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Harvard Pulls Student Offers Over Online Comments (go.com)
Reader joshtops shares a report: Harvard University's student newspaper says the school has revoked admission offers to at least 10 prospective freshmen over offensive online messages. The Harvard Crimson says the students posted images and comments in a private Facebook group mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust and racial minorities. The newspaper reported that several group members said at least 10 people were told by Harvard in April that their acceptances had been withdrawn.
Harvard is a private school, not a public school. Their call to reject students based on this sort of thing.
Mr burns can get them into yale!
This is something that everyone should be aware of when posting views and comments on the Internet. If you do not want it to be public forever, then do not post.
Good news for 10 people on the waitlist.
Those kids who are blaming Cards Against Humanity are going places! Not Harvard.. but places..
Posting on a forum is an action. People can still be as racist as they want in their thoughts, those can't be read (yet).
the "left-wing point of view" sexual assault is bad, the holocaust happened, and people of different races are people too.
LOL, you're a funny boy/girl
Schools have codes of conduct, many of which prohibit forms of what would be perceived as hateful behavior (whether that's righteous or not is not the point here). Would not surprise me that this crossed the line, hence the rescind.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
Colleges are not Vo Techs. It was NOT the original purpose of a college to prepare someone for the work force. They were designed an intended to teach people MORALITY first and science and information second. Western universities come to us originally as an effort of Medieval religious education intended for priest Monks and the ruling class. So anyone going to college should expect to be subject to moral formation. It might be an idea for parents to consider if they agree with the moral formation they are paying for. No one should kid themselves. Even state run schools have an agenda and program of moral formation. Often times a very anti-religious one.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
Be warned, millenials! Nothing is private on the interwebs.
As a private institution, Harvard does indeed have the right to pull the plug on admissions on anyone. However, it is a (and excuse using what often is a logical fallacy ), a slippery slope. With all of the illogical attacks and rampant emotionalism happening on campus these days, I often say to my sig-other, that I would never attend college these days. In fact, as a alumni of one of the most liberal colleges, I don't support the alumni association with donations, instead I give my dough to thefire.org. If you haven't been keeping track, here are a few examples: Yale 2.0 at Evergreen State College, When the left eats its own, Harvard president defends free speech in commencement speech; Harvard still actively suppresses student rights, and the list just goes on and on. The trend away from using logic, peer-review, toward speech-crimes and railing against traditional western liberal free thought and debate is just intellectually mind numbing.
You're comparing mocking sexual assault, racism and the holocaust to religious beliefs?
Uh, yeah? Have you ever read the Bible/Koran/Torah? They make 4chan look tame in comparison.
Don't forget Christianity and Judaism. There's one part in the Bible where the Jews attack and murder all the members of some other tribe because supposedly God told them to. And I'm pretty sure there's verses in there supporting sexual assault (including other attacks on other tribes where they subjugate the women after killing the men).
Also, the Holocaust was committed by Christians. Debate the secret beliefs of the top nazi leaders all you want, but all the people actually manning the camps and abducting people were Christian and had these activities justified to them based on religious arguments.
All three of those religions are barbaric and support brutality. Some just cover it up slightly more than others.
According to the results of her trial for the Marin County Courthouse affair, she is not a murderer.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Over 400 comments, so it's what passes for a "popular" topic on today's Slashdot. Especially disappointed by the feeble attempts at humor, but maybe those funny mods were just examples of the latest craze among trolls, using "funny" mods to attack in a less obvious way. "Hey, just because YOU didn't appreciate the humor."
The obvious angle for insight did not seem to be touched at all. Of course I started by searching for comments modded as "insightful", and then I went through a bunch of keyword searches. Came up with nothing along the lines of my Subject: question.
In brief, if the Harvard people are just trying to cover their own ass (the university's collective ass?) by avoiding being linked with stupid posts on Facebook (or Slashdot), then it's a depressing kind of cowardice in what is supposed to be one of the leading institutions of America. ("Hey, but it's just a symptom of how America is LOSING", as the Trumpists would say.)
If the Harvard people are sincerely interested in protecting society from harm, then it's a completely different thing. Maybe they remember such moral disasters as that AG who defended torture for Dubya and that little Ted Cruz coward who were empowered to do much of their damage by their Harvard imprimaturs. I for one would not blame Harvard for seeking to avoid creating the next (and possibly worse, ITIP) Ted Cruz.
Lots of largely incoherent mumbling about free speech in this Slashdot discussion, but I doubt most (or perhaps any?) of them actually know what freedom is.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.