Harvard Won’t Say if It Supports Diversity of Thought
RealClear Politics | Albert Eisenberg
Donors and alumni take note, Eisenberg warns. The reason Harvard Professor Roland Fryer’s well-funded lab remains closed even after he served a two-year suspension, he argues, is that the University does not support diversity of thought. Is Harvard trying to protect students from Fryer or students (and the world) from the inconvenient truths of Fryer’s research?
Eisenberg retells the story of Roland Fryer as documented by filmmaker Robert Montz. “Just as the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining national prominence, a witch hunt-style cancellation of Harvard’s most prominent and promising black professor was taking place…The story must be seen to be believed, because Fryer is exactly the type of academic whom elite institutions claim to champion.”
“By the late 2010s, Fryer was an academic star, a generational voice at Harvard who pushed the boundaries of academic research to the benefit of the least advantaged Americans… [However,] University administrators…were less than enchanted with Fryer’s findings and regularly attacked his work. [FAS Dean] Gay and [Deann] Bobo were among his foremost critics when Fryer’s lab found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings…”
Then, in 2018, a former research assistant accused Fryer of sexual harassment. Despite most of her claims being dismissed and a neutral committee recommending training for Fryer, “a small committee, including Deans Gay and Bobo…took the step of removing Fryer from the classroom for two years and shutting down his research lab. Dean Gay even lobbied Harvard’s president to revoke Fryer’s tenure – something that hadn’t been done at Harvard since the Civil War.”
“I asked Harvard if there was any other example in the university’s history of a tenured professor being removed from the classroom and having his research shut down,” Eisenberg explains. “The university refused to comment. Harvard also refused repeated requests for comment as to whether the university supports diversity of thought.”
As Eisenberg points out, “The Harvard Crimson reports that as of 2021, Fryer had served his two-year suspension and was back in the classroom – but his research and academic life are under the direct supervision of Dean Gay… The chill…must affect the research Fryer is now conducting – robbing his students, and the American public, of an opportunity to learn more about our most complex social problems.”
“Harvard is not alone in this campus censoriousness. But the institution is symbolic because it is America’s foremost center of learning and research. The university has suppressed its most prominent economist and now refuses to say whether it supports diversity of thought. Donors and alumni should take note.”
Related:
Harvard Canceled its Best Black Professor. Why? (documentary + related articles, podcasts)
Why Did Harvard University Go After One of Its Best Black Professors? (Quillette: 4/15/22)
Listen to the Quillette Podcast with Rob Montz (4/25/22)
Glenn Loury and Rob Montz on Roland Fryer (Megyn Kelly Podcast: 5/19/22)
When Harvard Canceled a Black Professor (Spectator World: 3/24/22)
The Truth About Roland Fryer 3/13/22: In this Substack piece, Glenn Loury writes, “Those at Harvard responsible for this state of affairs should be utterly ashamed of themselves. They have unnecessarily, heedlessly tarnished the career of an historically great economist. Again, I can't help but suspect that they have effectively buried vital research not because it was poorly done but because they found the results to be politically inconvenient. ‘Veritas’ indeed.”
Harvard Restores Prof. Fryer’s Teaching, Research Roles After Two-Year Sexual Harassment Suspension (Crimson, Oct 2021)
Harvard Closes Fryer’s Research Lab As Sanctions Take Effect (Crimson, Oct 2019)
The Case of Roland Fryer: In August 2019, Glenn Loury and John McWhorter discussed Roland Fryer and the Harvard situation.
In-Depth Investigation: Harvard, the NY Times, and the #MeToo Takedown of a Black Academic Star (RealClear Investigations, July 2019)
Star Economist at Harvard Faces Sexual Harassment Complaints (NYT 2018)
