Like many conservative graduates, my relationship with Harvard is nuanced and complicated.
Raised in a small Kentucky town and educated in a public school system, I pursued higher education at a modest Christian university in Nashville. Harvard Law School never seemed within reach until friends encouraged me to apply.
Being accepted felt almost miraculous. Attending Harvard profoundly changed my life, providing lifelong friendships, unexpected career opportunities, and igniting a passion for constitutional law.
However, the university also had significant challenges. The student environment was notably intolerant and divisive, especially during the early 1990s, a period marked by intense political correctness. I often found myself silenced by vocal classmates.
A 1993 profile titled “Beirut on the Charles” painted a picture of Harvard Law as a battleground where faculty clashed with one another and students engaged in fierce ideological conflicts.
Three decades later, despite evolving in many ways and continuing to shape influential careers, Harvard still contends with one of the most restrictive climates for free expression in American academia.
For the second consecutive year, an organization monitoring campus free speech ranked Harvard at the bottom nationwide, describing the atmosphere as severely deficient.
