Is Harvard Campus Conversation Constrained?
An important read on free discourse at Harvard with a focus on the new Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard with mention of a University-supported Intellectual Vitality Committee. The piece details efforts to ensure intellectual vitality is both supported and ingrained in an institution dedicated to the pursuit of truth.
When we launched FAIR HA+, there was very little being written on academic freedom, civil discourse, freedom of expression and intellectual diversity at Harvard. Now, with at least three Harvard-focused organizations formed around these issues, including the April 2023 faculty-led launch of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, the conversation has come to the fore. The article focuses on the Council’s launch, a seminal moment in supporting academic freedom at Harvard.
“Though still in the early stages of organization…which describes itself as ‘diverse in politics, demographics, disciplines, and opinions,’ [it] plans to conduct surveys and offer workshops, lectures, and courses on academic freedom.” In addition, “Members of the group…would like to see a University-wide statement that commits all of Harvard to such principles.”
As for Harvard’s leadership, the article reports on an Intellectual Vitality Committee that Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard College, has been meeting with for two years. In addition, “Members of Harvard’s governing boards report being aware of these concerns: ‘Harvard is taking this very seriously,’ Board of Overseers president Meredith Hodges ’03, M.B.A. ’10, told the Harvard Gazette in May… ‘As a board, we’ve been hearing testimony directly from faculty and directly from students—having this access allows the board to see the challenges in the most clear-eyed way.”
