Chanequa Campbell (c. 1988- ) was a student at Harvard who did not get her degree in 2009 because the university says she committed some wrongdoing but will not say what it is, nor have they charged her with a crime.
On May 18th 2009 Justin Cosby, one of Harvard’s top suppliers of marijuana, was robbed and shot dead in the basement of Kirkland House at Harvard. The accused killer is Jordan Copney. Neither one is a student at Harvard, so someone let them into the building. Kirkland is where Campbell lived.
Harvard says Campbell knew both men. They also say that someone gave Copney a student card to get into the building, but does not say who.
Campbell says it was not her card, that she did not take part in the shooting and knows nothing about it. She says she does not know Cosby and has never dealt drugs. She does, however, know Copney, the accused killer: a close friend of hers, Brittany Smith, a straight arrow, was his girlfriend. She too has been denied her degree but so far has not made her story public.
Copney is a songwriter from Harlem, the son of a retired police officer. He turned himself in and says he is not guilty.
Five days after the murder Campbell got a letter from Harvard. It told her to move out and that she was not going to get her degree – just weeks before she was to graduate. The letter says the university police have been informed of some wrongdong committed by her but does not say what it is.
Campbell says she is being singled out because:
I’m black and I’m poor and I’m from New York and I walk a certain way and I keep my clothes a certain way. It’s something that labels me as different from everyone else.
Few blacks at Harvard support her: they seem to think that she must have done something wrong even though they cannot say what.
Although she has made some good friends at Harvard she says it has been hard because being poor and black affects how people see her and act towards her. She was becoming burnt out. She has spent much of the past two years studying in Milan, Italy instead.
Campbell grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a poor, black part of New York. She admires August Wilson, who had the same sort of beginnings. She says “I love where I come from. I love being ‘from the hood’.”
She did well at school and got into a programme, Prep for Prep, that helped to get her into a good high school. She got lupus and for a while had to walk with a cane and could not go out in the sun. She became a National Merit Scholar, won scholarships from the New York Times (one of 21 that year), Goldman Sachs and Coca-Cola and went on to Harvard, where she studied sociology.
She is now back in Brooklyn.
See also:
First time hearing about this young lady.
There was an article in the Boston Globe which chronicled the complexities of being a low-income student at Harvard.
I’ve heard some horror stories about low-income to lower-middle-class kids who go to “elite” private institutions. The classism (and racism) is out of this world.
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*kisses*
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interesting, that is messed up they should atleast give her a reason
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Where did she go to get her surgery, cause that is definitely a man.
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Found this article.. the comments are interesting:
http://gawker.com/5270498/harvard-student-kicked-off-campus-in-connection-with-drug-killing
Obama’s Alma Mater is doing this to her because:
“I’m black and I’m poor and I’m from New York..”
Hmmm… they may be holding here degree until the investigation is finished. I tend to think Harvard would have consulted a few lawyers before taking the action that they did.
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As I read more about this particular story, I get the impression that Miss Campbell is a good girl who got mixed up with the wrong crowd (Brittany Smith and co.). Now, I think she’s facing the heat for something that she wasn’t entirely connected to.
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This sounds like one of those unfortunate circumstances where the matter is being tried in the media, using tidbits of out-of-context information, together with large amounts of speculation and gossip. The truth almost never comes of such matters.
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I read some of those comments at Gawker – and also at the Boston Globe. Most of them say one of two things:
1. Campbell is playing the race card.
2. Harvard must have a good reason.
The first one is a white way of saying that Harvard is not racist.
The second one puts faith in a powerful institution that is hiding something and acting in an authoritarian manner.
To punish someone for unnamed charges is like what they do in North Korea or Stalinist Russia. So, no, Harvard does not merit my trust.
I would hope that Harvard has a very good reason for its actions, one that will come to light in due time, but at this point I have little reason to take its word over hers.
Harvard’s actions make sense to me in one of two ways:
1. They are being arrogant douchebags. Because they can.
2. They know something so shocking about Campbell that to make it public now before they are sure would amount to slander and yet to give her her degree will make them look brainless when the truth comes out.
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1) i buy arrogant docuebag – thats my vote.
2) She may be playing race card or they may be behaving racist…need more info
3) Shes a poor student…who attends harvard? Who spent last two years studing in ITALY!!!!
Poor – italy – how does that work?
I didnt qualify for any scholorships to attend harvard and I sure as hell couldnt afford italy for two years. I worked days, went to school nights at a community college (and will some day get my degree when my children or older)
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You can be poor and go to an Ivy League university. It is one of the beautiful things about America.
She won at least three scholarships and, according to one press report, worked four jobs.
I think she has a boyfriend in Italy. He might have been paying her airfare.
