menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Crimson chide: Harvard makes the case against itself

7 7
19.04.2025

Harvard faculty members are finally upset about free speech and viewpoint intolerance. Hundreds of professors signed a letter of outrage over what they called an attack on the "rights of free expression, association, and inquiry” in higher education.

The cause for this outcry is the threat to end the university's tax exempt status, freezing federal grants, and other punitive measures. Some of those measures raise serious concerns over academic freedom and free speech.

The problem is that Harvard faculty members have spent decades denying those rights to teachers and students alike.

There is an almost comical lack of self-awareness among Harvard faculty members who express concern about protecting viewpoint diversity and academic integrity. The letter gives off that same queasy feeling as when CBS morning host Gayle King insisted she is an astronaut, just like Alan Shepard, due to her 10-minute jaunt in space on the Blue Origin. One is just left speechless, looking awkwardly at one's shoes.

Many of these signatories have been entirely silent for years as departments purged their ranks of conservatives to create one of the most perfectly sealed-off echo chambers in all of higher education. Harvard ranks dead last for free speech, awarded a 0 out of 100 score last year by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. There has been no outcry about this from most of these professors.

There has long been a culture of intolerance at Harvard. Just last month, Harvard Professor Timothy McCarthy called upon the university to fire any any faculty who do not support the use of “gender-affirming care” on children.

Just last year, the........

© The Hill