Harvard Backtracks on Kashuv, Rescinds Admission Offer
Kyle Kashuv was looking forward to beginning his undergraduate studies at Harvard in just a little over a month. Now, the university has backtracked on its admissions offer, and Kashuv has to scramble to gain admission to any college at this late hour.
Kashuv is a survivor of the horrific mass shooting that occurred at his school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018. The news coverage after the shooting gave him a national platform, and he became an outspoken advocate of school safety and a proponent of Second Amendment rights.
The young man talked about the university’s decision to rescind his admissions offer in a series of tweets Monday morning.
First, Kashuv noted that Harvard’s action is not without a stated reason. The university had expressed concern about the offer of admission after it came to light in May that Kashuv had made some terrible comments several years ago. He agreed that his remarks were “egregious and callous” and issued a lengthy apology at the time.
2/ A few weeks ago, I was made aware of egregious and callous comments classmates and I made privately years ago – when I was 16 years old, months before the shooting – in an attempt to be as extreme and shocking as possible.
I immediately apologized.
Here is my apology: pic.twitter.com/eI38ziiQE8
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019
Being an outspoken conservative, a friend of President Donald Trump and Ben Shapiro, and a guest on countless media outlets over the past year has made Kashuv a well-known figure. And for those on the left, he is not a favored son.
Once Harvard learned about his comments, it reached out to Kashuv and asked for a written explanation within 72 hours, he said.
Kashuv’s two-page response is below:
5/ I responded to the letter with a full explanation, apology, and requested documents. pic.twitter.com/yWd6FeKWOJ
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019
It was to no avail. Harvard rescinded its offer of admission in a half-page letter June 3, which Kashuv shared on Twitter:
7/ Harvard decided to rescind my admission with the following letter. pic.twitter.com/P3bLkF3hHn
— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019
The university also subsequently declined his request for an in-person meeting.
Kashuv found Harvard’s decision to be disappointing, to say the least.
“Harvard deciding that someone can’t grow, especially after a life-altering event like the shooting, is deeply concerning,” he tweeted. “If any institution should understand growth, it’s Harvard, which is looked to as the pinnacle of higher education despite its checkered past. Throughout its history, Harvard’s faculty has included slave owners, segregationists, bigots and antisemites. If Harvard is suggesting that growth isn’t possible and that our past defines our future, then Harvard is an inherently racist institution.”
He concluded that he doesn’t think Harvard is those things. “But I don’t believe that,” Kashuv tweeted.
His point is spot-on. If Harvard doesn’t want to be known as the employer of slaveowners — which it doesn’t — its actions should reflect the knowledge that organizations and individuals can move on, mature and change.
“I believe that institutions and people can grow,” Kashuv said. “I’ve said that repeatedly. In the end, this isn’t about me, it’s about whether we live in a society in which forgiveness is possible or mistakes brand you as irredeemable, as Harvard has decided for me.”
Asked about the university’s decision on Kashuv, Rachael Dane, director of media relations at Harvard, told Conservative Tribune in an email that “we do not comment publicly on the admissions status of individual applicants.”
However, she said the university “reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission” under several conditions, including if an admitted student “engages or has engaged in behavior that brings into question their honesty, maturity or moral character.”
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