James Hankins, a history professor who taught at Harvard University for 40 years, has publicly criticized the institution's graduate admissions process in an essay titled "Why I’m Leaving Harvard." In this piece, he stated that his decision to retire was made in 2021 after experiencing significant changes on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest following the death of George Floyd.

Hankins recounted a specific incident from the fall of 2020, where he encountered a highly qualified white male applicant who, in previous years, would have been a top candidate for the program. However, he was informed by a member of the admissions committee that admitting a white male that year was not an option. Hankins also mentioned a white male student who had achieved the highest academic honors at Harvard but was rejected from all graduate programs he applied to.

In his essay, Hankins noted that he reached out to colleagues at other universities and found a similar pattern of admissions committees reportedly following an unspoken guideline that favored diversity over merit, particularly disadvantaging white male applicants. He indicated that the only exception he found to this trend involved a candidate who had transitioned from female to male.

Hankins delivered his final lecture at Harvard two weeks prior to the publication of his essay, fulfilling a retirement contract he signed in 2021. A spokesperson for Harvard confirmed that graduate admissions are managed at the departmental level and are faculty-led, reflecting the institution's commitment to diversity in its admissions practices.