Students interviewing for a Rhodes Scholarship may want to leave their Make America Great Again ball caps at home.
The Rhodes, widely viewed as among the world’s most prestigious international scholarship programs, is being accused of left-wing political bias, selecting students who champion only progressive causes and embracing a “diversity, equity and inclusion” agenda at the expense of academic merit.
The 122-year-old program offers free postgraduate study for a master’s degree at Britain’s Oxford University to a select group of about 100 international students each year, including 32 Rhodes Scholars from the United States chosen in a rigorous competition conducted by the American Rhodes Trust.
Leading the anti-woke rebellion is the Rhodes Institute, an organization of previous scholars and allies, which is warning applicants to conceal any right-of-center ideological leanings in a recently released video titled, “Rhodes Scholarship: Fair or Rigged?”
“It has at this stage become common knowledge that it is very difficult to get a Rhodes Scholarship in the U.S. if you have certain racial and gender characteristics,” said the narrator as the words “white” and “man” appear on the screen.
“As an outspoken gun-rights advocate, you have no chance,” the institute continued. “If you advocate for low taxes or free speech, you will probably not get selected, regardless of how brilliant you may be.”
The bottom line: Best not mention that internship with the National Rifle Association, or any campaign door-knocking for Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Rhodes Trust, which administers the scholarship, denies that it discriminates based on race, sex or political bent, saying that the selection criteria is focused solely on “excellence of intellect and character, and potential for leadership and positive impact.”
“Our instructions to selectors make clear that committees should choose the strongest candidates purely based on merit,” said the trust in a statement to The Washington Times. “They are explicitly directed not to try to ’balance’ or seek diversity of gender, race, ideology, academic field or any other characteristic. We value individuals in our community across the whole political spectrum.”
Critics aren’t buying it. They point to the cover of Rhodes Scholar magazine’s 2021 issue, which featured drawings of students holding up fists and messages like “BLM,” “No justice, no peace,” “Decolonize the curriculum,” and “Black trans lives matter.” The issue’s theme was “No One Way to Lead.”
Dan Lubich, Rhodes Institute president and himself a Rhodes Scholar, said the ramifications go beyond whether a few right-tilting students win scholarships, given the prize’s ability to open doors in government, business, media and politics.
“It’s really astonishing how the Rhodes has been used by the political left in the United States,” Mr. Lubich said. “So many prominent analysts and politicians and commentators are Rhodes, and I think it’s not a good thing because it’s completely unbalanced.”
Left-wing ’launching pad’
Founded in 1902 by mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, the program initially admitted only students from countries within the British Empire, United States and Germany, but has since expanded to include the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
“Competition for the scholarship, now available globally through 24 constituencies, is intense,” said the trust. “For our U.S. constituency, 16 different committees interview outstanding finalists on the same day and select the two they believe best exemplify our criteria.”
The scholarship is exclusive: Only 105 students worldwide were selected for the Class of 2024.
Past American winners include former President Bill Clinton, former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
The Rhodes has also picked conservatives in the past — including former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — but Mr. Lubich said the scholarship’s leadership and recipients have been shifting leftward for decades.
“The institution has become just a launching pad for people to go into left-wing politics,” Mr. Lubich said. “And without that competition from other people, it lowers the quality in leaders.”
An American Enterprise Institute study of American Rhodes Scholars and Truman Scholars from 2019 through 2023 found that their research interests “reflect a decided leftward lean and a near absence of right-leaning thought.”
The analysis showed 56 of the American Rhodes Scholars cited at least one progressive issue among their research interests, including immigration rights, diversity and inclusion studies, racial justice, climate change and LGBTQ rights, while 21 mentioned “centrist” issues.
Only one mentioned a “conservative” research topic, according to the May report by Frederick Hess, AEI director of education policy studies, and research assistant Joe Pitts.
“While 56 Rhodes Scholars expressed interest in at least one progressive issue, just a single scholar expressed an interest in any of the conservative issues,” said the AEI report. “This single scholar who cited a conservative issue was focused on advocating for Muslims in India.”
The report concluded that the scholarship programs “need to take more seriously the challenge of recruiting students with diverse interests and perspectives.”
“This state of affairs should be a concern for programs that work closely with public institutions (or even use public funds) to cultivate an inclusive community of future civic leaders,” said the report. “This is especially true given that these leaders will confront challenges that may well require bridging stark divides in a distrustful, polarized nation.”
The scholarship originally admitted only men — the British Parliament changed the terms to admit women in 1977 — but now women dominate the list of recipients in the United States and Canada.
Since 2015, the annual class of 32 American Rhodes Scholars has featured more women than men, culminating in the 2024 class, which has 20 women and 12 men. As many as 19 of the U.S. winners are also non-white, according to an institute report.
The Rhodes Trust denied discriminating based on race or sex, saying that the “number of winners by race, gender and other characteristics varies significantly each year, as one would expect in a merit-based system.”
The interests of this year’s U.S. recipients include fossil-fuel divestment, abortion rights, the “climate crisis,” “decolonization,” “social justice,” “colonialism,” and “Black and Queer farming,” as well as pro-Palestinian activism.
Two of the U.S.honorees — Suhaas Bhat and Asmer Asrar Safi — were prevented from graduating from Harvard in May in the wake of their participation in the anti-Israel campus encampment, meaning that they will be ineligible to attend Oxford until they graduate.
Mr. Lubich said that concerns about the program’s leftward tilt date back decades, citing an applicant who was selected after keeping quiet about his involvement in Republican politics. That was about 20 years ago.
More recently, critics point to the case of Virginia Thrasher, a U.S. Rhodes finalist from West Virginia University who failed to make the cut in 2018 despite graduating summa cum laude — and winning a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 10-meter air-rifle competition.
“That’s a very rare credential,” said Mr. Lubich. “It was very odd that someone like that wouldn’t get picked, but again, from what we heard, she was more on the right politically. And there were guns involved in the sport.”
He said he wants to see more right-of-center students seek Rhodes scholarships, but added that “it’s a double-edged sword.”
“Obviously, we want more conservatives to apply and to win, but on the other hand, it’s hard to send people into a wild goose chase or into the meat grinder, knowing that if they’re open at all, they’re not going to win,” Mr. Lubich said. “The best advice you can give people is to shut your mouth about certain things. It’s sad.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.