Squandering Precious Educational Opportunities

Here is an update by John Fund on the Taliban at Yale situation. Apparently, Yale Law School has temporarily suspended Alexis Surovov (in whose honor I shamelessly apropriated altered eminem's song (sorry about the typo!) to create this little ditty).

Yale University still isn't talking about why it admitted a former top Taliban official as a student, but yesterday the Yale Law School issued an apology to two alumni whom one of its officials had attacked in an anonymous email as "retarded" and "disgusting" for daring to protest Yale's admissions decision.

Harold Hongju Koh, the law school's dean, said that Alexis Surovov had been "temporarily relieved of his duties" as assistant director of annual giving while an investigation is conducted into whether he obtained information from confidential donor databases to launch his anonymous attack. Mr. Surovov was unable to explain to me how he had obtained personal information on Clint Taylor and Debbie Bookstaber, the two Yale alumni, without looking up their private records. "We deeply regret his inappropriate and unauthorized behavior," Mr. Koh's statement read. (See my Monday column for details on Mr. Sorovov's email.)

Yale still isn't answering questions as to why it admitted a relatively unrepentant Taliban official to its school; or why it considered him a "catch" either. Ask yourself why the most honored institutions of higher education in this country considered Mr. Hashemi a good investment and actively competed for his attention.

I thought the best response to Yale officials was from Sheri Clemons, a 50-year-old social worker from Brooklyn, who said:

"If I were able to physically travel to New Haven, I would tell Yale shame on those who have shamed a great university in this manner. Why couldn't they have identified someone from the ranks of emerging Afghan women to benefit from this precious educational opportunity?"

Sheri, that is an excellent question. Why haven't the feminist faculty at Yale (or Harvard, for that matter) been aggressively pursuing getting Afghan women into these precious admission slots? Why isn't there intense competition going on to obtain a "catch" from that pool, instead of squandering precious educational opportunities on those who have demonstrated a history of oppressing women and a fundamental hatred of freedom?

Oh, wait. I already know the answer to that question.