Harvard withdraws Chelsea Manning's fellowship invitation, saying it never meant to 'honor' her

Chelsea Manning.
(Image credit: Tim Travers Hawkins/Courtesy of Chelsea Manning via AP)

Early Friday morning, after the CIA director abruptly pulled out of a speech and a former CIA head quit in protest on Thursday, Harvard's Kennedy School announced that it has rescinded its invitation to Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow at the school's Institute of Politics. Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf made the announcement, explaining that when he invited Manning and some nine others to be visiting fellows on Wednesday, the point was to pick people "who have significantly influenced events in the world even if they do not share our values and even if their actions or words are abhorrent to some members of our community."

Hearing people with different views is important to learning and becoming public leaders, Elmendorf said. But "in general across the school, we do not view the title of 'fellow' as conveying a special honor; rather, it is a way to describe some people who spend more than a few hours at the school," and Manning, like all other invited speakers, will be challenged and asked hard questions about her actions. Still, inviting her as a fellow was a mistake, he added, and so he is "withdrawing the invitation to her to serve as a Visiting Fellow — and the perceived honor that it implies to some people — while maintaining the invitation for her to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak in the Forum."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.