September 30, 2022

Dear Harvard Presidential Search Committee,

We are the FAIR Harvard Alumni+ Chapter, comprising Harvard alumni, faculty, students, staff and parents of undergraduates who support the mission and principles of the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding, and humanity.

The next Harvard president will lead one of the most influential institutions in the world. At the pinnacle of higher education, Harvard is a model for other universities and influences the broader intellectual culture, institutions and citizenry. Harvard’s next president will lead a university that reaches beyond borders, with its students, alumni, collaborations and vision reflecting global impact and aspirations.

Despite Harvard’s influence and ideals, all is not well on its own soil. America is strained by a deeply divided citizenry mistrusting and intolerant of one another, its shared institutions, and, more fundamentally, what is true.  The American university—once a global beacon of free thought and unfettered inquiry—stands down as the tenets of our free society, including freedom of speech, equal protection and due process, are cast as optional or even dangerous. Within and outside academia, intolerance inhibits the freedoms foundational to liberal democracy and the pursuit of truth.

The American university, entrusted to help protect and fulfill the promise of liberal democracy, is failing in its responsibility. This failure begs an urgent question of universities, but most importantly, of Harvard: 

If not the tenets and ideals of liberal democracy, if not individual human liberty and human dignity, what is the framework or set of principles informing the University’s direction and purpose?  

The entire country, and arguably the free world, have a stake in the answer. It is a question that must be reflected upon and answered by Harvard’s governing boards prior to the selection of Harvard’s 30th president, a person who will be entrusted to lead the University through this critical period in history. 

Now is not the first time Harvard has been called upon to clarify its principles and purpose. Changes to Harvard’s motto—among them, Veritas in 1643 to In Christi Gloriam in 1650 and Veritas with Christo et Ecclesiae in 1884—reflected a university grappling with the relationship between religious morality, knowledge and truth. Religion was finally removed in 1936, leaving Veritas alone. Shortly thereafter, in the wake of civilization’s escape from global totalitarianism, Athenian democracy scholar John Finley led the writing of Harvard’s 1945 “Red Book” or General Education in a Free Society. As Harvard assumed responsibility for preventing another catastrophic threat to the free world, the Red Book stressed the University’s role in cultivating responsible human beings and citizens with shared democratic ideals (Lewis, p. 53).

Half a century later, China scholar and FAS Dean Kirby and College Dean Gross put forth a new vision for the 21st century, breaking with Harvard’s past: “As the ‘Red Book’ of the 1940s sought to outline how Harvard students should be educated as ‘citizens of a free society,’ we should aim to prepare students to live in a global society” (Lewis, p. 60). The replacement of a “free” society with a “global” one marked a fundamental untethering from democratic idealism, with profound repercussions across academia and society. Today, Harvard’s mission focuses on educating students who will serve, pursue and strive for a “better” and “more just, fair and promising world” with no mention of liberty, rights, freedom or democracy.

At this tenuous moment for the American experiment, and with the free world facing existential authoritarian threats, Harvard is again at a crossroads with an opportunity not seen since World War II.  The choice is stark:

Harvard can choose to be a globalist institution in service to collective aims for a “better” world, or clarify its position as a global institution committed to liberal democracy and a free world.  

The conflict of visions inherent in this choice is between moral relativism and liberal democratic principles—between pursuing globalist and ideological ends at the expense of rights and liberties, or reaffirming Harvard’s unwavering commitment to the values of individual human liberty and dignity ensconced in the Bill of Rights.

We believe the choice is clear. At this critical moment in history, Harvard must not be complicit in abandoning the promise of liberal democracy; rather, Harvard must stand up as a leading international institution responsible for liberal democracy’s survival and flourishing.

If Harvard accepts its responsibility, the 30th Harvard president will be chosen and lead accordingly. The next president will support the tenets and ideals of liberal democracy as guiding principles, instilling a sense of shared purpose and responsibility across the University. Leading with this clear ethical framework, the next president will affirm freedom of speech as Harvard’s highest value and the pursuit of truth—Veritas—its highest purpose. 

The next president will resolve to create a climate that celebrates and models intellectual humility, intellectual curiosity, the exchange of diverse viewpoints, the contest of ideas and civil discourse. Academic and intellectual freedom, dissent and debate will be hailed as essential to the discovery of objective truth and mutual conciliation. In championing democratic principles, civil liberties and civil rights, the next president will ensure that basic protections, including equal treatment and due process, are never sacrificed for outcomes.  

By reaffirming the University’s shared commitment to liberal democratic principles, the 30th president will elevate Harvard’s standing as a global beacon of intellectual and academic liberty and discovery, creating a cultural shift with profound implications throughout America and beyond.

In closing, we ask each one of you entrusted with the responsibility of selecting Harvard’s president to reflect on your responsibility to the University, to the Republic, and to those throughout the world whose freedoms and aspirations depend on Harvard to lead with moral courage. In an age of deep divisions, intolerance, and authoritarian threats from both within and outside the academy, now is the moment for Harvard to champion, defend, and educate future leaders and citizens in the values of liberal democracy.

In Veritas,

FAIR Harvard Alumni+ 

Informed By and Recommended Reading:

• What Universities Owe Democracy, 2021, Ronald J. Daniels, Johns Hopkins University President

• Excellence Without a Soul, 2006, Harry R. Lewis, Former Dean of Harvard College

• The Exhausted West, 1978, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Harvard Magazine and Commencement Address

• Live not by Lies,1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Referenced: Harry R. Lewis, Excellence Without a Soul (PublicAffairs, 2007)