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well then that makes sense then…i was just like “italy sounds expensive”
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To punish someone for unnamed charges is like what they do in North Korea or Stalinist Russia.
Or my Condo association.. there are petty tyrants everywhere….like or not in a case as serious as this a private educational institution has the right to behave in this manner. It appears they haven’t punished her yet, they are withholding her degree and barring her from campus until the investigation is complete. Ms. Campbell, if they render a decision against her, has the right to take them to court.
Re:Gawker
“Most of them say one of two things”
The majority of the comments at Gawker did not say either of those two things (although there were a few along those lines..) they were more balanced, including some that claimed they knew Ms. Campbell, I didn’t read any at the Boston Globe.
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Sorry, I stand corrected: about a third of the Gawker comments and 40% of the ones I read at the Globe fall under my two heads (Campbell is crying racism, I trust Harvard).
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There is a third possibility: Harard knows something bad about her and is being discreet, giving her an opportunity to save face by discreetly backing off. I could speculate about other possibilities as well.
I’ve poked around at various comment sites and, so far as I can tell the vast majority of what is being said out there is sheer speculation.
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I’m a fellow member of Prep for Prep, the organization which helped Chanequa get to her independent school, and ultimately to Harvard. Chanequa was an adviser my first and second summers in the program and helped me immensely in mathematics and Latin while in the program. Though she was not my adviser nor had I ever been in her “unit”, she still took me under her wing and shaped me into the Prep for Prep student I wanted to be. She helped me with my basketball game, and was there for me constantly like a big sister. Chanequa is an amazing person, and though this may be biased towards her, I thoroughly that if any wrongdoing on her part are in fact true, she deserves an explanation as to why she had been removed from campus and not been given the opportunity to graduate. Prep for Prep stresses four qualities in its motto: Courage, Excellence, Integrity, and Commitment. The capacity of which I know Chanequa, I feel she embodies these four simple words that have promoted our program. I still think INCREDIBLY highly of Chanequa and nothing can corrupt that.
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this story really makes me angry ., after four years of hard work , she finds herself a few weeks from graduation being told that her dream has been taken from her . simply because she knew someone that knew someone that did something . maybe she could have bought weed from the guy being her friends man but commee oonnn who hasnt done that in a college . who hasnt smoked a joint and who on earth gets theyre life taken from them for that , lets not be hipocrates, and harvard knows for a fact that it was not her card that was used to access the dorm . it is an electronic card that is registered everytime it is used so why would they refuse to state that just for the sake of making her seem more guilty .. she was in an exam at the time of the shooting . she has not been accused by anyone not even the police . yet she still remains the center of this , more than the murder itself . thats wrong , just give her her papers and her name back . ps: she did have a boyfriend in italy he took care of her there and it really doens take much to explore the world . you should explore your boundaries Dedabets, she found a way to. she deserves to be cleared of this
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From the News One link that commenter Legion provided, it says she admitted to selling drugs. This is unfortunate. If you have this magnificent opportunity to attend an ivy league school, escape your bad environment, why would you mess that up? This just crazy. It makes no sense. SMH. If this is true, because all of this is pretty sketchy. She is a bright young woman and ends up doing something stupid that would jeopardize her future is just 50 shades of stupid. There is something still fishy to me about this. There are pieces missing to this puzzle.
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@ Mary
Unfortunately, she would not be the first to do that:
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Well, I read she pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three years in prison. Academically she was successful, common sense she was stupid. Lot’s of academically gifted people, with no damn common sense. She must have some mental and emotional health isssues to put her self in this kind of situation. If you have a chance to escape your horrible environment, and you screw it up, you get what you deserve. I know that’s judgemental, but I just can’t sympathize, she had the golden ticket, and screwed herself. SMH. Maybe she needs a psychiatric evaluation, She is messed up. Wow! just Wow. The whole thing is just crazy to me. This is tragic and sad. She is academically gifted maybe she can get herself together after she is released from prison. In prison she will have lots of time to think about her mistake. I hope she get’s it together.
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@ Mary
I know people like her, too many, who seem to have everything going for them, who have a golden ticket out and then, against all common sense, shoot themselves in the foot.
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@mary burrell: If she had mental issues that deserves sympathy not the opposite because nobody chooses to have them, it’s illness that needs treatment, saying no sympathy is like saying no sympathy to someone with cancer. If she had a totally sane mind then maybe you’d be right.
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Chanequa was a major drug dealer at Harvard who smoked weed everyday with Jabori in her dorm room. This chick is no angel. She sold cocaine and ecstasy. Racism had nothing to do with her not graduating. It’s obvious she really didn’t take her studies seriously
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Jabrai
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@ Ginny
Oh look, another hit-and-run troll who pops in and out like a cracked-out prairie dog. Or a half-shat turd.
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i didnt like selling coke in college, my friends ran out of weed money!
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