Harvard
News from on the ground at Harvard.
Harvard Canceled its Best Black Professor. Why?
A 25-minute documentary on Harvard’s Roland Fryer, recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.
BFFR
A Harvard student laments the borrowing of a Black-originating phrase by white people and goes on to cite other instances of theft and borrowing by whites, including the over-purchasing of a hair product for Black women, use of African-American Vernacular English, “wearing a slick bun with chunky gold hoops” and wearing lip gloss with brown lip liner.
Overseer Candidates’ Harvard Priorities [Freedom of Expression Notably Absent]
In January 2023, Harvard Magazine asked the nominated Harvard Board of Overseer candidates about the most important challenges facing Harvard. FAIR HA+ has reviewed the unedited responses and compiled a short summary of the candidates’ views on free speech and related issues. Most concerning—freedom of expression and academic freedom proliferate higher ed news and are a significant concern for members of the Harvard community, yet aren’t mentioned by the candidates.
Kenneth Roth’s Reward for Slandering Israel
After outcries over academic freedom, HKS reversed its decision not to award a fellowship to Kenneth Roth, the former director of Human Rights Watch. Green asks the question of whether the truth is inverted— “If there is a crisis of free speech on campus today, Mr. Roth isn’t its victim. If anything, he and Human Rights Watch are among its instigators.”
Harvard Undergraduate Association Votes to Approve DEI Team
The HUA approved the creation of a new DEI Board during a constitutional review meeting. “‘This is a personal and professional priority of ours to ensure that DEI and inclusion efforts are enshrined in the HUA constitution,’ [HUA co-president Travis A. Johnson ’24] said in an interview with The Crimson.”
Harvard Reverses Course on Human Rights Advocate Who Criticized Israel
HKS “reversed course…and said it would offer a fellowship to a leading human rights advocate it had previously rejected, after news of the decision touched off a public outcry over academic freedom, donor influence and the boundaries of criticism of Israel.” HKS Dean Elmendorf “said his decision had been an ‘error’ and the school would be extending an invitation to Roth,” who was the former director of Human Rights Watch.
Harvard Medical School Joins Boycott of U.S. News Rankings
Dr. George Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine at HMS, explains that “rankings cannot meaningfully reflect the high aspirations for educational excellence, graduate preparedness, and compassionate and equitable patient care that we strive to foster in our medical education programs.”
Declensions in Decline: Parsing the International Push for Gender Neutral Language
In a biting piece, the authors show how the attempt to colonize foreign language with Western gender ideology is on the march through the pronoun wars (“not even prepositions will feel safe”), starting off in a first lesson in a Harvard Portuguese class dedicated to gender-neutral pronouns in which words new to the language are introduced. “As usual, the English-speaking world doesn’t need to invent something—be it gunpowder, opium, or gender dysphoria—to become its most successful exporter.”
HKS Podcast: Harvard Students Are Afraid About Their Future
An editor at the Harvard Salient, William Brown, joins HKS Education Next’s Paul E. Peterson to discuss the revival of the Salient and the publication’s efforts to bring an undergraduate conservative viewpoint to Harvard University.
Voter Suppression, Harvard-Style
Former Dean of Harvard College and Professor of Computer Science, Harry Lewis, along with Bill Gasarch, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland at College Park, co-author a blog post walking readers through the laborious and labyrinthian process of attempting to nominate (by petition) Harvey Silverglate for the Harvard Board of Overseers. As Lewis explains, “This is an account of Bill’s trip through the resulting electronic purgatory.”
Professors Halley and Gersen help lead Academic Freedom Alliance.
AFA has grown to nearly 700 faculty members since 2011, including 11 from HLS. HLT interviews HLS Professors Janet Halley, chair of AFA’s Academic Committee, and Jeannie Suk Gersen ’02, member of AFA’s Legal Advisory Council, about why they think academic freedom is under threat and what they hope to do about it. “It’s about protecting the pursuit of knowledge, and fostering an atmosphere at colleges and universities in which ideas can be followed without fear that you’ll be punished.”
