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OPINION: Harvard grad students are upset the Institute of Politics hosted an accomplished British businessman and public official to discuss cutting government waste

Harvard University grad students vented their frustrations recently because the Institute of Politics hosted a British politician to discuss government cost-cutting in the context of Elon Musk’s special role leading the Department of Government Efficiency.

The students complained in The Crimson about Lord Dominic Johnson’s appearance on Monday night to discuss DOGE, which is the federal entity tasked by President Donald Trump with identifying wasteful government spending.

The graduate students, reflecting typical Ivy League elitism, lamented that Musk is not using “public servants– like those the Kennedy School trains,” but rather “twenty-something-year-old software engineers, including one who resigned after his racist social media activity resurfaced.”

(Fact check: That staffer will return to the federal government and Vice President JD Vance, who has an Indian wife, forgave the staffer for his anti-Indian social media posts).

I’ll translate the complaints from Gabriella Aboulafia (a former staffer in the Biden administration), Nadia Bell, and Amy Eisenstein:

Musk is letting young, male college dropouts help shake up the federal government. But they didn’t go to elite colleges like we did! I mean, that one guy dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln! We went to Berkeley, and UNC, and Northwestern (for a history and gender studies degree). We’re the experts! We’ve worked as “policy” consultants.

Johnson worked for decades in financial services and investment before serving as a minister in the department of business, according to his biography. In other words, he sounds like a good guy to discuss what did and did not work in the United Kingdom and what the U.S. can learn from it.

But the graduate students were upset, saying Harvard was “complicit” in “democratic backsliding.” The aspiring professors and public policy “experts” wrote:

With yesterday’s event, the Kennedy School has portrayed DOGE as a traditional government institution, sending the message to the public that DOGE is a trusted department rather than a rogue entity. Discussing the potential merits of DOGE and ignoring its blatant disregard for the rule of law is dangerous and irresponsible.

The students say that they don’t want to cancel all conservative speakers, just those that take a different tact than they do. Maybe.

Writing of potential alternatives, the students suggested:

For example, a thoughtful IOP-hosted event on this topic could explore questions like: How can we enhance governmental efficiency? Is involving the private sector the best way to do so? Which democracies have the most effective regulatory practices, and how can we learn from them?

The authors said they attended the speech, but I wonder if they didn’t hear anything through their angst. Because all those topics were discussed during the speech. See a sampling below.

The event also included Stephen Gibson, another former British politician whose background is in regulatory economics.

The pair discussed what Johnson learned, including the “challenges” he faced in deregulation.

That sounds like how to “enhance government efficiency” and “effective regulatory practices.”

Johnson said he “failed spectacularly” in his efforts.

It is good to be humble – too bad Harvard grad students have not learned that lesson yet.

MORE: Harvard removes Elise Stefanik from Institute of Politics advisory board

IMAGE: Frederic Legrand – COMEO/Shutterstock.

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