Chuck Schumer, Norm Coleman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bernie Sanders all went to my high school. I' feel a sense of pride that I'm somehow related to Ginsburg and Sanders-- shame that I'm related to Schumer and Coleman. My college's alumni weren't as distinguished: Dr. Laura, Joy Behar and pat Benatar... but imagine how Wharton students feel with Trumpy the Clown running around the country telling the morons who admire him that "I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I’m, like, a really smart person." Actually, there's no need to imagine how Wharton students feel about their embarrassingly famous alumnus. Friday hundreds of them signed an open letter to someone who wasn't even the class clown... until recently.
Dear Mr. Trump:At the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, students are taught to represent the highest levels of respect and integrity. We are taught to embrace humility and diversity. We can understand why, in seeking America’s highest office, you have used your degree from Wharton to promote and lend legitimacy to your candidacy.As a candidate for President, and now as the presumptive GOP nominee, you have been afforded a transformative opportunity to be a leader on national and international stages and to make the Wharton community even prouder of our school and values.However, we have been deeply disappointed in your candidacy.We, proud students, alumni, and faculty of Wharton, are outraged that an affiliation with our school is being used to legitimize prejudice and intolerance. Although we do not aim to make any political endorsements with this letter, we do express our unequivocal stance against the xenophobia, sexism, racism, and other forms of bigotry that you have actively and implicitly endorsed in your campaign.The Wharton community is a diverse community. We are immigrants and children of immigrants, people of color, Muslims, Jews, women, people living with or caring for those with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community. In other words, we represent the groups that you have repeatedly denigrated, as well as their steadfast friends, family, and allies.We recognize that we are fortunate to be educated at Wharton, and we are committed to using our opportunity to make America and the world a better place-- for everyone. We are dedicated to promoting inclusion not only because diversity and tolerance have been repeatedly proven to be valuable assets to any organization’s performance, but also because we believe in mutual respect and human dignity as deeply held values. Your insistence on exclusion and scapegoating would be bad for business and bad for the American economy. An intolerant America is a less productive, less innovative, and less competitive America.We, the undersigned Wharton students, alumni, and faculty, unequivocally reject the use of your education at Wharton as a platform for promoting prejudice and intolerance. Your discriminatory statements are incompatible with the values that we are taught and we teach at Wharton, and we express our unwavering commitment to an open and inclusive American society.
Trump, who wasn't qualified but transferred to Wharton's undergraduate school from Fordham-- a favor from a "friendly" admissions officer-- graduated in 1968. He isn't remembered by anyone for his time at the school and even downplayed it in his ghost-written book, Trump: The Art of The Deal, writing that "In my opinion, that degree doesn’t prove very much, but a lot of people I do business with take it very seriously, and it’s considered very prestigious... It didn’t take long to realize that there was nothing particularly awesome or exceptional about my classmates, and that I could compete with them just fine." He used to lie about graduating first in his class, but he wasn't even an honor student and did nothing at Wharton to ever distinguish himself in any way. That, alas, came later.
