HLS Professor Randall Kennedy Defends Harvard’s Free Speech Culture at Debate | News

Harvard Law School professor Randall L. Kennedy defended Harvard’s culture of free speech but criticized its new policy of refraining from commenting on controversial topics during a debate on free speech and protests with George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on Thursday at HLS.

During the debate, sponsored by the conservative nonprofit Steamboat Institute and hosted by the Harvard Federalist Society, a conservative HLS student group, Kennedy and Turley argued over whether Harvard promotes free speech and diverse viewpoints.

Turley accused Harvard of limiting conservative perspectives, pointing to a Crimson poll that found less than 3 percent of faculty members in the School of Arts and Sciences identified as conservative.

“You have essentially purged your faculty of Republicans and conservatives,” Turley said. “It doesn’t just happen, does it? It’s no coincidence that there is this powerful ideological echo chamber at Harvard.”

However, Kennedy argued that faculty political positions were not a good measure of whether Harvard was achieving its core goals.

“This is an institution that has an educational mission. It’s not a legislature, it’s not a jury, and the values ​​that should matter are intellectual/scientific values,” Kennedy said.

Still, Kennedy acknowledged that Harvard was unable to avoid sensitive political debates. In a post-debate interview, he criticized Harvard’s new institutional voice policy – under which the university will not comment on issues unrelated to its core mission – as an impossible attempt to evade the political spotlight.

“I am deeply skeptical,” Kennedy said. They – the people behind them – want to depoliticize things. They want to get the university out of politics. But I don’t think that can happen,” he added.

During the debate, he said Harvard was the target of a “very powerful and very well-organized vilification campaign,” pointing to the Republican-led House investigation into Harvard’s handling of anti-Semitism on campus.

According to Kennedy, the investigation “attempts to intimidate and harass this university and its constituents. It poses a threat to higher education.”

“I think that Harvard University should defend itself much more forcefully against the attack that the administration is launching against it,” Kennedy said.

A Harvard spokesman declined to comment.

Kennedy also defended former President Claudine Gay’s testimony before Congress in December, calling it an example of Harvard’s commitment to free speech.

When asked by Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R-N.Y.) whether calls for genocide against Jewish students would violate Harvard’s code of conduct, Gay replied that it depends on the context. Although Gay’s response was widely condemned by Harvard members and politicians from both parties – leading in part to her resignation in January – Kennedy said she did the right thing.

“She took this opportunity to stand up for freedom of speech in very difficult circumstances,” Kennedy said.