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March 08, 2006
Taliban at Yale Follow-up
Michelle Malkin posts this EXCELLENTLY written letter:
Dear Mr. Levin,
My name is Debbie Bookstaber (Yale `00 BA/MA). I've volunteered as an ASC Interviewer every year since graduation.
Over the years, I've seen so many qualified students denied admission to Yale. While I was saddened to see these heartbroken students rejected, I understood that Yale just didn't have enough spots for all the amazing valedictorians with excellent SATs, impressive extracurriculars and an admirable history of community service.
You can imagine my shock when I read in the Wall Street Journal that Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa. He has a "fourth-grade education and a high-school equivalency degree," but Yale was impressed that he "pulled down a 3.33 grade-point average" in a special students program. Judging from all the students I've seen rejected by Yale, a perfect 4.0 average isn't impressive enough to guarantee admission or even a wait-list spot, yet Yale was convinced that a 3.33 (a B+) was an adequate demonstration of academic talent? Since when has a B+ been considered impressive according to Yale's admissions standards?
My husband (David Bookstaber, Yale `99 and Captain, USAF) went to Yale on a ROTC scholarship. As an ROTC cadet, he had to commute over an hour to UCONN because Yale would not allow ROTC on campus. This was reportedly due to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy the military uses to exclude homosexuals from serving openly. Even efforts to allow the military to recruit on campus in order to comply with the Solomon Amendment were met by fevered protests by many Yale students/professors as being inconsistent with Yale's standards of tolerance.
The last time I checked, the US military doesn't kill anyone for being a homosexual. Nor would any soldier-on-soldier hate crime ever be tolerated. On the other hand, the Taliban advocated murdering any homosexual and anyone else they felt violated their version of Islam. So ROTC isn't acceptable because it offends Yale's standards, but a Taliban leader who condones the Taliban's policy of brutally killing homosexuals and stoning women for not wearing a burka should be recruited lest Harvard win his matriculation?
Apparently when you combine a sub-par 4th grade education, a B+ college average in a special program, and a job history as a spokesperson for a regime that hates America, destroys priceless Buddhas, oppresses women, stones homosexuals, and enforces brutal sharia law in violation of UN Human Rights agreements, you have the magic formula for admission to Yale. Next time I get a phone call from a high school senior in tears over Yale's rejection, I'll tell them to visit a local museum and blow up some sacred Buddhas, stone a homosexual or threaten to beat his/her mother to death if she refuses to wear a burka.
Thank you very much for helping me understand Yale Admissions.
Yours sincerely,
Debbie Bookstaber (Yale `00)
She should add that its also hard out here for a pimp, too and that Yale should add pimps to its recruitment.
Posted by Aaron at March 8, 2006 10:00 AM
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Comments
Nice letter, but she is misinformed. He wasn't admitted the school, he simply enrolled as a non degree seeking student, which anyone can do.
Posted by: paul at March 8, 2006 11:12 AM
actually, non-degree programs are not available to everyone and are certainly not free. who is paying for this special program?
And he was promised that if he performed in the special study program that he would be accepted as a degree seeking student--he received a 3.33 GPA during the special study semester and he was admitted as a freshman.
Posted by: Aaron at March 8, 2006 03:35 PM
At the U of M, anyone can enroll into almost any class at the University of Minnesota without being admitted into any kind of program. The situation sounded the same at Yale.
Posted by: paul at March 8, 2006 05:58 PM
The "Don't ask don't tell" policy went into effect during the Clinton Administration in 1994. The ROTC program was removed from Yale's campus during the Nixon administration in 1970. It would be nice if these letter writers would check their facts before they publish what something is "reportedly due to". Sadly, whenever you see that phrase, it usually means that the writer knows damn well that it isn't true but they can repeat the false rumor a lay off the blame.
The military stripped Yale of its ROTC program in 1970 because Yale treated the program as one of its "vocational" offerings and did not offer academic credits for ROTC classes that students took on campus. The military was able to offer class for credit through UCONN. Yale provides free transportation to these classes for its students. So, you can quite sobbing about this being a homosexual issue now.
I would point out, that Mr. Rahmatullah was part of the leadership of a country that we conquered and made a part of the Bush's nation building program. The Bush state department gave him a visa to come to this country to study. So they apparently endorse this. Bush as a Yale grad and a previous benefactor of preferential treatment probably could not only have used his influence as POTUS and alum, but outright rejected his entry into the U.S. if this were a legit issue. Of cousrse, this is every bit as legit as the war on Xmas.
"All this baying seems to me to miss the essential points which are: can people change their views, and learn and develop, and isn't it possible that America would be a lot safer from terrorists if there were thousands of Rahmatullahs being educated in the U.S. instead of the madrassas of Pakistan? We ought to be competing for young minds, not howling for their deportation like Sean Hannity and his fellow shout-show hosts." -- Chip Brown
Posted by: KeithS at March 9, 2006 01:38 PM
My questin is what is this guy doing in the country in the first place? Is he now a part of the legitimate Afghan government? Is he a political refugee? And if so, who let him move here?
As for his admission to Yale. All of the top tier schools in this country have one admission policy for the rich and politically connected and another for everybody else. Bush never would have gotten into Princeton if his grandpa hadn't bought them a building, either.
And one more time, the problem with "Don't ask don't tell" isn't the schools, it's the policy. It was a dumb idea, and showed a lack of backbone on Clinton's part.
Posted by: IaintBacchus at March 9, 2006 01:43 PM
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in this case is just a Red Herring. The whole purpose of it was to inflame the reader against Yale University. "Don't ask, Don't tell" had absolutely nothing to do with the removal of ROTC from Yale's campus. In fact, it was the miltary's own idea to take it off.
I've only been able to read quotes out of the TIME magazine article that told the entire story of how the young man came to be here. What I think happend, there were some reporters who talked with him in Afghanistan, realized that he had a rather open mind, was in the process of changing his fundamentalist views, and thought that there was an opportunity for him to benefit from an American Education. He could have gone just about anywhere, but he was introduced to the folks at Yale and apparently at a time when Harvard made a similar approach to an Afghan student. I think that the Bush Administraiton left him in persuant to a request for a student visa. From what I've read, he is not a part of the current governent and plans on returning to his country as an educator.
Posted by: KeithS at March 9, 2006 02:55 PM
Keith,
The original reason for ROTC leaving campuses is irrelevant.
The legal argument put forward by Yale Law School in the SCOTUS Solomon Amendment case was specifically about gays in the military.
Posted by: Aaron at March 9, 2006 02:57 PM