#Harvard alumni

[jocelynscrazyideas]

He literally looks like a college junior and he’s 27. He can never age.

[dogandcatcomics]

Attribution: Fairfield Porter (USA, 1907-1975). The Dog at the Door, 1969. Thanks to @semcsutter for the tip.

[beckydenimjean]

@beckydenimjean

[headlinehorizon]

Harvard Alumni Demand Action Against Antisemitism on Campus

https://headlinehorizon.com/U.S./Crime/1288

A growing number of Jewish alumni and students at Harvard University are calling for the institution to crack down on antisemitism following anti-Israel protests on campus. Over 1,600 members of the Harvard College Jewish Alumni Association have signed an open letter condemning the protests and demanding recognition of their humanity. The alumni are urging Harvard to enforce its code of conduct, include antisemitism in its diversity framework, and provide training on the various manifestations of antisemitism.

[quotessentially]

From Coretta Scott King’s Harvard Alumni Bulletin (July 1, 1968)

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

It is in this vexed climate that the HCJAA is seeking an urgent meeting with Gay to discuss “concrete plans to ensure the protection of Jewish students on campus.”

“Even before the current wave of antisemitism on campus, there had been a steady uptick in reported incidents of harassment, including physical assaults, verbal abuse, and graffiti of Hillel and other Jewish spaces,” the association pointed out. It also seeks an unambiguous condemnation of the Hamas pogrom from the university’s leadership, something so far conspicuous by its absence.

“There are deep concerns among the alumni about the destructive tone of conversation the university encourages by not swiftly and unequivocally condemning the terrorist attacks by Hamas,” Rebecca Claire Brooks, a co-founder of the HCJAA, told The Algemeiner in an interview on Thursday.

In the wake of Hamas’ atrocities, Harvard University has lost financial backing and faced sharp criticism for refusing to disavow students who signed the widely condemned letter that carried Bharmal’s signature. The controversies startled business and philanthropic leaders and prompted allegations that Harvard does not regard antisemitism as a significant issue.

According to Brooks, it is vital that the university establishes “whether or not there is a toxic culture at Harvard that allows a peddling of antisemitic discourse that calls all Jews colonizers, that calls for resistance by any means necessary, and that promotes very slanted views about the state of Israel.”

She stressed that HCJAA seeks “a fundamental shift in the campus culture in which students are able to have informed debates, to engage in critical thinking, to engage in moral reasoning without bullying and antagonism [from other] students.”

So far, Harvard has neither recognized nor agreed to hold a meeting with the HCJAA, which, Brooks said, is keen to discuss its “reasonable reforms.”

Other Jewish alumni cited in an HCJAA press release voiced similar concerns to Brooks.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Peter Bronstein, who graduated from Harvard in 1965. “The University has accomplished twin moral failures: allowing the widespread glorification of Hamas terrorism by its students and abandoning its responsibility to teach students how to express their ideas without resorting to violent discourse.”

[sbrown82]

“Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.”

– Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights

[portokali]

harvard dropout adam parrish rolls off the tongue so well

[jcmarchi]

Owen Coté, military technology expert and longtime associate director of the Security Studies Program, dies at 63

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/owen-cote-military-technology-expert-and-longtime-associate-director-of-the-security-studies-program-dies-at-63/

Owen Coté, military technology expert and longtime associate director of the Security Studies Program, dies at 63

Owen Coté PhD ’96, a principal research scientist with the MIT Security Studies Program (SSP), passed away on June 8 after battling cancer. He joined SSP in 1997 as associate director, a role he held for the rest of his life. He guided the program through the course of three directors — each profiting from his wise counsel, leadership skills, and sense of responsibility.

“Owen was an indomitable scholar and leader of the field of security studies,” says M. Taylor Fravel, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science and the director of SSP. “Owen was the heart and soul of SSP and a one-of-a-kind scholar, colleague, and friend. He will be greatly missed by us all.”

Having earned his doctorate in political science at MIT, Coté embodied the program’s professional and scholarly values. Through his research and his teaching, he nurtured three of the program’s core interests — the study of nuclear weapons and strategy, the study of the relationship between technological change and military practice, and the application of organization theory to understanding the behavior of military institutions.

He was the author of “The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines,” a book analyzing the sources of the U.S. Navy’s success in its Cold War antisubmarine warfare effort, and a co-author of “Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy: Containing the Threat of Loose Russian Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material.” He also wrote on the future of naval doctrine, nuclear force structure issues, and the threat of weapons of mass destruction terrorism.

He was an influential national expert on undersea warfare. According to Ford International Professor of Political Science Barry Posen, Coté’s colleague for several decades who served as SSP director from 2006 to 2019, “Owen is credited, among others, with helping the U.S. Navy see the wisdom of transforming four ‘surplus’ Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines into cruise missile platforms that serve the Navy and the country to this day.”

Coté’s principal interest in recent years was maritime “war in three dimensions” — surface, air, and subsurface — and how they interacted and changed with advancing technology. He recently completed a book manuscript on this complex history. At the time of his death, he was also preparing a manuscript that analyzed the sources of innovative military doctrine, using cases that compared U.S. Navy responses to moments in the Cold War when U.S. leaders worried about the vulnerability of land-based missiles to Soviet attack.

“No one in our field was as knowledgeable about military organizations and operations, the politics that drives security policy, and relevant theories of international relations as Owen,” according to Harvey Sapolsky, MIT Professor of Public Policy and Organization, Emeritus, and SSP director from 1989 to 2006. “And no one was more willing to share that knowledge to help others in their work.”

This broad portfolio of expertise served him well as co-editor and ultimately editor of the journal International Security, the longtime flagship journal of the security studies subfield. His colleague and editor-in-chief of International Security Steven Miller reflects that, “Owen combined a brilliant analytic mind, a mischievous sense of humor, and a passion for his work. His contribution to International Security was immense and will be missed, as I relied on his judgement with total confidence.”

Coté believed in sharing his scholarly findings with the policy community. With Cindy Williams, a principal research scientist at SSP, he helped organize and ran a series of national security simulations for military officers and Department of Defense (DoD) civilians in the national security studies program at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He regularly produced major conferences at MIT, with several on the U.S. nuclear attack submarine force perhaps the most influential.

He was passionate about nurturing younger scholars. In recent years, he led programs for visiting fellows at SSP: the Nuclear Security Fellows Program and the Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellows Program.

Caitlin Talmage PhD ’11, one of his former students and now an associate professor of political science at MIT, describes Coté as “a devoted mentor and teacher. His classes sparked many dissertations, and he engaged deeply with students and their research, providing detailed feedback, often over steak dinners. Despite his towering expertise in the field of security studies, Owen was always patient, generous, and respectful toward his students. He continued to advise many even after graduation as they launched their careers, myself included. He will be profoundly missed.”

Phil Haun PhD ’10, also one of Cote’s students and now professor and director of the Rosenberg Deterrence Institute at the Naval War College, describes Owen as “a mentor, colleague, and friend to a generation of MIT SSP graduate students,” noting that “arguably his greatest achievement and legacy are the scholars he nurtured and loved.” 

As Haun notes, “Owen’s expertise, with a near encyclopedic knowledge of innovations in military technology, coupled with a gregarious personality and willingness to share his time and talent, attracted dozens of students to join in a journey to study important issues of international security. Owen’s passion for his work and his eagerness to share a meal and a drink with those with similar interests encouraged those around him. The degree to which so many MIT SSP alums have remained connected to the program is testament to the caring community of scholars that Owen helped create.”

