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Harvard Dean Rescinds Chelsea Manning's Visiting Fellow Invitation, Calling It a 'Mistake'
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government rescinded a visiting fellowship offered to Chelsea Manning, the former military intelligence analyst who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified government secrets, after the university faced forceful backlash from CIA Director Mike Pompeo among others.
"I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility," Douglas W. Elmendorf, the school's dean, wrote in a 700-word statement released shortly after midnight Friday.
Manning was one of four visiting fellows announced two days earlier by the Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. As part of the program, visiting fellows appear on Harvard's campus for speaking engagements and events, interacting with undergraduate students on "topical issues of today," the school's initial announcement explained.
Elmendorf decided to withdraw the invitation after realizing that "many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific," though the school had not intended to "honor [Manning] in any way or to endorse any of her words or deeds."
The Establishment called.
Harvard withdraws Chelsea Manning fellowship after CIA response
Harvard University invited Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow, but withdrew the invitation after CIA Director Mike Pompeo wrote:
The students there are now owed an institution that acts responsibility; an institution that does not sanction or legitimize the criminal path Ms. Manning took to undermine our national security.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday September 16 2017, @12:27PM (1 child)
If one removed the fact that this was Manning it still remains a problem. All these visiting fellows and other honorary titles that they, various universities, seem to hand out like candy. Mostly to people that have very little actual knowledge or formal education. Clearly the public seems to draw other conclusions then the institutions do. They mostly seem to act as feelgood rewards to people that doesn't, or rarely, deserve or need them. If the public see them as honorific and the university doesn't it quite frankly falls on the university for not explaining it better.
From the schools description of Manning it seems somewhat unclear what Manning is actually supposed to speak about. Network security? Probably not since it's a political and policy school and not for engineers. Is it the AI thing? Does Manning have any kind of expertise or knowledge in the area beyond opinions?
So unless Manning was to speak about being trans in the military, the only field Manning would be a self appointed expert in I don't really see what the point would be other then that this is some pat on the back or endorsement of previous actions from Harvard. Still one is then left to wonder if LGBTQ-issues in the Military is a strong enough speaking point for a fellowship at Harvard. It doesn't really seem to be a very important power issue in todays politics. It's a fringe topic at best.
The overall point from Harvard on this fellowship program is to "Broadening the range and depth of opportunity for students to hear from and engage with experts, leaders and policy-shapers". Which one is it Manning is again? Expert? Leader? Policy-shaper? Any of them? It might be quite interesting to find out whom did propose Manning as a fellow and for what reasons. There must have been a proposal, a list of candidates and a committee where this was discussed and people apparently thought that Manning was a great choice, which all casts shadow on them if they thought Manning was appropriate and they didn't see this problem appearing.
The list of new fellows would have been one Mayor, Manning, a CNN commentator (... a nationally recognized campaign manager and strategist who ran the 2016 presidential campaign for Hillary Clinton) and Trumps former press secretary. The only one of them that makes sense to me would be Mayor Sylvester James Jr. Manning is out and the other two are failed political operators, unless they want to share talking points on their failures for not how to do things in the future they are beyond useless.
So from this I would assume it's a paid position? Compared to say a Honorary degree or doctorate title. A position where you are supposed to live on campus and interact with students on a daily basis? So it's either a job offer and isn't getting a job offer at Harvard supposed to be a form of honor? Even if not an actual honorific title. I can easily see how the public would find this all somewhat confusing.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2017, @12:38PM
Likely a publicity stunt to capitalize on Manning's recent NYT article while still finding a way to bring attention to the fact that one of their most prestigious alum, Mike Pompeo, was going to be a guest speaker anyway.
Nobody has heard or cared about this event until yesterday. Pompeo was scheduled to speak for months. Manning was a late addition (and removal).