EXTRA: US official’s scathing letter to Harvard inked red for faulty grammar

A netizen took the burden of revising a letter by the US education secretary, Linda McMahon, in an attempt at humour.

In a letter dated May 5, McMahon had threatened that Harvard would no longer receive research grants unless it addressed concerns about antisemitism on its campus.

The education secretary had said the university must review internal policies that factor a student’s race into decision-making.

The education secretary also cited complaints from the President Donald Trump administration that the university has abandoned its pursuit of “academic excellence” while employing relatively few conservative faculty members.

McMahon’s letter had come as one of the latest developments in an escalating funding dispute between the US department of education and Harvard University.

It furthered an ongoing clash that resulted from the university’s refusal to comply with Trump’s demands to audit professors for plagiarism and report international students accused of misconduct.

Beyond addressing antisemitism on campus, Trump had also asked the university to appoint external overseers to pursue “viewpoint diversity”.

McMahon, in furtherance of these ideals, had announced the federal decision to halt grants to Havard in a three-page letter.

However, the education secretary did not anticipate a meticulously crafted critique from an X user as a response to her letter.

Reposting the three-page note, the user flagged grammatical errors, ambiguity, improper sentences, questionable uses of the em-dash, and false claims.

A marked-up version of the letter mimicked the frustration of a teacher grappling with the perplexities of a student’s faulty essay submission.

“Our secretary of ‘education,” the X user mocked in the caption of their post containing the letter.

This post has now gone viral on X, with many users appropriating the response to Harvard and praising the university for “scoring a win”.

In an official response to McMahon on Tuesday, Harvard said it would continue to comply with the law, encourage respect for viewpoint diversity, and combat antisemitism.

The university also said it would continue to defend against “illegal government overreach” aimed at stifling research and innovation.