Posen describes Coté as a “larger-than-life figure and the most courageous and determined human being I have ever met. He could light up a room when he was among people he liked, and he liked most people. He was in the office suite nearly every day of the week, including weekends, and his door was usually open. Professors, fellows, and graduate students would drop by to seek his counsel on issues of every kind, and it was not uncommon for an expected 10-minute interlude to turn into a one-hour seminar. He had a truly unique ability to understand the interaction of technology and military operations. I have never met anyone who could match him in this ability. He also knew how to really enjoy life. It is an incredible loss on many, many levels.”

As Miller notes, “I got to know Owen while serving as supervisor of his senior thesis at Harvard College in 1981–82. That was the beginning of a lifelong friendship and happily our careers remained entangled for the remainder of his life. I will miss the wonderful, decent human being, the dear friend, the warm and committed colleague. He was a brave soul, suffering much, overcoming much, and contributing much. It is deeply painful to lose such a friend.”

“Owen was kind and generous, and though he endured much, he never complained,” says Sapolsky. “He gave wonderfully organized and insightful talks, improved the writing of others with his editing, and always gave sound advice to those who were wise enough to seek it.”

After graduating from Harvard College in 1982 and before returning to graduate school, Coté worked at the Hudson Institute and the Center for Naval Analyses. He received his PhD in 1996 from MIT, where he specialized in U.S. defense policy and international security affairs.

Before joining SSP in 1997, he served as assistant director of the International Security Program at Harvard’s Center for Science and International Affairs (now the Belfer Center). 

He was the son of Ann F. Coté and the late Owen R. Coté Sr. His family wrote in his obituary that at home, he was always up for a good discussion about Star Wars or Harry Potter movies. Motorcycle magazines were a lifelong passion. He was a devoted uncle to his nieces Eliza Coté, Sofia Coté, and Livia Coté, as well as his self-proclaimed “fake” niece and nephew, Sam and Nina Harrison.

In addition to his mother and his nieces, he is survived by his siblings: Mark T. Coté of Blacksburg, Virginia; Peter H. Coté and his wife Nina of Topsfield, Massachusetts; and Suzanne Coté Curtiss and her husband Robin of Cape Neddick, Maine.

[dissectthedialoguefanpage]

Is College Worth It?

[xtruss]

The End of Legacy Admissions Could Transform College Access

After the fall of affirmative action, liberals and conservatives want to eliminate benefits for children of alumni. Could their logic lead to reparations?

— By Jeannie Suk Gersen | August 8, 2023

White Gravenor Hall of Georgetown University Washington D.C. lit by an early evening Sun. Georgetown has made reparations part of its admissions process, in light of the university’s history of enslavement. Photograph by Oleg Albinsky/Getty

In 2016, Georgetown University announced a first-of-its-kind change to its admissions policy. In addition to the long-standing legacy preferences afforded to applicants “with an enduring relationship” to the school, including children of alumni, it vowed to “give that same consideration” to the descendants of hundreds of enslaved people. From its founding, in 1789, the school had been funded by Jesuit-owned plantations in Maryland that were operated with slave labor. By 1838, the plantations had become less profitable, and Georgetown’s leaders arranged the mass sale and transfer of two hundred and seventy-two men, women, and children to businessmen in Louisiana to pay down the school’s debts and secure further funding. In 2016, a university working group that had studied Georgetown’s role in slavery suggested multiple ways to pursue “reconciliation”—including admissions preferences for descendants of those sold in 1838. The university’s president, John J. DeGioia, said, in 2021, “We live, every day, with the legacies of enslavement.”

In university admissions, one such legacy is plain, even apart from any institution’s direct involvement in slavery. Many of the most selective schools that currently give preference to the offspring of alumni did not admit Black students in significant numbers until the nineteen-sixties or seventies. And, since then, disproportionately small percentages of those schools’ student bodies have been Black. That means that the vast majority of Black American families have at most two generations of alumni experience despite having been in the United States for centuries.

In June, the Supreme Court’s ruling, in Students for Fair Admissions’ cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, prohibited schools from considering race as a factor in admissions. The suggestion that Harvard could and should simply end legacy admissions was integral to S.F.F.A.’s attack on affirmative action. S.F.F.A. argued that abandoning legacy preferences and substantially boosting socioeconomically disadvantaged applicants would make Harvard “far less white, wealthy, and privileged.” According to the plaintiff, Harvard’s unwillingness was a refusal to try race-neutral methods to achieve diversity before resorting to considering applicants’ race, as the law then required. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s concurrence specifically criticized Harvard’s resistance to eliminating preferences for children of alumni, donors, and faculty, remarking that the preferences are “race-neutral on their face” but “undoubtedly benefit white and wealthy applicants the most.”

The Court’s decision has unleashed furious attention to inequalities that have limited access to élite educational institutions. Legacy preferences are the obvious first target because they appear to have functioned as a kind of counterweight to affirmative action. On the day of the Court’s decision, President Biden announced that his Department of Education would examine “practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity.” Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, immediately urged colleges to discontinue legacy programs, which Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, called “affirmative action for the privileged.”

Last month, congressional Democrats reintroduced a bill from 2022—which was previously endorsed by a number of civil-rights organizations, including the A.C.L.U.—that would prohibit schools that receive federal funds from giving admissions preference to legacies or donors. One of the bill’s sponsors, Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, explained that legacy preferences are “not a form of affirmative action that serves our country well” and that “it takes away from the diversity on a campus, it takes away from fairness to get into college.” It is possible that Republican lawmakers, such as Senator Scott, will join Democrats to make it a bipartisan effort.

This near-instantaneous consensus on legacy admissions may seem surprising. But we have seen versions of it before. After California banned affirmative action in public education, in 1996, the University of California system chose to end legacy preferences. The pattern also occurred at the University of Georgia and Texas A&M two decades ago.

The availability of racial preferences has enabled a tolerance of legacy preferences: boosts for underrepresented minorities were in part compensating for boosts for others. For those whose goal is to achieve racial equality in admissions, the end of affirmative action may not be entirely bad. Among other things, it has revealed that the use of race as a factor was merely part of a larger system of preferences that knowingly shaped the racial makeup of classes. Out of necessity, admissions might now be transformed to address the inequalities that make racial diversity difficult to achieve and sustain.

Admissions policies that explicitly articulate a preference for the offspring of alumni date to the nineteen-twenties. At that time, several Ivy League schools, traditionally populated by wealthy, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, had begun to experience, in the words of Harvard’s then president, A. Lawrence Lowell, “a dangerous increase in the proportion of Jews” admitted for scholastic achievement. Schools responded by adopting holistic admissions processes, which would alter who was selected. The use of geographical diversity as a factor brought in more Midwesterners, who tended not to be Jewish. The consideration of personal qualities also disfavored Jews, who were thought to be academic grinds who lacked character. Legacy status was another such factor, favoring white and wealthy Protestants whose families had a history with the institutions that children of recent immigrants would obviously lack. Holistic review, including legacy preferences, became the magic formula for élite admissions, to which race-based affirmative action was added as an ingredient in the sixties. The former president of Harvard Lawrence H. Summers defended legacy admissions as “integral to the kind of community that any private educational institution is.” (This summer, in response to the Court’s affirmative-action decision, Summers urged an end to legacy preferences, among other reforms.)

Today, more than seven hundred colleges and universities consider applicants’ legacy status, but the practice is most common at institutions that admit less than twenty-five per cent of applicants. A recent study by Harvard economists, using data from several élite colleges, found that legacies were nearly four times more likely to be admitted than other applicants with the same test scores. A study based on evidence from the S.F.F.A. v. Harvard litigation found that, from 2014 to 2019, children of alumni were nearly six times more likely to be admitted to Harvard than other applicants. Surveys administered by the Crimson indicate that nearly a third of the student body have family members who attended Harvard and that around a third of legacies report parental income of more than half a million dollars, whereas only an eighth of non-legacies do.

