Rhodes Scholarship Becomes Laughingstock After Embracing the Left s Woke Culture – Revolver
Five of the thirty-two scholars will pursue a ridiculous masters degree in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. Only a handful of honorees have biographies with no political buzzwords whatsoever; they are almost certainly the most genuinely impressive winners.
One Rhodes Scholar who spoke with Revolver said that the transformation of the scholarship has been breathtaking.
The decline has been so rapid, she said.
The Scholar said that procedural changes to how the scholarship is awarded were crucial in transforming it into just another prize for far-left activism. In the past, 50 separate state committees chose finalists, after which eight regional committees selected four scholarship winners apiece. Now, the process is only single-step, with 16 regional committees picking two winners, with no state finalist phase.
This is a bigger change than it seems, she said. The state committees under the old system were a bit more constrained to seek some kind of universal sense of excellence, because they couldn t just pick the winners they had to pick the candidates from their state they thought would also impress the regional committee. Then, on the other side, the regional committee was constrained to picking from among the twelve-ish candidates their states sent up.
Well this is just swell. I used to proud to be a Rhodes. Now it’s one more thing to either explain or be ashamed of. Maybe there should be an indentifier for pre-woke Rhodes Scholars. Maybe I should just forget about the whole thing. I’m glad at least I didn’t give them any money.