More than a thousand Harvard students walked out of their commencement ceremony yesterday to support 13 undergraduates who were barred from graduating after they participated in the Gaza solidarity encampment in Harvard Yard.

Asmer Safi, one of the 13 pro-Palestinian student protesters barred from graduating, says that while his future has been thrown into uncertainty while he is on probation, he has no regrets about standing up for Palestinian rights.

  • @[email protected]
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    16 months ago

    Ok, this is just disconnected from reality. Most people in the US haven’t heard of Caltech, let alone a foreign university. Maybe Oxford, but that’s not at all certain. The average person knows Harvard and MIT because they’re in movies, whatever big school is closest to them, and a some sports schools.

    Sorbonne is #48 in the US News global rankings. Pretty good! But well behind the weakly known Caltech (#9) or the top ranked Harvard (#1). The next highest rated US school above Sorbonne is the University of Pittsburgh. No one would ever say “just swap your Harvard degree for Pitt, it’ll open similar doors”. And this is on a list that’s largely judged by people in academia who have a wide familiarity with schools. Ask a random American whether Utrecht University (#44) is a good school and they’ll have no idea. They’re unlikely to even known Utrecht is a city.

    • Flying Squid
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      06 months ago

      If you want to show me actual evidence to support your claim that most Americans haven’t heard of it, go for it. Good luck.

      Anyway, we’re not talking about the average person. We’re talking about the sort of person who hires Harvard graduates. If they don’t know about really good universities in other countries, they really suck at their job when they’re hiring people at the high end like that. So if you want to claim HR people who hire Harvard graduates suck at their jobs… well, good luck.

      • @[email protected]
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        16 months ago

        Holy fuck, no we’re not. This will be the third time the second line saying such explicitly has passed before your eyes. People exploit degrees for things other than getting hired.

        And it’s not just hiring where prestige can be useful, it’s business pitches, op-eds, political speaking. These aren’t things universally judged by HR managers who, making the assumption they’re even good at their job, might recognize elite foreign institutions, they’re judged by everyday people who might not even be able to name the full top 10 US-based universities, but know the name “Harvard”.

        I’m done. You’ve repeatedly shown yourself to be unwilling to actually engage in anything I’ve written and have some odd fantasy about the notoriously well-informed American public.

        • Flying Squid
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          -16 months ago

          Got it. You’re making the “HR people suck at their jobs” argument.

          • @[email protected]
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            16 months ago

            And it’s not just hiring where prestige can be useful, it’s business pitches, op-eds, political speaking. These aren’t things universally judged by HR managers … , they’re judged by everyday people who might not even be able to name the full top 10 US-based universities, but know the name “Harvard”.

            • Flying Squid
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              -16 months ago

              I like how you keep leaving out the first part of that post as if you never said it.