The consensus on legacy admissions began to shift meaningfully during the past decade, as élite schools started examining ways to increase access. Although M.I.T. has stood out among the most selective institutions in reportedly never having considered legacy status, Johns Hopkins eliminated legacy admissions in 2014, and was followed by Pomona, Amherst, and Wesleyan. According to Education Reform Now, more than a hundred colleges and universities have ended legacy admissions since 2015. The president of Johns Hopkins, Ron Daniels, has written that the preference for legacies “was impairing our ability to educate qualified and promising students from all backgrounds and to help launch them up the social ladder.” More recently, he called it “an aristocratic policy, not a meritocratic one,” that is “indefensible in a democratic society.”

In 2019, the Varsity Blues scandal exposed dozens of wealthy parents’ involvement in criminal conspiracy to commit fraud in order to insure their children’s admission to colleges, using inflated test scores, bribery of college officials, and even doctored photos of athletic prowess. The scandal brought public attention to the idea that, even in the absence of criminal activity, the competition to get in may bear more similarities to parents vying to purchase spots than to a true system of “merit.” The racial reckoning of 2020 brought more skepticism toward processes that reflect baked-in racial disadvantage. In 2020, California (where public university systems had decades ago voluntarily eliminated legacy preferences) enacted a law that employed a public-shaming approach, requiring all institutions to disclose annually the number of legacies and donor-related applicants “who did not meet the institution’s admission standards that apply to all applicants, but who were offered admission,” as well as the number who met the standards. In 2021, Colorado became the only state thus far to ban legacy admissions for public colleges and universities. Lawmakers who sponsored the bill called the legacy preference “a concrete example of systemic inequity.”

Bills that would ban legacy admissions at private and public institutions were introduced in Connecticut in 2022, and in New York this year and last. In Massachusetts, a bill introduced this year would force any school that uses legacy or donor preferences to pay a “public service fee” equal to a small percentage of its endowment, which the state would then use to fund community colleges. At Harvard, the fee would amount to a hundred million dollars a year.

In response to the Connecticut bill, Yale’s dean of admissions, Jeremiah Quinlan, expressed skepticism that “a ban on legacy preferences in admissions would have a material effect on representation of low-income, first-generation, or under-represented students.” More emphatically, he wrote that “the state should not dictate how colleges and universities make admissions decisions, just as the state should not dictate whom we hire as faculty or what we teach in the curriculum.” This broader point, about the importance of universities’ autonomy, may resonate in an era of increasing governmental attempts to regulate campuses. (See the Stop woke Act, in Florida.) Universities are increasingly scrutinized by law and political processes, instead of being left to manage their affairs, whether they involve diversity, fund-raising, or free speech. Public regulation in matters of inequality of entry into these institutions which benefit from public funds, however, is less troubling than attempts to control teaching, research, and other academic activities. Although the anxiety of Quinlan and others is understandable, it does not follow that legislatures’ moves to increase access to universities must lead to encroachments on academic freedom.

After decades of suspicion and scrutiny of affirmative action, legacy admissions are taking their place as the punching bag. Last month, in response to a federal civil-rights complaint, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into whether Harvard’s preferences for legacies and children of donors discriminate against Black, Hispanic, and Asian American applicants in favor of less qualified white applicants, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. That statute, which prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the ground of race, is the same one that, the Court held, prohibits race-conscious affirmative action. Having emerged battle-worn and unsuccessful from nearly a decade of litigation defending universities’ use of race in admissions, Harvard will have to be the standard-bearer for the use of legacy status and, more broadly, universities’ freedom to craft their student bodies without interference.

An allegation that legacy preferences constitute intentional discrimination would be difficult to substantiate, and the complaint does not even raise that argument. Title VI, though, allows for a claim to the Education Department that a racially neutral policy with no racially discriminatory purpose still has a “disparate impact” that is discriminatory. Here, the claim is that Harvard’s legacy and donor preferences in practice have a disproportionate, discriminatory impact on some racial groups. As the complaint puts it, the preferences “provide a competitive advantage to predominantly white, wealthy applicants, which significantly diminishes opportunities for qualified applicants of color.”

It is notable that the anti-legacy claim does not pit Asian Americans against other minorities, as the S.F.F.A. case attacking affirmative action did. But the complaint relies heavily on information from the S.F.F.A. litigation and draws liberally from the Supreme Court’s logic. It quotes Chief Justice John Roberts’s line “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it” and applies his reasoning—that “a benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.”

Because the Supreme Court, in 2001, made private suits based on disparate-impact claims under Title VI unavailable in court, it is unlikely to take on the legacy-admissions issue. The claim is viable in complaints to the Education Department, which has the ability to tell schools to reform their admissions programs if they want to keep receiving federal funds. But civil-rights regulators may find it difficult to come to that conclusion. Almost every other factor considered in admissions—from standardized tests or how academically challenging an applicant’s high school is to personal character or extracurricular activities and leadership—arguably favors some racial groups over others. We know from the S.F.F.A. v. Harvard litigation that considering SAT scores tends to benefit Asian Americans, while “personal ratings,” evaluating qualities like kindness, courage, and integrity, disfavors them; the impact is the reverse for Black applicants. Over the past century, some of the factors used as part of holistic admissions, including “diversity,” were crafted with the intent to favor some groups, whereas other factors had that effect inadvertently. It becomes very difficult to untangle disparate racial impact from the impact of selecting for skills and qualities that a school views as deserving of reward.

Even if investigators were to find that legacy admissions have a disparate racial impact, they would still be lawful if there is a substantial justification for them. The proffered justifications for a legacy preference would likely include the importance of maintaining intergenerational community and loyalty; encouraging giving by alumni; identifying high performers, given that legacy applicants’ familial advantages may predict better outcomes both in college and in their careers; and predicting the likelihood of attendance, in order to maintain a high yield rate. Even if one finds justifications like these uncompelling, it will be hard for government lawyers to conclude that there are no legitimate justifications and that legacy preferences should be legally prohibited. (Studies are mixed on whether legacy admission helps universities raise funds. There may be higher rates of alumni giving at schools that consider legacy status, but schools that abandoned legacy admissions have not suffered a negative effect on alumni giving, and some have experienced significant growth in their endowments.) Though access to these institutions is a subject of public importance, schools will, by and large, likely be left to sort out admissions policies as they see fit.

Universities that have pursued student-body diversity for the past decades through affirmative action will continue to seek a robust enrollment of Black and Latino students. But they will have to find new, race-neutral ways to do so—which could change the character of admissions. During oral arguments in the affirmative-action case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh surprisingly suggested that giving “a benefit to descendants of slaves would not be race-based.” It may seem bizarrely formalistic to say that a preference for descendants of enslaved people is not a race-based preference, but for those who insist that “race” is mere skin color, as some legal conservatives appear to, separating race from enslavement might make sense. Kavanaugh, who, like Gorsuch, attended the Catholic high school Georgetown Prep, which was originally a part of Georgetown University, may well have had in mind the university’s policy of giving a preference to the descendants of enslaved people who were sold by its Jesuit leaders.

Kavanaugh was, in effect, proposing that schools could legally implement a policy of reparations, which is how some colleges originally understood their race-based admissions programs. In the 1978 case in which the Supreme Court first upheld race-conscious affirmative action, though, the Court ruled that reparations or compensation for past generations of racial discrimination and injustice was not a compelling reason to use race as a factor in admissions—only “diversity” was. Colleges and universities then embraced the rationale, extolling the benefits of diversity for fulfilling their educational missions and producing future leaders. But now that race cannot be used as a factor, if, as Kavanaugh suggested, considering the legacy of slavery is “not race-based,” then universities could restore some benefits of affirmative action by giving preferences to applicants who check a box indicating that they are descended from enslaved people.