The China Trap
Crimson writer Palys acknowledges recent protests against the Chinese government’s human rights abuses, explaining that “Perhaps, some may hope, this is finally the moment: At last, America can act to support protestors and topple our great authoritarian opponent.” What seems like it might be an article supporting possible change within China, the piece takes a sharp turn, calling on America to “stop throwing pity parties” and upon Harvard to “set a shining example” of collaboration with China, including re-establishment of Harvard’s presence on the mainland and cooperation with China “founded on cultural exchange and the free flow of information.”
Fire Them All
In an unsparing piece, Anderson ‘25 calls for the elimination of Harvard’s administrative bloat through cuts and taxes. Anderson documents that Harvard has “filled its halls with administrators…for every academic employee there are approximately 1.45 administrators” and “when only considering faculty, this ratio jumps to 3.09. Harvard employs 7,024 total full-time administrators, only slightly fewer than the undergraduate population.” Anderson’s solution to “outrageously expensive” tuition? “Cut the bloat. Knock on every office door and fire anyone who does not provide significant utility” [and] tie “tax-free status and grants to responsible spending,” plus tax the $53B endowment.
Nearly 250 Harvard Affiliates Sign ‘Free Speech’ Petition Addressed to University Presidential Search Committee
Nearly 250 Harvard affiliates have already signed the open letter to the University's Presidential Search Committee to nominate a candidate who “actively affirms the importance of free speech on campus.” According to The Crimson, “More than 200 students, 31 alums, and 11 faculty members signed the letter, per a copy of the petition.”
Disparity Doesn’t Necessarily Imply Racism
Harvard professor Fryer recounts having his assumptions on racial inequality upended — It “felt like an attack on what I knew…that racism—present-tense racism—dictated black-white inequality.” Fryer acknowledges the risk of underestimating bias, but also overstating it—”A black kid who believes he will face daunting societal obstacles is likely to underinvest in trying to climb society’s rungs.” As a scholar committed to truth, Fryer concludes, “Disparity doesn’t necessarily imply racism. It may feel omnipresent, but it isn’t all-powerful.”
Have the Anticapitalists Reached Harvard Business School?
Emma Goldberg documents new ways of thinking at business schools, including HBS, where “students are also learning about corporate social obligations and how to rethink capitalism.” On a blackboard, an HBS professor writes a string of words to spark discussion: “Capitalism. Scarcity. Inequality.” Goldberg writes that “assumptions long woven into the syllabus are open for questioning: the wisdom of maximizing profits, the idea that America’s version of capitalism is functioning properly.”
Musician esperanza spalding Departs Harvard
A Grammy Award-winning music professor has decided to leave Harvard “after multiple conversations…about implementing her ‘Black Artist-Educators Decolonizing and Placemaking (BAEDAP)’ model…[in which] Harvard would ‘rematriate’ some of its land and buildings…[for] ‘Black and Native artists, scholars, students, activists, and cultural workers’” with a goal to “move beyond metaphorical commitments to decolonial education…and reparations…to restructure and remediate the historical and lingering colonial impacts” of Harvard, whose “origin, political history, and economic foundation [are] inextricably linked to Black and Native subjugation.”
FAIR Advisor and HLS Alum Monica Harris (JD ‘91) Explains Why She Joined FAIR’s Team
In an event held in October 2022, FAIR Advisor and HLS Alum Monica Harris (JD ‘91) describes why she joined FAIR’s team. It’s a powerful statement that reflects why we exist as an Harvard chapter. “It’s like I have been wandering in the desert alone and I have found my tribe.” Monica speaks about being on Law Review with Obama and what happened in the 15 years following that upended her world.
Yale and Harvard Law Unrank Themselves
The Editorial Board argues that the latest move by Harvard Law School and Yale Law School is “what appears to be a flight from merit and transparency” in anticipation of the SCOTUS ruling on affirmative action this spring.
A Conservative Magazine Returns to Harvard
Harvard’s Salient gets the spotlight by Harvard professor emerita Ruth Wisse. Focusing on the Salient’s recent issue on feminism, Wisse hails the students as “patient warriors” who use “rational argument, rather than conservative politics narrowly defined and aggressively pursued” and whose “writing is reflective, their spirit affirmative, and their intellectual independence confident.”