Just as the school year was about to get underway, Harvard University canceled more than 30 courses. History and literature were affected the most. Many were far-left classes like “Global Transgender Histories,” in which students would’ve learned about “the lives of ancient and medieval people who crossed boundaries of sex and gender” and “the historical overlaps between cross-dressing, queer sexuality, and gender non-conformity.”
Little has been said about why the last-minute cancellations happened. Some were supposedly scrapped because five lecturers were no longer available to teach them. Others moved on to other studies, departed for medical reasons, or changed jobs. Low enrollment is likely the reason for shutting down many of these courses, though it’s hard to believe not enough students wanted to study “the historical impacts of … medicalization on gender identities.”
Perhaps this is another effort to scale back anything nearly related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). If so, as the school year progresses, will Americans see other colleges dropping such courses?
Harvard’s Path: Derailed or a New Trail?
A quick synopsis is in order. Elite universities nationwide have attracted much attention in the last decade. Visiting speakers, typically people with right-leaning views, have often been forced to leave mid-speech or been asked not to come, a product of being strong-armed by clamorous students protesting against speakers whose political identities they disagree with and opinions they want to silence. Demonstrations expressing outrage among college campuses have been an issue for years but have become more contentious and vitriolic since the Hamas-led attack against Israel on October 7. Things got so bad for Harvard that its former president, Claudine Gay, alongside two other Ivy League presidents, had to travel to DC last December and answer questions concerning how they handled the pro-Palestinian encampments on their respective campuses. In January, Gay, who also faced plagiarism allegations, resigned.
In June, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) stopped “requiring a diversity, inclusion, and belonging statement as part of its faculty hiring process.” This decision came just a year after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which resulted in colleges no longer being allowed to use race-based affirmative action programs in their admissions processes. The push to abandon the diversity statements was primarily encouraged by faculty, including the eminent psychologist and author Steven Pinker, a Harvard professor. In December last year, he wrote an op-ed, published in the Boston Globe, arguing against mandatory diversity statements, which he claimed, “[P]urge the next generation of scholars of anyone who isn’t a woke ideologue or a skilled liar. … Universities should stanch the flood of DEI officials, expose their policies to the light of day, and repeal the ones that cannot be publicly justified.”
Before Harvard dropped its diversity statement, though, many colleges had already changed or eliminated their DEI statements and offices.
Harvard Isn’t Alone
Numerous colleges have slowly stepped back from DEI efforts. One news publication, The Chronicle of Higher Education, has been tracking the “dismantling” of DEI on campuses since January 2023. So far, its documentation includes 203 colleges across 31 states.
Eliminating DEI statements from hiring and admissions seems like a theme among many colleges. Several campuses have even shut down their DEI offices, some in response to legislative action and political pressure. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill last year banning DEI offices, diversity statements, and “identity-based preferences in hiring at public colleges.” Other Red states have passed similar laws.
Another ongoing theme is the name changes. California changed its “Office of Multicultural Affairs to the Office of Belonging and Inclusion.” What’s the difference? The University of Iowa replaced the name of its DEI office with the “Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity” and cut “five unfilled DEI-related positions.” It also no longer requires “students, faculty, and staff to share their pronouns.” Not far away, Northern Kentucky University lost its chief diversity officer, who resigned, and it now plans to close its Office of Inclusive Excellence. The list goes on and on.
Some of these moves appear to be changes that aren’t really changes but slight alterations to disguise DEI offices and statements as something else, though the language often used is telling – and the disguises can look like mere variants of their originals.
The Chronicle’s last update to this page was September 27. There’s no mention of colleges canceling courses, though perhaps that’s outside the DEI scope. Or maybe nobody is paying attention to it. Either way, if other colleges have removed such classes, they’re doing so quietly. It’s unclear whether Harvard’s cancellations are permanent or if they will return in the spring. But according to its course list, which may or may not be current, plenty of niche classes remain for those interested in far-left topics, such as:
Queer Archives
Sin, Sex, and Race
Queering Education
Gender in Byzantium
Feminism in the Age of Empire
Street Dance Activism: Co-choreographic Praxis as Activism
Race and Racism in the Making of the United States as a Global Power
Queer Nation: LGBTQ+ Protest, Politics, and Policy in the United States
Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation
Compared to other universities, Harvard was late in cutting diversity statements and likely didn’t do so because it suddenly decided not to advocate for its preferred ideological culture. It still has an Office for Gender Equity (if its website is up-to-date), so to say it’s making a strong effort to change its DEI-like ways might be an overstatement. Perhaps canceling these courses lies along the same lines: not something it wants to do but has to do. Because of its elite status and constant publicity, more bad than good nowadays, it appears to be doing whatever it can to maintain its status and initiatives to keep the machine running with as little criticism and backlash as possible – all while receiving millions in government funds.
Dig Deeper into the Themes Discussed in this Article!
Liberty Vault: Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
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