The “Harvard of the Midwest” editorial in The Daily Eastern News on Sept. 7 was the best editorial the paper has had in quite some time.

The editorial strongly rebuked Eastern’s administration for proclaiming on its Web site that the university has been called “The Harvard of the Midwest.”

As the editorial indicated, the statement is absurd and ridiculous. The editorial was headlined: “The Harvard of untrue boasts.”

One person commented to me that Eastern must either be desperate to pat itself on the back or maybe it just shows a “lack of class” on the part of the administration.

Your readers might be interested in the actual origin of all of this.

Several years ago a state senator from northern Illinois, while visiting the Eastern campus, made a remark to the effect that the university is “the Harvard of the Midwest.”

However, he almost certainly was not serious and was simply engaging in friendly banter designed to please the ears of Eastern’s administrators.

If, in fact, he was serious I challenge him to make that remark in speeches all over the state, on the floor of the General Assembly in Springfield, and on campuses throughout the state.