[miffel]

Well if it was a decision made by Harvard after serious deliberation and years of prep one could try to argue in good faith about the possible positive effects. Since this seems to be retaliation by the current admin due to Harvard's resistance to turning over vast amounts of records on intl. students... I think people are being less optimistic. I am curious, what do you think is beneficial about this? Please feel free to offer your perspective as well.

[vaidhy]

Maybe they think Harvard will replace international students with american ones? Poor foreign workers are taking away our jobs, and rich foreign students are taking away our education argument??

[miffel]

I almost preempted this argument in my comment! You are raising what I believe will be the spin for a lot of people. Ultimately I'll just say that intl. students enrich the intellectual experience and breadth within Harvard, for all students. But somehow I think that argument will fall flat for the people who are already trying to find justifications for this move.

[periodjet]

Harvard has been extraordinarily badly-behaved for decades. The state is applying what pressure it can to force the Harvard administrators to reconsider such behavior. I fail to see what’s so revolting about such a strategy.

[miffel]

What do you mean by badly-behaved? I would love to see some examples. I am genuinely asking by the way, very curious about your thoughts.

[periodjet]

Off the top of my head: Harvard has been ranked last in FIRE’s freedom of speech rankings; has allowed an authoritarian intellectual monoculture to calcify over the past 2 decades; has allowed its administration to balloon in cost, headcount, and power relative to its students and faculty; has repeatedly allowed (and even supported) violent and disruptive protests on its campus; has elected an unqualified plagiarist to its office of president due to her group affiliations rather than her merit and qualifications; has allowed that same (thankfully now ex-)president to clandestinely attempt to destroy the career of a faculty member whose research findings she disliked; has discriminated against students of a particular group in terms of admissions; etc.

I don’t particularly want to be funding an institution which behaves like that, so I’m glad this administration is pressuring it to do better in order to enjoy the public’s largesse.