Last year, Harvard issued an extensive report on its own ties to slavery. It found that slavery was “an integral part of life” at Harvard, whose faculty, staff, and leaders enslaved individuals, some of them on campus. Profits from major donors’ involvement in slavery and the slave trade “helped the University build a national reputation, hire faculty, support students, grow its collections, expand its physical footprint, and develop its infrastructure.” Like Georgetown and many other schools, Harvard would have ample justification to make reparations in its admissions process and to consider a legacy of enslavement. Universities could account, in their race-neutral admissions policies, for not only slavery but also other sustained legal subjugation in which they may or may not have been directly involved. In a recent case, Justice Gorsuch quoted with approval the Court’s statement, in 1974, that a federal employment preference for Native American tribal members of at least a quarter Native American blood was a “political, rather than racial,” classification.

We are in a time when ideas of what exactly is race-based are up for grabs. Once the affirmative-action-bound language of the Court’s previous instructions is swept away, and schools are no longer legally incentivized to talk about race in admissions in terms of “diversity” or even any sort of “holistic” evaluation, we could end up with a more frank and substantive discussion about equity, including not only descent from enslaved people but also severe disadvantage from state-sponsored subordination, first-generation-college-student status, and family income and wealth. Many untold possibilities might open up if we look hard for alternative ways to unlock education as a means to social mobility. ♦

[heritageposts]

The website of the Columbia Law Review, one of the oldest and most prestigious legal journals in the country, has been down since Monday. At the time of this broadcast, ColumbiaLawReview.org shows a static homepage informing visitors that the site is “under maintenance.” Well, that’s not exactly true. In a stunning move, the board of directors of the Columbia Law Review decided to take down the website after the publication’s student editors refused the board’s request to halt the publication of an academic article written by Palestinian human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah titled “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept.” Student editors at the Columbia Law Review say they were pressured by the journal’s board of directors to halt publication of the piece. They refused the request and published the piece online Monday morning. In response, the board, which is made up of faculty and alumni from Columbia University’s law school, shut down the law review’s website. After the website was taken down, student editors uploaded the article to a publicly accessible website, where it’s gone viral. The article begins, “The law does not possess the language that we desperately need to accurately capture the totality of the Palestinian condition. From occupation to apartheid and genocide, the most commonly applied legal concepts rely on abstraction and analogy to reveal particular facets of subordination. This Article introduces Nakba as a legal concept to resolve this tension,” unquote. The article is written by Rabea Eghbariah, a human rights lawyer completing his doctoral studies at Harvard Law School. Last November, the Harvard Law Review refused to publish a similar, shorter article it had solicited from Rabea, even after it was initially accepted, fully edited and fact-checked. In both cases, the article would have been the first time that either the Harvard Law Review or the Columbia Law Review had ever published a Palestinian legal scholar.

The video interview with Eghbariah, a transcript of the interview, and a full copy of the censored article, can be found on Democracy Now (5th of June, 2024).

Here's also a direct link to Eghbariah's article:

“Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept”

[clumsycapitolunicorn]

.

[justawritterwithideas]

law in pink | s.r

♡ next part ♡

summary: when the BAU needs an extra helping hand, Washington decides to send the best of the best, but what they didn't expect was to see... pink.

warnings: a bit of stereotypes, beyond that a bit of comedy and fluff. there may be mistakes in writing because I wrote it too fast :(

this story is spencer reid (season 7) x ssa elle woods!reader

words: 1,649 words.

a/n: elle woods from legally blonde comes to my mind constantly because is one of my favorite movies, so I wanted to make a mix called "ssa elle woods"; I hope you like it and you can understand the idea of reader as elle woods, I also hope I didn't portray it wrong and that it will be misunderstood T T

The BAU needed a hand with the rising crime wave, so, straight from Washington they sent the best of the best from their office.

And of course Penelope had to investigate.

According to her research, you had graduated from Harvard with honors and had given the honorary alumni speech at your class graduation. In addition, you were a part-time Harvard professor of Political Theory during the fall and part of a prolific group of researchers in your Washington office, which had the highest rate of successfully resolved cases in the last 5 years.

In addition, you had achieved on your LSAT a score of 179 out of 180 points.

Something inside Penelope reminded her a little of her friend, Spencer Reid, in you.

But what she didn't expect to see when she looked you up on the interwebs was the fashionista and family friendly life you had. The way your apartment was decorated with a pretty pink aesthetic, your outfits videos that reached millions of views and your day to day routines were the mantra of many girls, being all perfectly edited.

With that and more, anyone would think that your job was not to be a federal agent, but an influencer.

Penelope was already smelling perfume from her computer, and that made her more than eager to meet you.

It was seeing one just like her in front of her screen.

You were the perfect candidate to be her new best friend.

The clacking of your heels and the smell of your Chanel perfume filled the entire BAU office, causing the complicit glances of all the workers who were there.

"Have you seen Barbie yet?" "Is the model missing?" "What about her? Maybe she's a lost intern. First-timer problems."

Everyone was making comments you'd heard more than once in some police office, maybe it was the way you dressed didn't go along with the aesthetic they had or how feminine your attire might be, but that's who you were and for a couple of comments about your appearance and the stereotype they had they weren't going to sour your day.

"Excuse me, are you looking for someone?"

You turned to see a tall, dark man, who was watching your outfit from last season's Prada fit you to perfection.

"Oh! Finally someone nice." You commented with a smile. "Yes, I'm looking for Agent Aaron Hotchner."

"He's my boss, would you like help finding his office? I can help you."

"That would be great, thank you very much..."

"Agent Morgan, Derek Morgan."

"It's a pleasure, Agent Derek. I'm Y/N, nice to meet you."

You didn't like to introduce yourself officially as an agent, it made you look rather intimidating if you did, and that was what you didn't want.

It wasn't a long walk to the wooden door which was adorned by a plaque with the name of the person you were looking for.

"This is it, you come for a case? Any family members involved?"

"No, I'm coming to help. Thank you very much, by the way."

You gave him one last smile before knocking on the door, hearing a "pass" from inside.

"Who was the girl you were escorting, Derek?" Emily watched the man reach them, peering curiously inside Hotch's office.

"Her name is Y/N, she said she was coming to help, but... I don't know, she doesn't look like someone coming to help, maybe she's a witness."

Spencer's eyes scanned the situation, trying to conclude who the mystery woman inside his boss's office was about, but coming up with nothing on the spot. Like his friends, they were all searching for an answer to the abiding doubt in his head.

Who exactly was that girl and why had she said that? She didn't seem like a person whose job was an office job, but not one that was very risky either.

But before they could say anything, Aaron came out of the office with his ever-serious face.

"Meeting in 5" was the only thing he announced, so the group took heed and went to the place.

Once inside the office, Penelope found herself with her dear friends, who were trying to figure out the causes of the recent meeting.

"You don't know Pen either, do you?" J.J. was the first to speak.

"No idea, Hotch just asked me to be here."

"Just like everyone else." Rossi replied, settling around the round table with his coffee cup.

The conversation didn't last long when Hotch entered the boardroom.

"Good. I know there's no case yet or apparent reason to get them together first thing." Hotch began. "But as you may know, the last couple of months have seen an increase in crime for the BAU, which is exactly why we've been given extra funding to bring an extra agent onto the team."

Sounds of excitement came from everyone's mouths.

"So I've been contacting old colleagues, who recommended the best of the best. So they've transferred an agent from Washington to help us."

"Boy, they must be desperate." Derek's comment drew a few chuckles.

