{"id":2528961,"date":"2026-01-03T08:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T13:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-im-leaving-harvard-40-year-harvard-professor-blasts-school-for-exclusion-of-white-males\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T13:38:14","slug":"why-im-leaving-harvard-40-year-harvard-professor-blasts-school-for-exclusion-of-white-males","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/why-im-leaving-harvard-40-year-harvard-professor-blasts-school-for-exclusion-of-white-males\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Why I&#8217;m Leaving Harvard&#8217;: 40-Year Harvard Professor Blasts School for &#8216;Exclusion of White Males&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhy-im-leaving-harvard-40-year-harvard-professor-blasts-school-for-exclusion-of-white-males%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2528961&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>james Hankins, a history professor who taught at Harvard for 40 years, wrote an essay in Compact Magazine explaining why he is leaving teh university. He argues Harvard abandoned merit for race- and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fcc-to-make-broadcasters-publicly-post-race-and-gender-scorecard-of-all-employees\/\" title=\"FCC mandates broadcasters to publicly display diversity &#039;scorecard&#039; for employees&#039; race and gender\">gender-based hiring<\/a> and admissions quotas after 2020, recounting a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-cruz-rips-into-judicial-nominee-kenly-kato\/\" title=\"Sen. Cruz rips into judicial nominee Kenly Kato\">graduate applicant<\/a> who would previously have been top-ranked but was informally told admitting a white male &#8220;was not happening this year.&#8221; He also says the university showed a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/23-conservative-movies-that-defy-the-hollywood-trend\/\" title=\"23 Conservative Movies That Defy The Hollywood Trend\">shocking indifference<\/a>&#8221; to anti\u2011Semitism in 2023 and adopted COVID protocols that he views as authoritarian. Hankins criticizes decades-long neglect of serious Western\u2011civilization teaching, contending that replacing Western-focused courses with global or &#8220;hyper\u2011progressive&#8221; approaches harms students&#8217; civic formation. He traces part of Harvard&#8217;s decline to efforts in the 1990s to increase female faculty, which he says led to lowered standards, and notes one admitted exception involved a candidate who had transitioned from female to male. Hankins is continuing his work at the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida and urges building new institutions free from what he calls the corruption and self\u2011hatred of legacy universities.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>A history professor who has taught at Harvard for 40 years is publicly calling out the Ivy League school over race-based hiring and admissions policies, a &ldquo;shocking indifference&rdquo; to anti-Semitism, and its eroding commitment to teaching students about Western history.<\/p>\n<p>James Hankins wrote in a Compact Magazine essay titled &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.compactmag.com\/article\/why-im-leaving-harvard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Why I&rsquo;m Leaving Harvard<\/a>&rdquo; that his decision was largely influenced by the school&rsquo;s abandonment of merit in favor of diversity quotas, which he said entirely changed &ldquo;the way we conducted our affairs,&rdquo; leaving extraordinary candidates behind if they did not have Harvard&rsquo;s desired skin color or gender.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Hankins said, &ldquo;the university had collectively taken a knee during the Summer of Floyd.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This turned out not to be empty virtue-signaling, as I expected, but had serious consequences for the way we conducted our affairs,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;In reviewing graduate student applicants in the fall of 2020 I came across an outstanding prospect who was a perfect fit for our program. In past years this candidate would have risen immediately to the top of the applicant pool. In 2021, however, I was told informally by a member of the admissions committee that &lsquo;that&rsquo; (meaning admitting a white male) was &lsquo;not happening this year.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hankins said such treatment was not confined to Harvard. After making inquiries with colleagues, he determined that the same &ldquo;unspoken protocol&rdquo; was being followed all across the nation.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadScript(src) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst script=document.createElement(\"script\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.src=src; \t\t\t\t\t\tscript.async=true; \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.body.appendChild(script); \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\tfunction findPreviousParagraph(selector, x) { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst targetElement=document.querySelector(selector); \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!targetElement) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Target element not found.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Get all <\/p>\n<p> elements in order as they appear in the document \t\t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphs=Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(\"p\"));  \t\t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the index of the last <\/p>\n<p> before the target element \t\t\t\t\t\tlet targetIndex=paragraphs.findIndex(p=> p.compareDocumentPosition(targetElement) & Node.DOCUMENT_POSITION_PRECEDING);  \t\t\t\t\t\tif (targetIndex===-1 || targetIndex <x) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.warn(\"Not enough paragraphs before the target element.