A chaotic and controversial stretch at Harvard University has led to a doubtful distinction from a free speech watchdog group.
The Cambridge campus has acquired the “Lifetime Censorship Award” from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. This comes after Harvard got here in final on FIRE’s College Free Speech Rankings — reaching a worst-ever rating final yr.
That 2023 rating occurred earlier than Harvard was consumed by the Israel-Hamas conflict, resulting in a divided campus and the president coming below hearth. Media shops began to look into then-President Claudine Gay’s analysis, and Harvard reportedly threatened the New York Post with a defamation lawsuit if the Post ran a narrative about Gay’s plagiarism allegations.
“So much for placing ‘a high priority on freedom of speech’ — or freedom of the press for that matter,” FIRE wrote about Harvard. “Gay resigned on Jan. 2, after more than 40 allegations of plagiarism came to light.”
The free speech group additionally famous that Harvard has punished college and college students for his or her speech.
“School administrators drove out lecturer Carole Hooven for arguing that biological sex is real,” FIRE wrote. “It rescinded a fellowship for former Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth over his purported ‘anti-Israel bias.’
“It effectively fired an economics professor for an op-ed he published in India,” the group added. “It canceled a professor’s course on policing following student uproar. It fired professor Ronald Sullivan from his deanship after students protested his role on Harvey Weinstein’s criminal defense team.”
Harvard joins Georgetown University, Yale University, Syracuse University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and DePaul University on FIRE’s record of Lifetime Censorship Award recipients.
“It’s past time Harvard truly commits to its ostensible truth-seeking mission and the principles of free speech and academic freedom that make it possible,” the group wrote. “But that may be wishful thinking, the triumph of hope over experience.”
Meanwhile, FIRE launched its record of “America’s 10 Worst Censors” on Tuesday. This record included the “hypocritical testimony” of Gay and different faculty presidents in entrance of Congress about antisemitism on campus.
FIRE additionally took intention at Brandeis University for unrecognizing its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“This year’s list goes to show that no one is safe from the possibility of censorship,” mentioned FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff. “Americans of all ages and professions are being pushed into a corner when trying to express themselves freely: Shut up or be shut up. Censorship is an abuse of authority and a poor substitute for honest dialogue, and FIRE is here to fight it every step of the way.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”