"I'd like to introduce you to the SSA, Y/N Woods."

Everyone's countenance changed to one of surprise when they saw you walk in, smiling in the friendliest way possible.

The same girl who looked like a model fresh off a runway was the newest member of the BAU.

"It's nice to meet you all, I hope we can work well together." You set your Prada bag to the side, being able to scan each of the members quickly.

"Woods, this is SSA Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, David Rossi, dr. Spencer Reid and our technical analyst, Penelope Garcia."

"Hey, I know you." You commented in the direction of Garcia, who was smiling politely. "You were the girl who commented on my recipe for the vegetarian tacos."

"Yes! They looked exquisite."

"Thank you very much, I hope they were helpful. We need to be a little more conscientious with our four-legged friends."

Spencer didn't know if he was dazzled by the whiteness of your teeth or the warm way you had entered into trust with Penelope with a simple recipe.

"Woods, Garcia. You'll have time to talk."

"I'm sorry, sir." They both replied at the same time.

"Fine, I'll go prepare the case, Garcia come with me."

They both walked out of the meeting room, leaving you alone with the rest of your new group of colleagues.

"I didn't know you were an agent." Derek was the first to break the silence surrounding them, causing you to turn in his direction.

"I didn't mean to mention it, I'm not a person who usually blurts it out just like that on the first interaction. You never know what kind of person a stranger is." You commented before you could look at him again. "No offense."

"No problem."

"From Washington, right?" Your gaze went to the blonde, who was watching from her position with a warm smile.

"That's right, even though I'm from California but I moved to Massachusetts after getting into Harvard, and then to Washington when I got an opening in the federal office there. So I'm from here, there and over there, but I'll always be a California gurl." A chuckle came out of your mouth after making a reference to the Katy Perry song, bringing your hands to your sides.

"Harvard? What did you study?" Spencer looked more and more interested.

"Law." You commented offhandedly. "I actually studied Fashion Merchandising at UCLA with a 4.0 GPA. But I wanted to prove myself and decided to get into Harvard Law."

"Switching from Fashion Merchandising at UCLA to Harvard Law is a big jump, how much did you get on your entrance exam?" Rossi asked.

"179."

Everyone's surprised face made an impression on you.

"What, like it's hard?" your eyelashes fluttered softly, before you remembered what you were holding as a "peace offering". "By the way, I made cookies yesterday for being the first day and making a good impression." Your hands went to your bag, pulling out a heart-shaped tupperware. "They're lavender and butter, it's a recipe I read on a fairly well known blog forum, they say Paris Hilton gets her recipes from there."

You held out the tupper to each of them to take out a cookie, leaving it on the table in case they liked to take out more.

"If they like more, just pull out. There's enough for everyone." A little smile tugged at your mouth. But before you heard any response from either person, the catchy ringtone of Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" interrupted any culinary criticism. "Excuse me..." Your hand went for your phone, which didn't surprise others by being pink, and you left the room letting out a "Woods" as you answered.

"This is new." Derek said.

"And delicious." Emily took another bite of her cookie.

"She's different than what we usually know." Rossi looked at the rest, taking a second cookie out of the tupper. "But I don't mind at all, in fact, I think new always comes in good."

"True, it's always good to have someone new and with a different vibe."

The group turned to look at Reid, who was holding the cookie with his right hand. The young man wasn't usually one to blurt out a comment, just like that, least of all referring to a girl.

"Oh kid, you find her attractive." Derek was the first to smile in amusement.

"What, no." The voice in a higher pitched tone than normal was what gave Spencer away.

"Spencer likes Y/N." J.J annoyed, walking out of the office laughing along with Emily.

"That's not true!"

"See ya, lover boy." Derek commented along with Rossi, who was gently patting his shoulder with a knowing smile.

And so it was that Spencer was left in the meeting room with his cheeks as pink as his new co-worker's heels.

♡ next part ♡

If you like it, don't forget to like and repost it.

a lot of love, alme. ❀

[funkopersonal]

Here's your daily reminder that...

Jews are only 0.2% of the worlds population but...

Jews make up 14% of the World Total and 38% of the United States of America total winners for the Nobel Prize for Literature (source).

Of the 965 individual recipients of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2023, at least 214 have been Jews or people with at least one Jewish parent, representing 22% of all recipients. (source)

Jews make up 14% of the total winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 18% of the total winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; 53% of the total winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction (source).

Jews make up 39% of the total winners of the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Play; 54% of the total winners of the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (with 62% of all Composers and 66% of all Lyricists of Best Musical-winning productions being Jewish) (source).

Jews make up 40% of the total winners of the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Original Screenplay; and 34% of the total winners of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (source).

Although Jews constitute only 3% of the U.S. population...

80% of the nation’s professional comedians are Jewish (source).

90% of American comic book creators are jewish (source)

38% of the recipients of the United States National Medal of Science are Jewish (Source).

Jews are very successful, with educational levels higher than all other U.S. ethnic groups with the exception of Asian Americans, and income levels the highest of all groups. Six out of ten Jewish adults have college degrees, and 41% of Jewish families report a household income of $75,000 or more” (source)

Jews are a minority across the globe. We've been historically opressed and hated. But these key figures from history are all Jewish and loved, yet many don't even know they're jewish (or they don't know these people in the first place!):

Stan Lee (birth name: Stanley Martin Lieber) - An American comic book writer and editor, Former executive vice president and publisher of marvel Comics, creator of iron-man, spider-man, and more.

Albert Einstein - a Theoretical physicist, Received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, developed the theory of relativity and the "worlds most famous equation"  (E = mc^2), and more.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, co-authored the initial law school casebook on sex discrimination, co-founded the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU in 1972, and more.

Jack Kirby (birth name: Jacob Kurtzberg) - an American comic book artist, co-creator of Captain America, one of the most influential comic book artists

Harry Houdini (birth name: Erich Weisz) - a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts.

Emma Lazarus - An American author remembered for her sonnet "The New Colossus," Inspired by The Statue of Liberty and inscribed on its pedestal as of 1903.

Julius Rosenthal, Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Stephen Wise, and Henry Moskowitz - Jewish activists that helped form the NAACP along with W.E.B. Dubois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell.

Mark Zuckerberg - Founder and CEO of Meta, a businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook, and within four years became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire Harvard alumni.

Joseph Pulitzer - a politician and newspaper publisher, his endowment to the Columbia University established the Pulitzer Prizes in 1917, he founded the Columbia School of Journalism which opened in 1912.

Jacob William Davis - a Latvian tailor who is credited with inventing modern jeans and who worked with Levi Strauss to patent and mass-produce them, died.

Irving Berlin - drafted at age 30 to write morale-boosting songs for military revues (including “God Bless America”). Many Berlin songs remained popular for decades, including “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” and two celebrating Christian holidays: “White Christmas” and “Easter Parade.”

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel - received his doctorate in Berlin. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1938, moved to the U.S. in 1940, and became an influential figure in the 1960s, marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, and speaking out against the Vietnam War.

Elie Wiesel - Romanian-American writer and professor, holocaust survivor, nobel laureate, political activist. Authored 57 books including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps

Bob Dylan - an icon of folk, rock and protest music, won the Nobel Prize in literature for his complex and poetic lyrics.

J. Robert Oppenheimer - ran the Manhattan Project, considered the "father of the atomic Bomb," presented with the Enrico Fermi Award by President Lyndon Johnson.

Betty Friedan - co-founded the National Organization of Women and became its first president, wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and helped spark the second wave of feminism.

Gloria Steinem - one of the most prominent feminists of all time, launched Ms. Magazine and co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus with Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan and Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers.

