To the Editor: Harvard Conservatives Owe You Nothing

I am glad to see this newspaper take a renewed interest in the lives of Harvard conservatives. There is, in fact, a “conservative intellectual revival” happening here; thank you for noticing.

Nevertheless, a recent Crimson editorial unfairly critiques conservative students, demanding they come out of “hiding.”

Over the past eight years conservatives at Harvard have been tolerated only insofar as they participate in “bipartisanship” — a warped misnomer when only one set of ideas is socially acceptable. The president of the Institute of Politics’ Student Advisory Committee even explicitly rejected Republican inclusion at the IOP in an op-ed advocating an end to the institution’s nonpartisan stance. There are virtually no openly conservative professors left at this University. The message is clear: Harvard has no interest in us.

It became necessary to build new institutions where we could explore ideas freely; new institutions where we could host guests with whom we genuinely want to engage — not those whom the campus deems safe enough. So we did — both on and off campus.

We built them without your help, without the IOP’s help, without Harvard’s help. We are happy that all of a sudden you have decided that our movement is important — but you do not get to make demands. Our goal has always been to get the education we deserve.

Until the administration finally commits itself to delivering that education, we will continue to pursue it ourselves, without regard for the Editorial Board’s opinions.

— Leo A. Koerner is the Chairman of the John Adams Society.