{"id":132139,"date":"2023-08-11T00:05:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T04:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=132139"},"modified":"2023-08-10T17:34:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T21:34:22","slug":"harvard-professor-bullied-into-resigning-from-oil-company-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/harvard-professor-bullied-into-resigning-from-oil-company-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard professor bullied into resigning from oil company board"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activists succeed in pushing out an advocate for their cause<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A Harvard University law professor incentivized climate activists to continue bullying academics by resigning from an advisory board of ConocoPhillips.<\/p>\n

Professor Jody Freeman, a former climate change adviser to President Barack Obama, caved and announced she would no longer advise the oil company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stepped off the ConocoPhillips board to focus on my research at Harvard and make space for some new opportunities,\u201d Professor Freeman (pictured<\/em>) wrote<\/a> on her personal website Aug. 3.<\/p>\n

The College Fix<\/em> emailed Freeman on Wednesday to ask if any professors reached out to her to show support and if she had concerns her resignation would encourage further cancellation attempts. The Fix<\/em> received an automatic response indicating that replies would be \u201cslower than usual to reply for the rest of August.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said in her note that she wanted to focus on Harvard\u2019s environmental law program, which she directs. \u201cI learned a lot from my decade-long board service, [I] think I made a positive difference, and am glad I did it. I will continue to engage in work beyond the university to address climate change and promote clean energy,\u201d echoing prior comments she made.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urgently need to enlist everyone \u2013 government, business, investors, technologists, consumers, activists, and yes, even fossil fuel producers \u2013 in this challenge,\u201d Freeman previously wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That reasonable position did not satiate Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard which demanded that Freeman resign her position to \u201csend a clear message that fossil fuel expansion is not the path of a responsible actor,\u201d according to an open letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would protect Harvard \u2014 and yourself \u2014 from exposure to an industry on the wrong side of history and science,\u201d the group wrote. \u201cAnd you would support Harvard\u2019s broader movement towards dissociation from fossil fuels,\u201d the letter stated, as previously reported by The Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> reached out to the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, which formed<\/a> in the spring to support \u201cunconventional thinkers, oddballs, and nonconformists,\u201d according to co-founder Professor Harry Lewis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen necessary, we will also hold the university accountable so that it lives up to its stated principles,\u201d history Professor Flynn Cratty stated at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will help ensure that campus leaders respect Harvard\u2019s commitments to academic freedom,\u201d Cratty stated. \u201cWe will protest if those freedoms are violated. We will also provide solidarity with Harvard scholars who are threatened with penalty because of their speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Mass shootings linked to ‘structural racism’ professors say<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> contacted the seven listed leaders of the group via one email thread on Wednesday and asked if the professors individually or the council planned to release a statement on bullying of their colleague by climate activists.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> also asked if professors should be defended when their academic work intersects with corporate relationship and if there is anything else about the situation that would be worth knowing.<\/p>\n

“This is the first I\u2019ve heard of it,” Professor Steven Pinker told\u00a0The Fix<\/em> in an individual response.<\/p>\n

He continued:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll raise it with my co-presidents, though I suspect that since it is a personal decision, made subsequent to the airing of arguments, \u00a0and not coerced by illiberal measures like boycotts, administration pressure, sanctions, demands for resignation, and the like, it would not appear to be an issue of academic freedom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“My own view is this is not really an academic freedom question,” Professor Jeannie Gersen told The Fix<\/em>. “I agree,” Professor Jeffrey Flier responded to Gersen’s group response. Professor Jane Kamensky agreed as well.<\/p>\n

Professor Harry Lewis responded to the group email as well in a message that appeared to be directed to his colleagues and not to The Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“Leading the question with ‘bullying’ seemed unprofessional,” Professor Lewis wrote.<\/p>\n

“While reading more to decide whether to take the bait, I realized that I needed to figure out what was disclosed and whether the underlying question might be if academics are entitled to have their research reputation survive suspicion of bias in such cases,” he said of\u00a0The Fix<\/em> question. “And that got me wondering how…business schools think about such questions. And then I remembered that I am on vacation and punted,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“But it (and the Gino case) remind me to ask: who do we have from HBS? That really is a different world. Reggie Herzlinger, I wonder what she would say to this,” he wrote. “Gino” is probably in reference to Harvard business ethics professor Francesca Gino, who allegedly fabricated<\/a> data in some of her studies. Gino has filed a defamation lawsuit<\/a> against the university, the dean of the business school and the three professors who made the accusations.<\/div>\n
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“Doesn\u2019t look that way to me, either,” Professor Edward Hall wrote. He told The Fix<\/em> to “feel free” to share “evidence that suggests there\u2019s an academic freedom issue here.”<\/div>\n

Cratty, the executive director, did not respond.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Check out the Campus Cancel Culture Database<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Harvard Law School\/YouTube<\/p>\n

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