Recent controversy over Heritage Foundation report on immigration ignited debate over whether Harvard should have approved a dissertation that claimed an IQ deficit for Hispanics.

Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed has the details:

Debate over a new Heritage Foundation report critical of proposed change in immigration laws has set off scrutiny and criticism of Harvard University for approving a dissertation in 2009 by one of the report’s authors.

Some critics say that the dissertation’s suggestion of a long-term gap in the IQs of Hispanic immigrants and their descendants and the IQs of other groups is based on discredited theories that have been used to justify many forms of discrimination over the years. And they question how Harvard could award a Ph.D. based on such a dissertation. Jason Richwine, the Harvard Ph.D. in question, resigned from Heritage on Friday.

Twenty-three student organizations at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, which awarded the Ph.D., issued a joint letter Friday questioning the legitimacy of the dissertation that was awarded to Richwine.

…Harvard is standing by the process under which the dissertation was awarded — while leaving to others to debate its findings.

“I most certainly understand that this issue, as reported, troubles many people,” said a statement released by David T. Ellwood, dean of the Kennedy School. “First, the views and conclusions of any graduate of this school are theirs alone, and do not represent the views of Harvard or the Kennedy School. Second, all Ph.D. dissertations are reviewed by a committee of scholars. In this case, the committee consisted of three highly respected and discerning faculty members who come from diverse intellectual traditions. Finally and most importantly, it is vital that an active and open debate of ideas occur in universities and beyond them. Scholars and others who disagree with particular ideas or methods or who are unhappy with conclusions can and must openly engage in reasoned discussion and criticism, after looking fully and carefully at the work. It is through ongoing vigorous give and take that good ideas will ultimately emerge and weaker ones can be displaced.”

While the Heritage Foundation report on immigration was controversial from the start, the uproar over Richwine started when The Washington Post reported on his dissertation….The full dissertation is now available online at The Huffington Post, and critics have noted that its references include researchers whose work on race and intelligence have ignited past controversies — people such as Charles Murray and J. Philippe Rushton.