More Harvard

A post at Inc. titled Meet the 10 Harvard Students Who Just Ruined Their Lives does not introduce the reader to any of "the ten" now un-admitted members of Harvard's class of 2021.

The post raised a privacy issue:


Second, while neither The Crimson nor Harvard has revealed how it first learned of the students' comments, it seems that they were made in what the students thought was a private group. As vile as the alleged comments are, is the academic death penalty really the appropriate sanction for comments that these students made in private?



The "class of 2021" facebook group was created by Harvard. About 5% of the class of 2021 engaged. About 0.5% of the class were involved in the private group. "But for" Harvard, it is unlikely the private group would have existed.

To go to the world of wrestling for a moment, Vince McMahon created storylines for the various named wrestling people. [Although it was McMahon's father, Vincent J. McMahon, who created Hulk Hogan out of Terry Bollea.] "But for" the naming and the storylines creating worthwhile intellectual property, the individuals might not have taken off. As to Harvard, "but for" the creation of the Facebook page, enabling the members of the class of 2021 to know one another (through Harvard's release of its "intellectual property") the members of the subgroup could not have contacted one another. Did this give Harvard the right to un-admit because of writings by the sub-group?