news Harvard board members meet with professors on how to save school's reputation

[VOSS]

Quote

 

CAMBRIDGE — Just before winter break, four prominent Harvard faculty members met for a private dinner with two of the university’s most powerful leaders.

 

Landing the dinner meeting was something of a coup for the faculty members who are co-leaders of a campaign, launched last spring, to reverse what they see as a rising culture of self-censorship, decreasing tolerance for dissenting views, and a tendency for the university to take official positions on the issues of the day.

 

When it was launched in March, the campaign might have seemed quixotic, even contrarian. But in the midst of campus tumult in recent months with bitter debates over antisemitism, pro-Palestinian speech, and the future of the school’s president, Claudine Gay, their dinner engagement with Tracy Palandjian and Paul Finnegan, members of Harvard’s insular governing board known as the Corporation, was a sign that their views have taken on new relevance. It was a marker that such efforts are being discussed at the highest levels of academia as possible guidelines that schools could adopt.

 

During the Dec. 19 dinner at Bar Enza in The Charles Hotel, the four faculty members — Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School; Steven Pinker, a psychology professor; Jeannie Suk Gersen, a Harvard Law School professor; and Flynn Cratty, associate director of a Harvard research program — made the case for their platform.

 

Harvard, the faculty members said, should abandon its practice of taking official positions on political or social issues, as it did during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and, more controversially, in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

 

It should foster an intellectual climate where dissenting viewpoints are better tolerated, the faculty members said, while describing two cases in which Harvard academics had faced backlash over their views on same-sex marriage and biological sex.

 

The school, they argued, must recommit itself to free speech principles, while also setting — and enforcing — clear rules banning protest that disrupts the university’s functioning.

 

And, they said, Harvard should rein in its diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy, which, they contend, launched with virtuous goals, but has since expanded to include influencing faculty hiring decisions and policing speech in ways that have damaged the academic enterprise.

 

Palandjian and Finnegan asked questions and the faculty members expressed their concerns, the four faculty members said in emails and interviews with the Globe in recent days. According to Pinker, the two seemed sympathetic to the views of the faculty members, who are co-presidents of a group called the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, which now has more than 150 members.

 

During the dinner, Pinker told Palandjian and Finnegan that Harvard was in crisis, “with unprecedented hits to its reputation,” he said.

 

The university had been suffering through interlocking scandals related to the Israel-Hamas war and Harvard’s responses to it, as well as a drumbeat of plagiarism allegations against Gay, since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

 

If, as the council advocates, Harvard had a policy against administrators weighing in on controversial political matters and world affairs, then Gay might have been able to avoid making public statements about the Hamas attack and the war.

 

University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill faced sharp criticism and a donor revolt over her initial statement about the Hamas attack and over her response to reports of campus antisemitism. She resigned on Dec. 9 after she offered a similar answer to Gay’s at the congressional hearing.

 

A few days later, a group of UPenn faculty members published a set of guidelines similar to the priorities of the Harvard council. They called on the school to adopt institutional neutrality and foster intellectual diversity and open debate.

 

Source

[LittleStarmen]

harvard will always be harvard

 

however its mostly an issue of colleges have a bad rep now

[Varrock]

They’ve become an embarrassment 

[Johnny Jacobs]

When the president say it's okay to call for Jewish genocide "depends on the context" 

 

Or when students physically threaten Jewish student and barricade them in the cafeteria..

 

They need more than a meeting 

[vuelve88]

I miss the days of Shakira’s Harvard 

 

[If U Seek Amy]

If they are looking to help their reputation, making official political and social positions evident even when virtuous is going to hit your reputation to some extent no matter what it is a lot of the time. Just shut up. Not every position needs to be stated by an organization/employees. Instead, as stated in the article, foster an environment of intellectual discussion and study of such topics and events. This is what people look to and go to educational institutions for, not being told what to think. It isn't respectable to be a monolithic echo chamber (even if I like what they are saying/doing) and actually anti-intellectual. And if any faculty members have controversial stances such as with topics like sexuality/gender those members should be allowed to do so, but also need to respect students and other faculty who do not share that same view. Honestly they have really no reason to be parroting this around to them all anyway imo. 

 

As for decreasing tolerance for differing views they need to establish clear policies if they have not been made (or are not good enough). They should clearly encourage differing views and discussions to encourage exposure to different views and further development. They should also make it clear though that such classroom discussion needs to involve logic/actual intellectualism and not just allow any nonsense/conspiracy people want to peddle dangerously. And actually enforce such policies/punish those that break such policies. Particularly those who are not respecting other views. If people are not able to handle disagreements/discussion of contentious subjects you aren't probably mature enough to be in higher education anyway

[fememeist]

release a taylor swift course

[Communion]

Israel's genocide against Palestinians turning well to do liberals into mid-2010s neo-nazis screaming about wokism and cultural Marxism. 

 

From "Black Lives Matter!!!" to claiming social justice is inherently antisemitic and arguing for the platforming of homophobes and TERFs.

 

Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Communion

[State of Grace.]

Quote

Harvard, the faculty members said, should abandon its practice of taking official positions on political or social issues, as it did during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and, more controversially, in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

 

It should foster an intellectual climate where dissenting viewpoints are better tolerated, the faculty members said, while describing two cases in which Harvard academics had faced backlash over their views on same-sex marriage and biological sex.

 

A joke.

[Mr.X]

1 hour ago, Communion said:

Israel's genocide against Palestinians turning well to do liberals into mid-2010s neo-nazis screaming about wokism and cultural Marxism. 

 

From "Black Lives Matter!!!" to claiming social justice is inherently antisemitic and arguing for the platforming of homophobes and TERFs.

 

Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. 

THIS

[Cain]

Sooo basically they are saying it’s too ‘woke’ because they said BLM? Lmao

[What_A_Mess]

Good. I’m all for free speech on both sides. Any students who cause disruption with how Harvard runs just because they don’t agree with the views of professors and guest speakers should be expelled. There are plenty more students who want to come and study there. They should invite speakers with lots of different and opposing views rather than just cater to a certain group. It promotes diversity of views. Students are there to learn after all.

Edited December 29, 2023 by What_A_Mess

[chessguy99]

4 hours ago, Communion said:

Israel's genocide against Palestinians turning well to do liberals into mid-2010s neo-nazis screaming about wokism and cultural Marxism. 

 

From "Black Lives Matter!!!" to claiming social justice is inherently antisemitic and arguing for the platforming of homophobes and TERFs.

 

Scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. 

Liberals are the true fascist, as they want the government to impose their ideology upon all. Their absolutism makes them indignant when you point out failures, and never they consider anything that is outside of their belief system could be right.

[Communion]

1 hour ago, chessguy99 said:

Liberals are the true fascist, as they want the government to impose their ideology upon all. 

And what would you consider liberal ideology to be?