After turmoil, Harvard students return to a changed campus
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Under the arched ceiling of a historical theater, a woodpaneled space both lofty and intimate, Harvard University students gathered on a recent evening to debate the ethics of artificial intelligence. Michael Sandel, a well-known professor of political philosophy, stepped lightly across the stage and encouraged students to disagree.
Hands shot up. The goal is not consensus, Mr. Sandel said later — and the lessons are particularly important now. “We’re steeped in toxic public discourse. So it’s especially important for colleges and universities to provide a civic education in listening, reasoning and arguing about big questions that matter.”
Students returned to Harvard’s campus last month after a turbulent and polarized start to the academic year, one punctuated by protests, a disastrous congressional hearing and the resignation of the university’s first Black president. The school has been sharply divided over the Israel-Gaza war; diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; and the limits of free expression. It has been attacked by politicians, wealthy alumni and its own students, a rare sign of vulnerability for one of the country’s most powerful and influential academic institutions.
This year, Harvard must navigate political animosity that has made higher education an attractive target, an investigation by Congress, pointed criticism of its leadership and a lawsuit by students accusing the school of rampant antisemitism.
Last week, more than a dozen students, represented by the Muslim Legal Fund of America, asked the Education Department to investigate what they said was the school’s failure to protect Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students from harassment, intimidation and assault.
And one of Harvard’s most generous donors, billionaire alumnus Ken Griffin, announced during an interview at a conference with CNBC’s Leslie Picker a pause in donations “until Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to resume their role as educating young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues.”
A question that looms is whether the school can draw on its own ideals and the collective wisdom of its people to emerge from this test stronger, or whether it — and the country — is too divided.
Students crisscrossed Harvard Yard last month, hoods up as a cold rain fell
on a campus that was outwardly calm and quiet. For some, the tensions of recent weeks and months are very raw: Some students lost family members in the war, saw friends go to fight, watched death tolls rise. Some were frightened by what they viewed as outright hostility on campus. Some risked sanctions to speak out about their convictions.
But many, less directly connected to the conflict, are focused on classes and labs and college life, eager for the controversies to end. Some were troubled by the resignation of Claudine Gay as president amid criticism of her responses to questions about antisemitism on campus and plagiarism allegations. Some have seen their own thinking about the issues evolve over time, and described reactions on campus as far more complex, and nuanced, than they may seem from the outside. And many students expressed hope for the semester ahead.
Some changes are evident: University officials made clear that disruptions to classrooms, libraries and other learning spaces will not be tolerated. Restrictions were placed on who could join a social media group that had alarmed some students with slurs posted anonymously. Alan M. Garber, Harvard’s interim president, recently announced task forces to combat antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. And the school held events aimed at fostering dialogue, including a panel with chaplains from multiple faiths, a student summit on free expression led by
PEN America, and a discussion for faculty about engaging with difficult topics in the classroom.
The dean of Harvard College, Rakesh Khurana, told students in an email as the semester began that a commitment to freedom of expression is a hallmark of higher education.
Yet students have said they don’t feel as though they can speak freely. In a survey of seniors last year, just over a third said they felt comfortable expressing opposing views about controversial topics in their classes. Only 44% said they had done that, “even when they thought it was essential to do so,” Mr. Khurana wrote. And in conversations with students, faculty and staff, he said many had told him they feared getting “canceled.”
“The purpose of a Harvard education is not to shield you from ideas you dislike or to silence people you disagree with,” Mr. Khurana said. “It is to enable you to confront challenging ideas, interrogate your own beliefs, make up your mind, and learn to think for yourself.”
It’s a national issue. In 2021, the Knight Foundation found that almost two-thirds of college students surveyed agreed that the climate at their school prevented some people from saying things they believe because others might find it offensive.
At Harvard this winter, it has urgency.
“We are at a critical moment in our University’s history,” Mr. Khurana wrote to students. “We must show in word and deed that our university is committed to
strengthening our democracy through our embrace of pluralism and tolerance.”
On the first day of classes this semester, students found that posters on campus urging the return of Israeli hostages had been defaced.
On a photo of a baby holding a toy, someone had drawn an arrow toward the child’s face and written, “HEADSTILL ON.”
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, had been hoping things would get better this semester. “I just
want to go to class,” he said. “I want to study. … But it’s just been a constant battle of facing antisemitism almost on a daily basis. … It’s just so defeating and isolating.”
Mr. Kestenbaum is one of six student plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Harvard in January charging that the school has become a “bastion of rampant antiJewish hatred and harassment.”
Marc Kasowitz, an attorney for the Jewish students, has filed similar cases against the University of Pennsylvania and New York
University. He said the problem at Harvard is rooted “in thinking that the world is divided into oppressed and oppressors.” In that view, Jews are viewed as the oppressors and the Palestinians are seen as oppressed, with resulting antisemitism — and lack of protection from the school — that is frightening many students.
A spokesman for Harvard declined to comment on the pending litigation or the Office of Civil Rights complaint filed on behalf of Muslim and pro-Palestinian students. The university announced numerous efforts this fall and winter to combat antisemitism, including increasing security on campus and forming an inclusion and belonging student leadership council that includes Jewish members. The university also has taken steps to support proPalestinian students who were doxed, and Khurana condemned Islamophobia along with other forms of bigotry in a social media post days after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
“We don’t feel safe,” Mr. Kestenbaum said. “We don’t feel welcome. And we don’t think Harvard is serious about combating antisemitism.”