Overview
- James Hankins, who taught history at Harvard for four decades, detailed his decision to leave in a Compact Magazine essay titled "Why I'm Leaving Harvard."
- He wrote that a colleague told him in 2021 that admitting a white male applicant was "not happening this year."
- He also recounted that a top‑ranked white male undergraduate he tutored was rejected by every Harvard graduate program, saying peers at other schools reported similar unwritten practices.
- Harvard said graduate admissions are set by faculty at the department level, and no universitywide policy described by Hankins has been confirmed in the reporting.
- Hankins honored a four‑year retirement agreement signed in 2021, gave his final lecture two weeks ago, criticized COVID‑era rules and hiring trends, and has taken a visiting post at the University of Florida.