Harvard University announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would no longer comment as an institution on issues that do not relate to its “core function” following the controversies surrounding the school's statements on the massacre of October 7 and the subsequent war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization.
Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber wrote in an email that Harvard would adopt the recommendation of a working group that the school not “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function.”
“There will be close cases where reasonable people disagree about whether a given issue is or is not directly related to the core function of the university,” the report by the Institutional Voice working group stated. “The university’s policy in those situations should be to err on the side of avoiding official statements.”
The report further advised that when students make controversial statements on public issues, such as the student statement blaming Israel for the massacre committed by Hamas, "the university should clarify that they do not speak for the university and that no one is authorized to speak on behalf of the university except the university’s leadership.”
Garber said, “The process of translating these principles into concrete practice will, of course, require time and experience, and we look forward to the work ahead."
Harvard University has come under fire over its handling of antisemitism on campus, which has been on the rise since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Shortly after the war began, a coalition of 34 Harvard student organizations released a statement in which they blamed Israel for Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Later, then-Harvard President Claudine Gay came under fire after she, along with MIT President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, testified before a congressional hearing on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses.
All three university presidents gave similar answers to Rep. Elise Stefanik in which they failed to unequivocally condemn antisemitism or even calls for genocide against Jews.
Gay later resigned as President of Harvard amid the backlash over her congressional testimony on antisemitism. She subsequently claimed she was the target of a sustained campaign of lies and personal insults.
Gay later resigned as President of Harvard amid the backlash over her congressional testimony on antisemitism. She subsequently claimed she was the target of a sustained campaign of lies and personal insults.
The antisemitism controversies at Harvard continued after Gay's resignation. In February, a pro-Palestinian faculty group posted an antisemitic cartoon depicting a hand with a dollar sign in the center of a Star of David holding former Egyptian President Gamal Nasser and legendary boxer Muhammad Ali by their necks in nooses reminiscent of puppet strings.
Six Jewish students are suing Harvard, accusing the school of allowing its campus to become a bastion of rampant antisemitism.