I'm a Harvard Reject

Growing up in the Boston suburbs, in the shadows of Harvard, there was only one school I wanted to go to: Radcliffe, which in those days was the name of the undergraduate school for women at Harvard. I had a great uncle who taught at Harvard Medical School, which is the closest anyone in my family got to Harvard. I did everything a middle-class girl could do: I was the valedictorian of my public high school class, the president of the biggest region of B'nai B'rith Girls, a drum majorette and an experienced waitress who had been working since I was 15. But my school had no AP classes, my board scores were good but not over-the-top, and it just wasn't enough. As I have told countless graduation classes, I got rejected at all my top choices. Wellesley, the women's college that was my last choice, gave me money. That was it. Your life is what you make of it. You play the hand you're dealt.

Four years later, it was a different story. I had straight A's from Wellesley and Dartmouth, where I spent my junior year. I had learned something about how to take standardized tests: I got a 795 out of 800 on the law boards. (My sister asked me if they had misstated the number, if it was really a 597, and I was insecure enough to actually call Wellesley and ask them to check.) I got into every law school I applied to. I -- finally -- went to Harvard.

My first year, I worked three nights a week and Saturday at a bar in neighboring Somerville. I was afraid of my shadow in those days (I had been violently raped the preceding May), and a couple of the guys (all gang members of Whitey Bulger's old gang) used to stay with me to close up and then follow me home to the parking lot down the street from my dorm. Then, guns drawn, they would walk me to the front door of my dorm, to the big plaque that said Harvard Law School, to safety. The irony wasn't lost on anyone. The guys were proud of me. I was a "Harvard girl."

I worked harder than I ever have in my life. The next year, I was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the first woman to hold that job, and landed on national television. (Barack Obama was the first Black president; by that time, I was a Harvard professor). My life changed completely. Doors were opened to me that had never been open to a middle-class Radcliffe reject. I met faculty members who were legends in the law (my colleagues) and students who would literally go on to run the world. Most of them were people like me, who came from nothing and amounted to a great deal, because of the education we got, the friends we made, the networks that welcomed us, the worlds that opened to us. I went to school, and later taught, students from all over the world, even though I didn't even have a passport until I was on the faculty -- for years. That was Harvard. That is Harvard. That is what Donald Trump is trying to destroy.

Why? Maybe it's because Harvard didn't want Donald Trump either. Who knows what hidden insecurities and resentments are buried in that angry and foolish man. It doesn't matter. He was a rich kid, the son of a rich daddy, a member of New York society, an elitist from birth for whom doors were always open.

He didn't need Harvard. He had access to the power elite because he was a member of the lucky sperm club, not because he earned it himself, the Harvard way. His MAGA-maniacs may resent it. But for literally legions of middle-class and working-class students, Harvard was the ticket to worlds we could only dream of.

That he is trying to destroy it cannot be in doubt. He is trampling on the Constitution in his mad rush to take away federal funding for desperately needed scientific and medical research, canceling grants, threatening students and faculty, even violating the law to try to take away Harvard's tax-exempt status. Foreign students are terrified, understandably so; but international students are essential to Harvard's role and its mission. Trump doesn't care.

He will not succeed in destroying Harvard, but he will hurt it. Harvard has more money than Donald Trump does, but not enough not to suffer if federal funds are taken away. Harvard's lawyers are in court fighting; I believe that ultimately, they will beat back Trump's worst threats. But there will be losses, not only for Harvard, but for people everywhere. Research will be cut; lives will be lost; doors will be slammed shut. This is not how you fight antisemitism; it is how you turn people into antisemites. It is not how you fight the lefties on campus; Trump is proving that the right is as bad as we think they are. It is not how you address the legitimate concerns that members of the Harvard community themselves have raised. Those concerns have been set aside as the Harvard community has unified against Trump. How powerful is Harvard? We're about to see. As for me, I wear my daughter's Harvard hat with newfound pride. And appreciation.

Years ago, I won the Radcliffe Alumnae Achievement Award. At the time, I wondered if they had the wrong person. Anyone with a Harvard degree was eligible, they explained to me. That's enough to make you part of the family. It is, and I am.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.