Harvard faculty can do more to revitalize free speech

This task is urgent across higher education generally. But in true Harvard fashion, the university that always strives to be the best is, at least in external terms, the worst when it comes to free speech.

According to the Harvard report, nearly half of students said they were uncomfortable sharing their opinions on difficult topics in class.

“Students cited the judgment of their classmates, fear of criticism on social media, fear of reputational damage and fear of potential bullying and harassment as reasons for their reluctance,” say the co-chairs of the university’s “Open Research” working group , to express their opinions on controversial topics in the classroom and constructive dialogue wrote in the Globe.

Faculty also expressed fear. “These individuals expressed reluctance, in part due to their perception that students are sometimes not open to debate. “The potential for students to post recordings or negative comments about controversial classroom discussions on social media poses a significant reputational risk, even for tenured faculty,” they reported. wrote the co-chairs.

Although the report omitted details, it is clear what topics students are afraid to speak honestly about.

The working group was finally convened after tensions over the Middle East boiled over at Harvard and many U.S. universities last year.

Pro-Israel students have reported being intimidated on campus, subjected to hateful chants, and shunned by society for expressing these views. Critics of Israel say they risk being labeled terrorists or anti-Semites if they express support for the Palestinians.

But even before October 7, 2023, the atmosphere at Harvard and other elite universities was tense. Students reported feeling pressured to parrot prevailing campus ideologies about race and gender, and risked being labeled bigots or worse if they raised questions about campus orthodoxies, such as defunding for the police or transgender issues.

To some extent, these fears may just represent the nature of Harvard students, who probably worry more than the average American university student about how their comments in a government seminar might one day sound in a Senate confirmation hearing.

But as the report notes, students also had more tangible and immediate reasons to fear the consequences of unpopular opinions – fearing that the university’s bullying and harassment policies could be weaponized against them if they held views that a Fellow students could claim that they touched her unsafely.

Such concerns are legitimate: Just last year, the Harvard School of Public Health subjected a tenured professor to time-consuming “restoration circles” for speaking out against gay marriage a decade earlier, a position clearly protected by academic freedom, which was offered at a Back then, former President Barack Obama held the same view.

The report recommended that Harvard “review the institutional apparatus for investigating alleged violations of discrimination, bullying, and harassment to ensure that academic freedom is at the forefront of the interpretation, application, and enforcement of policies.”

These and the report’s other recommendations, which include requiring classroom confidentiality and informing students about “constructive disagreements,” are undoubtedly sensible.

But it is unreasonable to expect 19-year-old students, tenured academics, or the university’s staff and administrators to do the heavy work needed to solve Harvard’s problems. It is professors who set the tone for their classroom and for the intellectual climate of a campus in general. They are also the ones who, as the report reminded them, have a professional responsibility to express “dissenting opinions.” Tenured faculty should also take the lead and assume the risks that come with speaking out in the minefield of the modern university environment, even if it means that students and outside groups will call them nasty names.

Finally, there are boundaries that really shouldn’t be crossed – times when disagreements actually lead to bullying or harassment. But the best way for students to find out where these lines lie—at Harvard and elsewhere—is for their teachers to show them to them.

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Editorials reflect the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.