THAT SUMS IT UP.

University faculty and administrators have trouble dealing with Greek-letter organizations in their midst.  It's never clear whether the greater sin is that the organizations foster insider snobbery or enable anti-intellectualism.  Now comes Harvard, cracking down on single-sex "eating clubs" (because Delta Felta Thigh is just too SEC for Cambridge) because privilege.  Or cissexism.  Whatever.  National Review's Jeremy Carl quips, "It takes real talent to insult both men and women with a single bureaucratic ruling, but never fear: Harvard’s administration appears to be up to the job." The sting is in the tail.

Harvard’s attack on the “privilege” of such single-sex groups is equally misdirected. In a laughable display of a lack of self-awareness, Harvard College’s dean, in his letter announcing the changes, claimed that “in their recruitment practices and through their extensive resources and access to networks of power, these organizations propagate exclusionary values that undermine those of the larger Harvard College community.” Umm . . . a large part of the undergraduate experience at Harvard is about “access to networks of power,” which is achieved through “recruitment practices” that involve bringing together a combination of top academic students, young leaders, and a sprinkling of the scions of wealthy families. For someone at Harvard to bleat about someone else at Harvard’s privilege is like Donald Trump telling someone they need to tone down their rhetoric.

Irony impairment is part of the job description for deanlets and deanlings.

Our universities are being run by truly stupid people.