Instead of just sitting quietly, some of the new progressive members protested, calling out the confab’s corporate viewpoints.

The reaction from new members like Reps.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) preview the less deferential approach they’ll take to being members of Congress.

Harvard’s orientation was done “in collaboration with” the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the nonpartisan foreign policy-focused Center for Strategic International Studies.

AEI and CSIS were not financial sponsors; Harvard funded the entire event. The two think tanks merely helped furnish the orientation’s panels with experts.

Still, there was no analogous partnership with a liberal group. The absence is especially striking since the overwhelming majority of new members of Congress are Democrats.

Progressive activists outside Congress and some new left-leaning freshmen within it were disappointed by the conference’s array of speakers and establishmentarian trappings.