to envision second chances

Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

from “From Prison to Ph.D.: The Redemption and Rejection of Michelle Jones,” about michelle jones, a Ph.D. candidate at NYU, who was released from prison after serving 20 years (and accepted and then rejected at Harvard):

“One of our considerations,” Professor Stauffer said in an interview, “was if this candidate is admitted to Harvard, where everyone is an elite among elites, that adjustment could be too much.”

Alison Frank Johnson, director of graduate studies for the [Harvard] history department, dismissed that argument as paternalistic.

“Michelle was sentenced in a courtroom to serve X years, but we decided — unilaterally — that it should be X years plus no Harvard,” she said. “Is it that she did not show the appropriate degree of horror in herself, by applying?

“We’re not her priests,” Professor Johnson added, using an expletive.