Education

Harvard Alumni Urge Senators To Vote Against Kavanaugh

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• Harvard University alumni are urging senators affiliated with the school through two letters to vote against confirming Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
• Both letters have separately gathered over 250 signatures
• One of the letters is to Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump

Harvard University alumni are urging senators affiliated with the school through two letters to vote against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

The first letter was addressed to Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, according to a Change.org petition started by Aren Cohen, a Harvard class of 1994 member, on Sept. 27.

“Rather than being ‘a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig,’ as an elected official, we urge you to demonstrate the bravery and commitment to the American democratic principles you have so often celebrated on the Senate Judiciary Committee by citing ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ civics,” the letter said. “If you genuinely believe all Americans, your daughters as well as your son, deserve ‘legal equality,’ we urge you to vote against Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.”

Cohen claimed that she knew Sasse as freshmen, according to a personal note on the letter’s website.

“We were not good friends, but I have no personal ax to grind,” Cohen wrote. “I respect and admire the Senator for his courage to run and hold public office particularly in this political climate, and I do not support all of his positions.”

Cohen added that she circulated the petition over Facebook.

“So far I have just circulated the petition via FB on the Class page and through my personal network,” Cohen wrote on Sept. 30. “Our Class Page only has ~50% of the class. If you think a Harvard ’94 friend might have missed it, or that this information might be additionally useful to encouraging someone to sign, please forward it on.”

Harvard class of 1994 member Melissa Bender is planning to deliver the petition to Sasse’s office on Thursday, Cohen said on Change.org.

The second letter was addressed to 13 senators by Beth Johnston, a Harvard class of 1993 alumnus, on Sept. 30, according to The Harvard Crimson on Monday. The open letter was hosted on a Google document and comprises a large portion of signatures from the class of 1993.

The theme of the open letter was inspired by Harvard’s motto “Veritas,” which means truth in Latin.

“Obviously when we’re trying to make a direct connection in terms of Harvard, we immediately thought of ‘Veritas’ and the question of the fact that we did not feel that Judge Kavanaugh had been as truthful or as forthcoming as he could have been in his hearing with the senators,” Johnston said to The Crimson.

Both letters have gathered over 250 signatures each as of Monday, The Crimson reported.

The signatures on the letter to Sasse represents about 12 percent of the 1994 class, according to Cohen on Sept. 30.

The petition was updated on Tuesday and asked petitioners not associated with the Harvard Radcliffe class of 1994 to specify the affiliation.

Radcliffe College used to be a women’s college who received Harvard lectures separately from men between 1879 and 1943. Women from Radcliffe began receiving Harvard diplomas in 1963. Both Harvard and Radcliffe merged in 1999, according to Harvard’s website.

The letters come as hundreds of undergraduate and law school students walked out of class on Sept. 24 in protest of the “lack of an investigation” into Kavanaugh’s allegations, The Crimson previously reported.

Harvard’s Undergraduate Council also voted Sunday in favor of calling on the university to investigate Kavanaugh before letting him back on campus.

Kavanaugh was set to teach a course, “The Supreme Court since 2005,” for the winter 2019 term, but will not be returning to campus.

Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, but he has denied the allegations.

Kavanaugh and Ford testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 27.

Sasse was a part of the #NeverTrump movement, The Daily Caller previously reported. He was the first Republican senator to refuse support for President Donald Trump as the party’s nominee for the 2016 election.

“I sincerely hope we select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option,” Sasse wrote in a Facebook post on Feb. 28, 2016.

Harvard and Sasse’s office did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. TheDCNF attempted to contact the four administrators for the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1994 through Facebook Messenger.

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