Sergey Brin - an American businessman best known for co-founding Google with Larry Page, president of Alphabet Inc.

Judith Heumann - a founder of the disability rights movement, led a 26-day sit-in at a federal building in San Francisco. The protest spurred implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Larry Kramer - co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis in response to the AIDS epidemic but was soon ousted over his confrontational activism. He went on to help launch a more strident group, ACT UP, and wrote a critically acclaimed play, The Normal Heart, about the early AIDS years in New York City.

Steven Spielberg - released his critically acclaimed epic film Schindler’s List, based on the true story of a German industrialist who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The movie won seven Oscars and led Spielberg to launch the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California, which filmed interviews with 52,000 survivors of the Holocaust and genocides in Nanjing and Rwanda.

Calvin Klein - made designer jeans and the infamous ad starring Brooke Shields revolutionized the fashion industry, sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen (now PVH) for $430 million. Klein was the first designer to win three consecutive Coty Awards for womenswear.

Daveed Diggs - an American actor, rapper, and singer-songwriter. he originated the dual roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the musical Hamilton, for which he won a 2016 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. Along with the main cast of Hamilton, he was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in the same year.

And so much more. (a pretty decent list is available here)

Not only that, but the following are all Jewish inventions...

The Teddy Bear - made by Morris and Rose Michtom in honor of Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.

The Ballpoint Pen - *the first commercially sucessfull ballpoint pen was made by Lazlo Biro, a Hungarian-Jew, and his brother.

Mobile Phones - made by Martin Cooper, nicknamed the "father of the cellphone", and was born in Chicago to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants.

The Barbie - made by Ruth Marianna Handler, born to Polish-Jewish immigrants.

Power Rangers - made by Haim Saban, a Jewish-Egyptian

Video Games - made by Ralph Baer, a German-Jew

Peeps - made by Sam Born, a Russian-Jewish immigrants who came to the United States in 1909.

Cards Against Humanity - created by a group of Jewish boys from the same high school

Many Superheroes including Superman, Ironman, spider-man, batman, and more!

and more! (an illustrated list available here.)

Conclusion: If you're Jewish, be proud. You come from a long line of successful people. No matter what happened to them, Jews persevered, and they strived for sucess. Be proud of your culture, your history, these are your people. You're Jewish.

(feel free to reblog and add more, or just comment and i'll add it!)

Last Updated: June 25, 1:35 AM EST

[andraxicated]

No Hard Feelings

Pairing: zayne x f! reader

tags: nsfw | mutual pining? | virgins in love | 69 | protected p in v | big dick zayne (cause he was my man before sylus and we love virgins who hide big packages) | small angst |

a/n: sitting pretty on my drafts since february. i love writing in this format it just lets your ideas flow | zayne is a harvard med alumni free from student debt cause he's rich and we all know it

inspired by one of my fav rom coms no hard feelings i swear its so funny

you are nothing but a broke college student looking for ways to make extra money. so what can you do when your friend shows you a totally suspicious ad?

"we are looking for a girl with experience to seduce our son and help him have a social life. preferably pretty. will be handsomely compensated"

you grab the opportunity after much thought and show up in the sluttiest dress to make sure you fit the 'girl with experience' part despite your v-card being intact.

and you never thought that you'd be sitting in a mansion's living room, listening to a rich mother yap about her worries for her beloved and only son's social life

"you see... it's because i'm deeply worried about our son! we are very proud he's doing well before going to medical school but it's summer and all his peers are going out on vacations, dating, and partying, but he doesn't seem to be interested in any of those since his time at university!"

let's say when you asked what he looked like and turned around to see a picture frame, you were instantly sold onto this 'fuck their son' plan

his parents said their beloved Zayne volunteers at the public park to tend to the flowers. he works under the hot son with his stoic face and meaty arms to which you space out a little.

imagine his surprise when his view got shadowed by your figure, looking up to see the expanse of your thighs, your boobs supported by a push-up bra. this was your best attempt at looking like a vixen

"heyyyy, can I touch your buds?" you giggle (cringing inwardly) and the rest is history.

Zayne didn't know what to fucking say but glare at you.

it was hard to get close to Zayne because that man was a brick wall. he was so reserved and quiet, always so serious despite your attempts at fun time. yet with every time you spent together, his walls break down bit by bit.

and when you saw a crack in his walls, you unknowingly tore it down along with yours.

because you are unexpectedly falling in love with him.

"I thought this was movie night" Both of you remove your tops amidst giggles and short kisses.

"Mhmm, you smell like Jasmines." Zayne pretends not to hear you as he rasps against your ear, kissing your neck as his fingers drag down to tug at your shorts and panty. You whine when he successfully removes it, cold air hitting your inner thighs as he shushes you through small, wet kisses.

"That perfume was on sale, I knew I had to buy it for you" You smile and Zayne mirrors it on his lips, making your heart skip out of your chest. He caresses your hips softly, dangerously inching closer to your core where you're positively throbbing.

"You know me so well. It's as if you were sent by someone for me."

You chuckle awkwardly, letting him trail down light kisses on your neck, all the way to your collarbones. His statement slaps you back to reality. That you were just a girl taking advantage of him and his parents' money. But with each kiss that matches with the beat of your heart, you feel that this acting of yours turned a little too real. You just wanted him between your thighs, lost in your body, drunk on your kisses, and never have him find out the truth.

Zayne looks up at you from an angle, wanting to ask for permission to dive in your pussy, but then he sees you spacing out, and it’s not the cockdrunk look he sees on porn videos. You looked sad and miserable while staring into nothing, he fears he might have bored you to death and he’s too much of a virgin to satisfy you. Zayne looked scared to snap you out of it, he lightly nudged your thigh, and your gaze finally shifted to him. You still haven’t gotten rid of that look yet. 

“Sorry, let’s not do this today if you aren’t feeling well” zayne speaks softly while sitting up, the care evident in his eyes, and you wanted nothing more than to jump in his arms. 

You shook your head, a smile on your face. “I’m sorry I killed the mood. Are you still hard?” 

“What?”

“I mean, is your dick hard?”

Zayne looks down for a moment and replies, “Yeah…I’m hard”

You giggle and reach over to give him a peck. “Let me suck you off. You’ll feel good, I promise” You say as if you sucked dick before. You were quite nervous to put something in your mouth for the first time, fearing for your throat and untrained gag reflex. Also, Zayne looks pretty big from the way he’s tenting from his shorts, it wasn’t going to be easy.

Your heart was beating from your chest as Zayne sat with his legs on both sides of your body, presenting you with his aching bulge. You tug down his shorts along with his underwear and you see his big cock that he’s been hiding all along. Zayne flushes red on his ears and neck as you stare at his size in awe. The tip was angry and leaking, twitching occasionally as the man before you winced. Its girth was impressively thicker than your wrist and length longer than what you’ve seen in videos, this guy was above average. But before you could try to touch him, Zayne coughs up to get your attention. 

You question him in your eyes and he blushes, struggling to get his words out. 

“I-I want to make you feel good too. Can we try that position?” 

“What position?” 

“...69” 

Zayne bites his lip, looking at your face for any sort of disgust but none came. A smile broke out on your face before you nodded, taking the initiative to adjust your positions accordingly. Zayne was taller than you so you had to be the one on top, your body tensing as you face his leaking cock staring at you. You wanted to put your mouth on it so bad but you knew you had to wait for Zayne to adjust at your bottom. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m good.” Zayne huffs out and you involuntarily clench, feeling his hot breath around your hole. You can’t help the heat that travels to your cheeks as you recognize yourself putting your ass up in the air for a man to gape at your hole. You could feel every bone in your body praying not to fuck this up.

