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'Yale Taliban' May Not Meet Standards
Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi created a firestorm of controversy when it was revealed in February that the former Taliban official was enrolled as a student at Yale University. Now it appears Hashemi’s days at Yale may be numbered. In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund writes: "The continued outrage over the news that an unrepentant former official of a criminal regime whose remnants are still killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan is part of the Ivy League is catching up with him. Yale is about to establish tougher standards for the program under which he is applying to become a degree-status sophomore next fall, and the consensus is that Mr. Hashemi won't measure up.” Hashemi is a beneficiary of Yale’s Special Student Program, which consists of two parts, Fund explained. The first, under which Hashemi was admitted last year, allows "nontraditional" students to attend classes for credit they can use at other colleges, but it doesn't lead to a Yale degree.
Story Continues Below The second serves older students who are seeking a Yale degree. Hashemi, who was the Taliban’s "ambassador-at-large,” has applied for admission in the fall under that program, even though he has only a fourth-grade education and a high school equivalency certificate.
Last week, Yale's president Richard Levin issued a statement saying that a review had "raised questions whether the admissions practices of the non-degree Special Student Program have been consistent with the published criteria, let alone the standard that should prevail."
He added that "in recent years, while fewer than 10 percent of the applicants to the regular undergraduate program have received offers of admission, more than 75 percent of the applicants to the non-degree program have been admitted."
According to the Yale Daily News, Levin made it clear that Hashemi's pending application in the degree program will be held to the same standard as that of a regular applicant.
Clinton Taylor and Debbie Bookstaber, two young Yale grads who were outraged by their alma mater's actions in admitting Hashemi and launched a protest called NailYale, say they are encouraged.
"Without admitting or confronting the full error of its decision, I think Yale is laying the groundwork to reject him, without looking like they were pressured into it,” Taylor told Fund.
Bookstaber notes that if Yale now admits Hashemi as a full-degree seeking student, it will be inviting new outrage from the 19,300 students who applied to Yale's 2010 undergraduate class but were rejected.
But controversy at Yale might not end with Hashemi’s departure. According to Fund, the university may soon hire Juan Cole, a history professor at the University of Michigan, as a professor of contemporary Middle East studies.
Cole has called Israel "the most dangerous regime in the Middle East," and argues that the Israeli lobby effectively controls Congress and much of U.S. foreign policy.
In February, Cole told the Detroit Metro Times that the federal government should close Fox Cable News, saying Fox "is polluting the information environment.”
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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