Did Harvard terminate a student's admission "as a result of speculating your social media accounts?" No, that's not true: The letter from "Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Education" is a hoax, a Harvard spokesperson told Lead Stories.
The claim appeared as a post (archived here) published on Facebook on August 11, 2021. It opened:
Reminder: It isn't just social media.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Aug 17 17:19:53 2021 UTC)
An email claiming to show a letter from "Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Education," with the school logo, "terminating" a student because of "speculating" their social media accounts is not real. The strangely worded email had the subject line, "Admission Status."
"This is a hoax. Harvard issued no such communications," Rachael Dane, director of media relations at Harvard told Lead Stories via email on August 17, 2021.
The letter didn't address a specific person but was generically addressed to "Dear student."
Dear student,
It is with heavy heart we inform you that you are being terminated from Harvard. This comes as a result of speculating your social media accounts and we believe that you do not transmit a good representation of the school. We wish you well in any future endeavors."
According to Harvard's website, the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct is responsible for dealing with disciplinary matters, not the Office of Undergraduate Education, which is the letterhead used in the hoax letter.