“I’ll start,” You say, biting your lip and squinting your eyes before hurriedly starting the job. Your lips come into contact with the tip and Zayne moans, throwing his head back as you try to engulf him in your mouth. He feels you testing how your mouth glides up and down thanks to your saliva as lubricant. Zayne thinks he could burst right then and there in your mouth but he tries to at least save himself some dignity by not finishing through a 20-second blowjob. 

He leans forward and settles his palms on your ass, squeezing the soft flesh experimentally, making you moan at his touches. His lips press outside your pussy, shying away from the main course before steeling himself with the courage of a man. 

Choked moans left your mouth as Zayne suddenly parts your ass for a clear view and dives right in to fuck your hole with his tongue. He laps up like a man starved with eyes closed, executing toe-curling techniques that you didn’t know he could do. 

“Nghh! Mmhphh!” You’re drooling on his dick, taking what you can of his size and pumping what you couldn’t reach. He’s too much of a big fit in your mouth, struggling to hollow your cheeks since most of your wet cavern is occupied by his cock. You could only bob your head up and down, moaning to get him feeling some vibrations, and rubbing your pussy along his lips. 

On the other end, Zayne was having a very much-awaited make-out session with your cunt. He sloppily kisses your hole, circling his tongue as he tastes the softness of the flesh. His hands rubbing your ass in gentle motions causes you to clench and he groans, chasing the movement of your cunt. He does it like the boys do in those videos, he closes his eyes and imagines he’s doing a good job just like them, making their girl scream like it's the end of the world. 

“So pretty” he pulls away mesmerized by your glistening cunt. Zayne couldn’t help but be addicted to your pussy, and he gives it more attention by sucking and playing around with his tongue. To hear your muffled cries sends vibrations down his spine, making him even more hard as your eyes widen. 

You gasp for air as you fix your breathing. You wanted to complain about why he was getting bigger but you just couldn’t stop yourself from sinking deeper onto his cock. You’re positive you looked like a cockhungry slut with dick in her mouth, wiggling her ass as her man eats her out because that’s exactly what you’re doing, you could picture how dirty the position was and it makes you throb, edging you to your release.

No one was saying anything, too occupied with the job at hand as wet noises filled the room. Both of you were pushing each other at the brink of release. Zayne lightly thrusts to chase the feeling of a wet heat—challenging your gag reflex, not knowing it's your first time giving a blowjob. He suddenly hits the back of your throat as cum floods inside your mouth. You’re breathing through your nose, too full of erotic sensations, and you cum following his release. Wet spurts land on Zayne’s face as he drinks up your release, relishing in his first time making a girl cum. 

You pull away from his dick, white semen landing on the bed from your mouth and Zayne’s eyes widen seeing you keeping his release inside your mouth. He thinks you probably didn’t want to swallow it so he grabs tissues, and places them below your chin. 

“Spit it out” 

You look at the tissue on his hand and swallow the cum, wincing as the taste hits you. You just wanted to do it like others do, swallowing because you worked hard for it. Zayne was flabbergasted to even move, his flaccid member unapologetically rising hard when he saw you swallow his seed. 

It made him want to put it inside you. 

“Why did you swallow?” 

You wipe the excess off your face, “I just wanted to try” You hoped he didn’t catch on that it was your first time. Both of you were tired but you wanted to keep going, driven by lust. Zayne was trying to hide his erection and you decided to just get on with it, you wanted him inside right now.

“Zayne, do you want to be on top?” Your question left him surprised. He blinks for a few seconds before nodding and positioning on top of you as you lay down. Then it hits you.

“Wait, do you have a condom?” 

He visibly freezes before reaching over to the bedside table, pulling out the drawer, grabbing a condom, and opening the package. While he puts it on, your eyes drift to the package and you notice the XL size and the ‘super ultra-thin’ inscription. You couldn’t help but be a little nervous after reading that. 

“It’s on,” he says awkwardly, the tip of his ears reddening by the minute. At this moment, the air was thick with nervousness radiating from you and Zayne. You exchange eye contact with him as his palm rests on your hip, drawing circles to coax you and relax your walls. 

“I’m ready, are you?” 

“Yeah,” he kisses your lip to distract you from the pain of your cunt breached open by his thick cockhead. You wince in discomfort, legs shaking as the thickness stops moving. Zayne panics over your pained expression, whispering sweet nothings that it will pass soon because fuck, you are incredibly tight and wet. He almost moans at the sight of your hole struggling to take all of him. 

You look down and let your head fall back onto his soft pillow. “Move”, you let out breathlessly. 

“I’m too big for you, you need to adjust”

“Zayne, just move! Let me adjust when you’re inside me” You whine, wanting to have him inside you as soon as possible. Zayne complies and pushes in slowly, all his worries about med school and sex are completely gone when he buries himself to the hilt. You moan in unison, the stretch being painfully good for your first time.

It was the kind of pain that you’d willingly take because the pleasure was too much to lose out on. He stretches you out nicely, feeling every vein inside you, especially the tip that kisses your g spot. How did he find it in one go?

“You're so tight!—Shit” Zayne picks up on his space, letting his dick rub inside you before starting to thrust full-on. His hips smoothly roll as he pistons his cock in and out of your hole. Your wetness and the condom's lubricant make him move easily inside.

“Ohhh! Zayne!” You jolt towards the headboard as his grunts fill the room, his cockhead repeatedly locking in on your sweet spot, making you clench in response. His hair falls over his face, masquerading on his eyes as his hips put in the work for your pussy. He looks so pretty like that, flushed red, breathless, as he stuffs you repeatedly with his cock.

“Ahhhh, so big~” You could only moan and clench around his member, the movements making your boobs jiggle, and Zayne couldn't help but grope one of them—giving attention to the other by going down on his mouth. You just looked so pretty under him, so messy and good at taking his cock.

“My pretty girl” he huffs while bucking his hips into you.

Then he remembers that you probably had sex before him, and you have experienced other guys. And something deep within him tears its ugly head. Zayne suddenly had a primal urge to claim you, to make sure from now on, you're showing this lewd face to him and only him. 

He was jealous and it wasn't a good feeling.

He pounds his cock faster, pouring all the anger he has into vigor. You scratch his back as Zayne goes feral at a fast pace fucking his cock back into your hole. You thrash in his arms from the pleasure, wanting to run away because the dick was too good. But his strong arms cage you in place as he ruts like an animal in heat. 

His hand suddenly flicks on your clit, pinching the bud to edge you closer to your orgasm. He wanted to make you finish first, to feel your cum coating his length before he releases. 

Your nerves were set on fire just as you think your brain is fried from too much dick. You wanted nothing but to cum and release the knot forming on your lower abdomen. He pumps exactly at a target in a frenzied state, balls swinging against your skin. Zayne continued to grunt, letting out the manliest sounds you've ever heard.

“Z-zayne I'm Cumming—Hahhh!!!” You scream as your eyes roll to the back of your head, cunt spasming and dripping around his girth, body shivering from how hard it was. You feel like floating on cloud nine as Zayne leans down to kiss your neck, leaving hickeys in his wake. 

“That's a good girl. Now take this.” 

His pace gradually falters and he slides in one last powerful thrust before exploding his cum and flooding the condom. You cried out as he did small jerks of his hips to ride out his high while cumming buckets. You fear some cum may have slipped out but you didn't care to voice it out.

Zayne learned that it wasn't good to make you oversensitive so as soon as he finished, he took out his softening cock and watched your abused cunt close. He thinks It might have been his favorite sight.

The night ends with you receiving aftercare, drinking water, and cleaning up in the bathroom to make yourselves clean for bed. You didn't even know Zayne changed the sheets, which explains why he left the tub faster. 

