Harvard University is striking the word “Puritans” from its alma mater as part of the school’s new push to create a more “inclusive environment.”
The Harvard Crimson reports the school’s Presidential Task Force for Inclusion and Belonging, which was created by Harvard President Drew G. Faust, announced the university will be holding a contest to change the last line of the alma mater, “Fair Harvard.”
“Fair Harvard,” which has been sang at commencement since 1838, contains a reportedly controversial reference to the “stock of the Puritans”:
Fair Harvard! we join in thy Jubilee throng,
And with blessings surrender thee o’er
By these Festival-rites, from the Age that is past,
To the Age that is waiting before.
O Relic and Type of our ancestors’ worth,
That hast long kept their memory warm,
First flow’r of their wilderness! Star of their night!
Calm rising thro’ change and throv storm.
Farewell! be thy destinies onward and bright!
To thy children the lesson still give,
With freedom to think, and with patience to bear,
And for Right ever bravely to live.
Let not moss-covered Error moor thee at its side,
As the world on Truth’s current glides by,
Be the herald of Light, and the bearer of Love,
Till the stock of the Puritans die.
Via MRCTV