\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\treturn null; \t\t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\treturn paragraphs[targetIndex - x]; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Set up IntersectionObserver \t\t\t\t\tfunction observeElement(element) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif (!element) return;  \t\t\t\t\t\tconst observer=new IntersectionObserver( \t\t\t\t\t\t\t(entries)=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tentries.forEach(entry=> { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tif (entry.isIntersecting) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(\"Paragraph is now visible:\", entry.target.textContent.trim()); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tloadScript(\"https:\/\/embed.sendtonews.com\/player3\/embedcode.js?fk=s28Az7AY\"); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect(); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t\t\t\t}, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t{ threshold: 0.5 } \/\/ Adjust threshold as needed \t\t\t\t\t\t);  \t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.observe(element); \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\t\/\/ Find the 1st paragraph before #stnvideo and observe it \t\t\t\t\tlet paragraphToObserve=findPreviousParagraph(\"#stnvideo\", 2); \t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The one exception I found to the general exclusion of white males had begun life as a female,&rdquo; Hankins said.<\/p>\n<p>His concerns were only compounded in 2023 when the university failed to properly address anti-Semitism, describing the school&rsquo;s attitude as a &ldquo;shocking indifference.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, COVID protocols at the institution &ldquo;mirrored to a fault the whole country&rsquo;s uncritical acceptance of The Science and its proclivity, when backed by public power, for tyrannous invasions of private life,&rdquo; Hankins added.<\/p>\n<p>More broadly, Hankins warned that the university has for decades neglected its responsibility to teach Western civilization as a serious, foundational subject, to the detriment of both students and society.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When late liberal pedagogy replaced Western civilization courses with global history, serious harm was done to the socialization of young Americans. When you don&rsquo;t teach the young what civilization is, it turns out, people become uncivilized,&rdquo; Hankins wrote. &ldquo;It is hard to avoid the impression that, whether through hostility or neglect, Western history is being phased out or allowed to die on the vine at Harvard.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hankins contrasted how history is taught in China, where national identity and patriotism are openly reinforced, with how it is taught in the United States, where Western history is often presented as something to be condemned or dismantled. &ldquo;In the hands of hyper-progressive (or &lsquo;woke&rsquo;) practitioners, Western global history is often, indeed, actively anti-Western,&rdquo; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Harvard&rsquo;s downfall, Hankins said, had begun decades prior. In the 1990s, the university was &ldquo;under increasing pressure to hire more women faculty,&rdquo; and thus was forced to abandon some of its longstanding expectations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Since at the time women formed less than 10 percent of PhDs in history and were even rarer in the mid-career cohorts from which Harvard tended to hire, equality required that standards be lowered,&rdquo; the professor observed.<\/p>\n<p>Hankins added that he is continuing his career at the Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, which he says is still &ldquo;committed to teaching the history of Western civilization&rdquo; and takes in &ldquo;the dreaded population of white males whose intersectional scores were too low for employment in legacy universities.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It should by now be evident why Harvard and its &lsquo;peer&rsquo; institutions in the Ivy-Plus category do not offer fertile ground for a new flowering of courses in the Western tradition,&rdquo; Hankins wrote. &ldquo;Many now believe that our civilization is on the point of collapse, but few seem willing to take the steps necessary to preserve it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Even more devastatingly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compactmag.com\/article\/why-im-leaving-harvard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">he concluded<\/a> that while one can &ldquo;hope&rdquo; for change in America&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >existing higher education institutions<\/a>, &ldquo;for now, a better hope lies in building new institutions unencumbered by the corruption and self-hatred that infect the old.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"disclaimer\">\n<p><em>All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/union-membership-plummets-to-record-low\/\" title=\"Union Membership Plummets to Record Low\">legitimate news publisher<\/a> that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter&rsquo;s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harvard historian quits over diversity, anti-Semitism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2528962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-01-03T000052.341.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[40921,70030,70029,6240],"class_list":["post-2528961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-affirmative-action","tag-campus-diversity","tag-faculty-resignation","tag-harvard"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ben-Working-Feature-Image-2026-01-03T000052.341.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2528961"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2528965,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2528961\/revisions\/2528965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2528962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2528961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2528961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2528961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}