A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT

I received the following message from a reader.  I have edited out the writer's name:

"My name is ****. I've been a long time reader of your blog (and at least one of your books). I am writing to ask what you think of an idea that I had - what if alumni of American colleges and universities contacted their alma maters' presidents and demanded that they declare themselves sanctuary campuses. Personally, I regularly receive calls from mine (******) asking for donations, so presumably they care at least a little bit that I think favorably of them. What do you think?"

I thought it was a splendid idea, so I went online, and very quickly discovered that the President of my alma mater, Harvard, had already turned the idea down flat at a Faculty meeting which took place during a demonstration outside [surprise, surprise.]  So I wrote the following letter to the person in charge of raising Harvard's billions:

25 December 2016

  

Richard McCullough, Ph. D., Vice Provost for Research

The Richard A. and Susan F. Smith
Campus Center, Suite 836
1350 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138

Dear Dr. McCullough,

            I write both as an alumnus of Harvard [AB ’54 (53), AM ’54, Ph. D ‘57] and as a former Instructor in Philosophy and General Education to urge you to intercede with President Faust to urge her to declare Harvard a Sanctuary Campus for the protection of undocumented students and other undocumented members of the Harvard community, including undocumented employees.  I shall not take your time by rehearsing the reasons for this action, with which you are, I am sure, quite familiar.

            I have almost no way of swaying your decision on this matter, save to say that so long as Harvard continues its decades-long failure to act in a progressive and morally defensible fashion on this and many other issues before the public, I shall refuse even to consider making a donation through your office. 

            Unfortunately I am not rich, and my refusal will therefore carry little or no weight with you, I recognize.  However, it is just barely possible that enough of us will take this stand to affect your decision-making.

            Yours sincerely,

            Robert Paul Wolff

            Professor Emeritus, Philosophy and Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts

I will be happy to start a pool on the question when Harvard will declare itself a sanctuary campus.  I should warn you that one time is already taken, namely When Hell Freezes Over [that one is mine.]

It gives me great pleasure to report that my son, Tobias', employer, The University of Pennsylvania, has in fact so declared itself.