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Alumni start petition, demand Harvard rescind fellowship invitations to Spicer and Lewandowski

Alumni start petition, demand Harvard rescind fellowship invitations to Spicer and Lewandowski
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(Photo via AP)

Some Harvard alumni are unhappy with their alma mater because the Institute of Politics at Harvard named former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as fellows.

The two Trump associates are slated to spend a semester at Harvard interacting with students, leading study groups, and participating in campus events.

According to the Kennedy School’s website, the program is an opportunity for “professionals in politics and public service to spend a semester at Harvard sharing their experiences with students and exploring important public issues with a distinguished group of their peers.”

Now, alumni are circulating a petition to revoke the invitation.

The petition, addressed to Harvard President Drew Faust and the Harvard Institute of Politics, reads in part, “To those of us who have watched this administration unfold with horror, knowing the harm it daily inflicts to the values of inclusion and equality, it is a mark of shame that the University we call our alma mater seems unable to recognize its own considerable power in furthering the destructive influence of this administration on American ideals, discourse, and civil society. To pretend neutrality and balance by granting a platform to those who have advocated harm and imbalance is to confer legitimacy to that which is morally illegitimate.”

Spicer and Lewandowski are not the only political, or questionable, individuals named this year. The list includes morning television host Joe Scarborough and Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified documents.

“Corey R. Lewandowski, Robby Mook, Sean Spicer, Chelsea E. Manning: It sounds like an impressive guest list for a Sunday morning talk show. Instead, it is a partial slate of visiting fellows for the 2017-2018 academic year at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard,” writes Alexander Nazaryan in a Newsweek opinion piece.

At the time of publication, the petition had more than 2,250 signatures from those claiming to be Harvard alumni. Spicer and Lewandowski still hold their fellowships, while Manning’s has been revoked.

The post Alumni start petition, demand Harvard rescind fellowship invitations to Spicer and Lewandowski appeared first on Red Alert Politics.


Source: Red Alert Politics

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