{"id":118289,"date":"2022-12-06T00:02:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T05:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=118289"},"modified":"2022-12-06T10:10:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:10:11","slug":"next-harvard-president-must-affirm-free-speech-more-than-200-petitioners-argue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/next-harvard-president-must-affirm-free-speech-more-than-200-petitioners-argue\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Harvard president must stand up for free speech, says student, faculty and alumni petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvard has not lived up to its free speech promises, according to signatories<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next Harvard University president must champion free speech for the sake of the university\u2019s integrity and reputation, according to a new petition signed by students, faculty and alumni.<\/p>\n

There is a culture at Harvard “that is not conducive to free exchange of ideas,\u201d petition co-organizer and university undergraduate Victoria Li told The College Fix<\/em> by phone on December 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany classes are framed in specific language that discourages open inquiry, which sometimes makes debatable ideas seem undebatable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s Presidential Search Committee must select a candidate who \u201caffirms the importance of free speech for Harvard\u2019s campus climate, academic rigor, and international prestige,\u201d argues the petition, which The Fix<\/em> reviewed.<\/p>\n

More than 200 students, 31 alumni and 11 faculty members have signed it so far.<\/p>\n

Harvey Silverglate<\/a>, Harvard Board of Overseers candidate, university alumnus and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, called the free speech climate at Harvard \u201cpoor.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be no real liberal education without free speech,\u201d so \u201cyou can\u2019t say that liberal education is alive [at the university],” he wrote in an email to The College Fix.<\/em><\/p>\n

Harvard professor of government and political philosopher Harvey Mansfield<\/a> agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarvard offends against free speech with a woke administration that suffocates opposition, a faculty that refuses to hire conservative professors, and with a student body that silences diverse opinions,\u201d Mansfield, who signed the petition, told The Fix<\/em> in an email.<\/p>\n

“Harvard is so far gone that it hates itself for a false \u2018legacy of slavery.\u2019<\/a> It needs to search and revive its soul, now barely alive,” Mansfield said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The signatories addressed their letter to search committee and university alumna Penny Pritzker (pictured<\/em>), the committee\u2019s leader and senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation.<\/p>\n

Following current university President Lawrence Bacow\u2019s announcement in June that he plans to step down at the end of this academic year, the Harvard Corporation has been conducting a search for his successor, The Harvard Gazette<\/em><\/a> reported in July.<\/p>\n

Official Harvard Free Speech guidelines ‘have often been curtailed,’ resulting in ‘repression’: petitioners\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The signers argued that the university has not lived up to its stated free speech principles.<\/p>\n

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences Free Speech Guidelines<\/a>, formulated in 1990, have \u201coften been curtailed,\u201d resulting in a \u201cclimate of repression,” the petition stated.<\/p>\n

These shortfalls undermine the \u201cenvironment of open inquiry and criticism\u201d crucial to \u201cHarvard\u2019s mission to “educate citizens and citizen-leaders.”<\/p>\n

\u201cA Harvard degree is increasingly associated with emotional and intellectual fragility; some employers have even forsworn hiring Harvard graduates,\u201d the petition stated. \u201cHarvard cannot retain the world\u2019s respect if it is seen as an intellectual environment in which dissent from orthodoxy is punished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the university’s mandatory Title IX training suppresses speech by over-emphasizing the influence of personal characteristics such as race, gender, age, or size in causing sexual abuse and violence, according to the petition.<\/p>\n

Many statements and judgments about these qualities are essential to academic work, according to the petitioners.<\/p>\n

“Since virtually every proposition about the human condition, whether from the humanities, social sciences, or biomedical sciences, could be construed as unflattering to one group or another, and hence a \u2018-phobia\u2019 or \u2018system of harm,\u2019 this stigmatization can only discourage honest inquiry,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n

Other evidence of “hostility to speech” included the backlash against university biologist Carole Hooven<\/a> after claiming that there are two biological sexes and the disinvitation of philosopher Devin Buckley<\/a> for her criticism of transgender ideology, according to the signers.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> reached out to Hooven and Buckley for comment on the petition and their experiences with free speech at the university but has not received a response.<\/p>\n

‘The potential negatives of signing it are huge,’ student stated<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Petition organizers have kept most signers anonymous for their protection, according to Li.<\/p>\n

Backlash is a \u201creally legitimate concern,\u201d student and petition signer Shira Hoffer told The Crimson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The recipients of the petition did receive the names of all signatories, according to the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential negatives of signing it are huge,\u201d co-organizer Jacob Cremers, who signed publicly and spread word of the petition to undergraduates, told The Crimson<\/em>. \u201cThe negatives of not signing it are nothing. The positives of signing it are potentially zero \u2014 unless they really believe in the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cremers and his fellow organizers plan to send the petition to the Presidential Search Committee by the conclusion of the fall semester, The Crimson <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n

The College Fix\u00a0<\/em>reached out to the Harvard press office to ask for comments on the petition but has not received a response.<\/p>\n

MORE: How the mighty have fallen: Harvard was once great.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Harvard University, PSP Partners<\/p>\n

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