But as you lay in his bed with his arms wrapped around you, there wasn't any semblance of reprieve because of your anxiousness about the arrangement. 

Sooner or later he would find out and everything would come crashing down. You'd go back to your own life, paying expenses thanks to the money you received while Zayne would also go on and continue to med school, fuck a few girls since he already had a taste with a girl who duped him for money. 

Just thinking about that brings tears to your eyes. No, you don't wanna be separated from Zayne. You wanted whatever you had with him despite having no label. 

You tried to tell him the truth a few times but fear got the better of you and you find yourself backtracking, saying something else, and laughing it off. Every moment was precious with Zayne, you couldn't cut his smiles short—it would break your heart to wipe off the soft love on his face. 

So you did nothing but let time run its course.

Zayne soon expressed his want for you to meet his family. He feels like he's known you for a lifetime despite meeting just that summer. So you took his offer and had lunch with his parents who tried their best to act as if they first saw you that day. The food was delicious yet the whole dining experience was painful. You and his parents lying to his face made you unable to stomach the food very well. So you left the house and went to their garden, gazing at the flowers that you knew Zayne himself planted. 

He was looking around for you, sighing since you didn’t tell him where you ran off. He was about to ask his parents in the dining room when he accidentally eavesdropped on a conversation that made him stop in his tracks. 

“Well that was awkward, can you believe our son actually fell in love with her? I mean, she’s pretty skilled”

He wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“This isn’t what I was expecting when we hired her. I think we need to end this arrangement soon. I’ll give her the money before this situation blows up.”

He couldn’t fucking believe it. 

Skilled? Hired? Money? It didn’t take an intelligent man to connect the dots as the conversation went on. Every word that came out of their mouth froze his heart and shattered it like glass. Anger, hurt, and confusion overwhelmed him for the first time in his life. He found it hard to stabilize his breathing. He couldn’t help but let hatred cover his eyes as he stormed into the dining room.  

“Is what you’re saying true? You hired a girl to seduce me?” he demanded, voice shaking with emotion as his parents looked very much terrified to see him there. He didn’t want to believe it was true, but as the seconds went by it was all becoming clear that this was a big fat farce all along. Zayne didn’t know what hurt but he knew he’d been played by the people he loved. And that was all it took for him to break his promise of never raising his voice at his parents. 

“Is it true?!” he roared and to see his mother flinch hurt him but at that moment, Zayne was the victim. 

“Zayne, darling let me explain—”  

“Why?” 

His mother breathed out. “We thought it would be good for you. We wanted to let you have some fun since I feel like you’re constantly buried in books! You need to take some time to socialize too!”

He could only pinch the bridge of his nose as he steeled his mouth in case he said something he could not go back on.

“This conversation isn’t over yet” he uttered coldly, leaving his parents guiltily mulling over their actions.  

Overcome by the need to confront you, he walks in long strides to the garden. He honestly does not know what he wants to hear from you. Apologies? Explanation? He doesn’t know but his feet take him to you and destroy your peaceful moment. 

He sees your figure basking in rays of afternoon sun, checking on the flowers he planted. He stops and stares before storming and grabbing your wrist to make you face him. You meet his face in shock, body tensing from the dangerous aura he was emitting. His hazel eyes were swirling with hurt and you knew it was that time. Zayne knew how much you were playing him like a fool. 

“Is it true?" he pants “That my parents hired you to seduce me for the summer? So that I could get with a girl and have some fun?” 

Tears flowed from your eyes as you nodded shakily, accepting your fate. He was disgusted by how easily you admitted it. Was it that easy for you?  

“I want to hear it from you. Speak before I kick you out” he spat out with so much venom that it wrecked sobs from you. Zayne hated hearing you cry just as he hated how this was such a cruel game you played. 

“Zayne, it was all real. I swear! My feelings are real. It’s true that I accepted a deal with your parents for money but you have to know that I needed it!” You feel like ripping your hair out just to make him believe you. You were so desperate to not be a villain in his eyes. “And what I feel for you is real! I love you and I’m so sorry that I did this to you.” You sobbed, holding your face in your hands as you wiped the overflowing tears that clouded your vision. 

You took a step forward and he took a step back, reflecting the hurt in your eyes. 

“How do I believe you now? How do I know this is still not an act?” 

“I don’t know…” You shook your head, mind at a loss for words. “I just know that it would kill me to be separated from you.”

Zayne could hear the desperation in your voice and it was constantly stabbing at his heart. He longed to believe and touch you, but the pain of deception stung deep. 

He took a deep breath and calmed himself. “Who are you? Do you have any other name?”

You whip your head in shock, shaking your head frantically. “No! (y/n) is my real name! Everything I told you is real!” 

He stood frozen so you took your chance to explain, fighting the cries that shook your body. 

“I love you. I-I wanted to give my body to the guy I love and it’s you. It was my first time having sex with you! I’m not some vixen who sleeps around. I’m just me!—a college student in need of money. Believe me, I beg you.”

It honestly didn’t matter to him if the girl he loved had his first time with him or not, he loved her regardless. But when you say it like that, he knew that trusting him with your virginity must have meant a great deal to you. That almost made him want to hug you but the rational part of his mind begged him to have some dignity. 

“You broke my trust” he exhaled, barely above a whisper. “You have no idea how much pain I’m feeling. But I love you…and it would kill me if you weren’t around.”

You take a step forward and grasp his hand to place on top of your heart, making him feel how much it beats for him. 

He’s entranced to feel your racing heart, a testament to your love. This gesture was enough to repair a piece of his shattered heart. 

He uses your interlocked hands to pull you into his arms, burying your face on his chest. You snuggled close as warm tears fell slowly on your cheeks.

“I don’t wanna leave” you cried softly. 

“You’re not leaving until you make me trust you again. And if I trust you again, I won’t let you leave.” 

You nod and ask, “What do you want me to do?”

Zayne cleared his thoughts even if his emotions were a mess. But he was an intelligent and rational man, he was able to think clearly in times of distress and he knew what needed to be done. He knows how you’ll pay for your sins. 

“From now on, I want you to be honest with me. No lies or secrets between us. Tell me everything you feel because I want your full transparency.”   

It was a light sentence and you were eternally grateful to the forgiveness he showed you. Because you'd die if he didn’t.   

“I will. So let’s start on a clean slate please.” you grip his shirt, signaling him your desperation. “I’ll be that girl you met in the park. And you have to believe me when I say I loved you every step of the way. I-I won’t even take the money if it means proving my feelings are real.”

Zayne shook his head as he caressed your hair. ‘Take the money and promise me you won’t leave me. Don’t put yourself in a situation like this just for some money. If you need some, then ask me.”

“What?”

“If you need support I’ll be there to help you in any way I can. All I ask is for you to do the same for me.” 

“Of course I will!” Your voice came out louder than intended and he smiled, yet not like he used to.  

“But you’ll move to Harvard soon for med school? How-how are we going to do this?”

Zayne’s face fell at the mention of his move at the end of his vacation. He hadn’t forgotten but it was a reminder that summer was nearing its end. He had to settle all affairs before treading on a new chapter in his life. 

He sighed, arms still around you. “Long distance isn’t easy, and I don’t know how we’ll do it.” 

Fear crept into you like a snake dampening your mood.    

“But,” he continued with a promising tone. “I’m not giving up on us. I won’t let a little distance come between us. We’ll make it work.”

‘We’ll make it” 

“We will” 

He whispers in your ears, kissing the top of your head, and bathing himself with the love that he receives from you. 

You feared a second chance wouldn’t last long but if anything were the testament to your unbreakable bond with Dr. Zayne, it would be the family photo with you and the kids, standing nicely on his office desk.