Harvard Students Describe ‘Stigma’ Around Conservatism

Conservative Harvard students spoke Wednesday at a luncheon in Washington’s Capitol Hill Club, detailing the harsh stigma involved in writing for a conservative publication on an Ivy League campus.

“The Protecting Conservative Students at Harvard” luncheon featured student editors of The Harvard Salient, the campus’ conservative magazine, including the outlet’s President Sarah Steele, who told the audience about the intense backlash the publication faces from the left-leaning student body.

“In the past year, professors began to ban The Salient from houses [residence halls] altogether,” said Steele, who is in her senior year. “Students would complain to their house faculty and the faculty said, out of convenience, you are now banned from distributing The Salient in the house.”

In an interview with The Daily Signal, Steele said that irate students have often destroyed print issues of The Harvard Salient.

“We’ve experienced some pretty consistent vandalism with the issues. We find them in the garbage, lots of them. Sometimes they’re maniacally ripped up, up and down the entire dorm hallway,” said Steele.

Steele’s classmate Caleb Chung added that Harvard students publicly brag about this vandalism on anonymous forums.

Chung, a sophomore, told The Daily Signal, “There’s an anonymous social media platform where people brag about the different ways they destroy The Salient.”

But this is not the worst response the conservative publication has received, says Steele.

“One of our editors early on received a death threat from a fellow student,” she said to the audience.

But despite their serious discussion of the stigma for being a conservative in Cambridge, the students remained proud and optimistic about their work with The Harvard Salient.

Among their proudest accomplishments is the “freedom tower,” the publication’s office in Cambridge.

Harvard student Victoria Li, a senior, said that purchasing the office offered them a place where they felt physically safe and among like-minded individuals.

“We can’t host events without a risk of security, and we thought it was important that conservatives have a physical place on campus. What paper on campus lasted for more than a few years without a physical property?” she said. “The [Harvard] Lampoon has a castle in the middle of Harvard Square!”

But The Harvard Salient editors told The Daily Signal that, even outside of their work in conservative journalism, they feel the stigma surrounding their social and political attitudes.

Steele says that this is especially true in classroom settings.

“Just in a seminar class when you’re at a round table, you think the purpose is to get as many conflicting ideas out on the table for the academic exercise. But it’s very hard to put yourself out there, especially if you’re talking about social conservatism,” she said.

Chung agreed, telling The Daily Signal, “Sometimes it’s very explicit. So, my freshman year, I took a seminar. We’re talking about gender and identity, and the professor was very clear that traditional views would not be accepted. You can’t go and say these things in the classroom. Socially, there’s a stigma.”

Also in attendance at the luncheon was former Trump administration Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who contributed to the publication during his time at Harvard

Alfredo Ortiz, a board member of The Harvard Salient who assists the students in their mission, urged the audience not to give up on bringing ideological balance to Ivy League schools.

“Harvard is still Harvard. Our CEOs and our CFOs and our doctors and our judges and our presidents, leaders, thought leaders still come out of Harvard,” said Ortiz, the CEO of the Job Creators Network. “And the more we kind of let it go, the more this social left malaise continues to affect our country.”