Harvard Rescinds Acceptances for At Least Ten Students for Obscene Memes

[DonViejo]

By HANNAH NATANSON, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER 16 hours ago

Harvard College rescinded admissions offers to at least ten prospective members of the Class of 2021 after the students traded sexually explicit memes and messages that sometimes targeted minority groups in a private Facebook group chat.
A handful of admitted students formed the messaging group—titled, at one point, “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens”—on Facebook in late December, according to two incoming freshmen.

In the group, students sent each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punchlines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups. One called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child “piñata time.”

After discovering the existence and contents of the chat, Harvard administrators revoked admissions offers to at least ten participants in mid-April, according to several members of the group. University officials have previously said that Harvard’s decision to rescind a student’s offer is final.

College spokesperson Rachael Dane wrote in an emailed statement Saturday that “we do not comment publicly on the admissions status of individual applicants.”

more
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/6/5/2021-offers-rescinded-memes/

[LOL Lib]

1. Good.

[Yupster]

2. If they were accepted at Harvard, they

probably have a half dozen other acceptances from other top rated schools.

[spooky3]

3. Good point. I hope those schools now launch a search for

the same posts and make the same decisions.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. And how do we benefit from that?

You really think keeping these kids from getting a good education is going to "teach everyone a lesson" and kids will suddenly stop doing stupid things? Good luck with that. I assume you also think that juveniles who commit crimes should all be tried as adults and be felons at 14 or 15?

[angstlessk]

7. Not sure how many folk posted that site, but if the posts were so far 'out there'...

..some of the 10 might have a very hard education...that of the 'hard knocks' variety?

[LanternWaste]

9. Reductio ad absurdum for the win!!!!

"you really think keeping these kids from getting a good education..."
Do you really think these kids will be denied a good education? Good luck with that.


"I assume you also think that juveniles who commit crimes..."
I assume you also think consequences of our actions should be overlooked in all cases. (six of one, half a dozen of the other... and each as fallacious as the other)

[DefenseLawyer]

10. So that's a yes? Kids should be tried as adults?

because "actions have consequences," right? Sucks to be you, kid. Good luck in prison.

[onenote]

13. how do you go from rejecting the admission of an 18 year old to college

to trying a 14 year old as an adult?

I'm a pretty good athlete, but that sort of leap is far beyond anything I could manage.

One other point. I'm not sure about this, but it was my impression that an 18 year old (and even a 17 year old in some jurisdictions) is almost always (if not always) deemed at adult for purposes of criminal liability.

[rusty fender]

16. And...onenote for the win!

[JI7]

12. one can get a good education at community college also

[spooky3]

14. Harvard and schools like it pride themselves on being very picky about "character" as much as brains

A kid who establishes a wonderful charity or invents something great or overcomes substantial obstacles is strongly preferred to kids with similar academic qualifications. Only a tiny fraction of those who apply are admitted. Probably 25% or more of the people they reject are very well qualified to succeed at Harvard or elsewhere, with A+ records and 95%-ile scores or better on standardized exams.

(I'm omitting the "legacy" admissions for this post.)

Giving one of these other students an acceptance is a very good solution. Or are you unconcerned about the other students' ability to get a "good education"?

Harvard also protects itself from later problems that might occur if it had allowed any of the posters to attend and they then engaged in harassing, racist, etc., behavior or contributed to a hostile environment for other students, or worse. If another student had been harmed by their behavior, certainly you as a "lawyer" would know that the student's attorney would argue that Harvard had advance notice that the student might be problematic, which makes the university even more likely to be held accountable. There currently are cases pending at several universities, including the most elite.

And you honestly equate not being able to attend Harvard with not being able to get a "good education"? Give me a break. Those kids who posted messages the committee considered offensive, discriminatory, etc.? There are plenty of other universities for them that will trade-off their academic records with the potential problems. Harvard has the luxury of not having to do so.

[DefenseLawyer]

17. I'm not losing any sleep over who gets into Harvard

I just think in general, we shouldn't lose our collective shit when a kid makes a mistake.

[underpants]

5. That's true but there's a Harvard degree and everything else

They screwed up big time.

[JI7]

11. unless they got in like Bush kushner and others who contributed a lot

[tammywammy]

18. It's pretty late in the year for acceptance into other schools for the fall.

[karynnj]

19. True, but by mid -April, they likely missed the deadlines

for accepting other top schools or had written polite notes to say that they were not coming. It's been years since my girls applied for colleges, but has the timeline changed that much? They also can't really explain why they changed "their" minds.

[Kittycow]

4. I noticed some stories are glossing over the content.

The content needs to be front and center like it is in this story. Somebody in another story is brushing it off as "dark humor".

At any rate, I was under the impression that Harvard wanted students of exemplary character, which these clowns don't seem to be.

[Aristus]

8. I've been mentoring a Medical Assistant who is applying to Physician Assistant School.

I think she's pretty well qualified for acceptance. But she's been rejected twice so far, and I think it's because of her social media posts. She's a party girl, and is constantly posting cleavage, duck-mouth, and hand-sign pics on Facebook before going out for the night. I think the acceptance committee of the school may be seeing those and rejecting her applications as a result.

I don't know a good way to broach the subject with her. But I think it's holding her back.

[spooky3]

15. As her mentor, you are in an excellent position to talk with her about this.

Part of my job involves working with people in this same age group, and they are very social-media savvy. Most are VERY open to the message that universities and prospective employers have software programs to search for exactly this type of photo, message, etc., and will reject them on that basis.

Please tell her that you're interested in maximizing her opportunities, that she may not know that employers and universities can access these items, and that the selection process typically is a search for negative info, so...

You can invite her to search online for more info about this for confirmation if she wants to. It's out there.

[oasis]

20. There's zero risk these jerks would be future Phi Betta Kappa candidates.

Maybe Boris Espsteyn can use some interns.