Harvard Memes: Students Who Shared Jokes About Child Abuse, Holocaust Lose Acceptance To Elite University

Harvard College rescinded the admittances of at least 10 potential members of the class of 2021 allegedly for taking part in a Facebook group chat in which they shared memes that made fun of sexual assault, child assault, specific races and the Holocaust, the Harvard Crimson reported during the weekend.

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The students reportedly connected through the Harvard College Class of 2021 Facebook group. The group’s description says it is managed by the admissions office but states: “We are not responsible for any unofficial groups, chats or the content within. As a reminder, Harvard College reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission under various conditions including if an admitted student engages in behavior that brings into question his or her honesty, maturity, or moral character.” The group has more than 1,500 members.

It’s not uncommon for students to have a meme group. If you search “university meme” on Facebook, you’ll actually find a wide variety of meme groups associated with certain universities. Many colleges and universities have “meme” groups or “meme” chats in which they share the photos or videos with a cultural meaning that is slightly altered to fit certain jokes about the school or shared experiences students may have.

Some of the more general popular memes this year have been the mocking Spongebob meme, or "Spongemock," and the Drew Scanlon reaction, or “blinking guy” gif. But the students who lost their admittances engaged in what the Crimson called dark memes.

The dark meme chat grew out of a larger group that shared “lighthearted” pop culture memes, the Crimson reported. The individuals who started the smaller and darker meme group required that prospective students post a dark-humor meme in the main chat before they were allowed into the smaller chat, a student told the Crimson.

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One student who took part in the chat for the dark memes and lost the acceptance told the Crimson the admissions office emailed students involved and asked them to send screenshots of every photo they had sent in the chat. The email also asked students to write a statement on their involvement for review by the Admissions Committee, the Crimson reported.

Harvard, which has an acceptance rate of less than 6 percent, did not comment on the allegations. “We do not comment publicly on the admissions status of individual applicants,” Rachael Dane, a spokesperson for the school, told International Business Times.

All of the alleged activity took place on Harvard alum Mark Zuckerberg’s social media site. Zuckerberg was back at Harvard in May to deliver the commencement address. The site’s Community Standards page does not specify whether this type of content is allowed in Facebook’s chat or messenger although the site came under fire recently when the details of what was and was not allowed on the site were made public. Facebook had not responded to an inquiry from IBT on whether such content was allowed on Messenger at the time of this post.