Every week, I get an email newsletter called “HLS Abridged.” The subheading, always the same, tells me I’m about to find out “What You Need to Know This Week.” Then the email lists 3-5 announcements around campus.
It’s a pretty official presentation! There are HLS colors, and the HLS crest is at the bottom. It’s not really clear who writes these emails, but they certainly seem important and written to be helpful. Why wouldn’t I want to know what I need to know?
Past announcements have indeed been helpful. Headings have included “Exam Support,” offering info about exam preparation resources, “Clinical Registration,” sharing upcoming registration dates, or “Degree Audit,” reminding students to check their degree requirements before dropping classes. Pretty uncontroversial stuff. Sometimes the email advertises upcoming talks, too, but those are usually at the bottom of the list.
This week, though the email confused me. The first thing I absolutely needed to know, apparently, was that an optional lecture (part of the Vaughan Program) about famed bigot Antonin Scalia was being delivered by Professor Adrian Vermeule on Wednesday.
Did I really need to know this, above all else? Plenty of lunch talks happen each week at HLS. Was this one more important than the rest?
It got me wondering: who decides what goes in these emails? Who even is sending them? The opacity was suddenly concerning. This email has spent years building up a reputation for unbiased info. Was that deserved?
To be fair—this is not the first time HLS Abridged has promoted a Vaughan Lecture. In an email last spring (the same one that listed “Clinical Registration” first), the fifth item advertised was such a lecture. But this morning, the Vaughan Lecture—a lecture about, as previously mentioned, radical originalist Antonin Scalia—was front and center as the very first item!
You’ve lost some credibility, HLS Abridged. It’s clear today that you aren’t telling me what I need to know, but what you want me to know. And I don’t even know your real name! Maybe it’s minor, but it’s insidious, and it’s eerily reminiscent of the kind of media-as-propaganda that Alec Karakatsanis writes about.
I think I’ll stick to the unabridged version of HLS for the time being.