwilling to criticize the Obama administration for a weak response to Wall Street entities culpable in the financial crisis of 2008. Some proud supporters, he said, opted to focus on Obama’s peace prize, but were not willing to criticize him for carrying out far more drone attacks overseas than President George W. Bush. “Where is the delicate, difficult discussion that keeps track of the humanity of each and every one of us?” asked West. Look what Europeans did in Australia or New Zealand or the United States.” “How do we keep track of those kind of difficult truths that radically unsettle us but at the same time not push us toward drinking from the cup of hatred and bitterness as opposed to a compassion that tries to connect the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis together.