“[D]iversity of viewpoints is a thing to be prized. It should be a strength. It’s the raw material out of which greater wisdom and understanding can be forged, but only if students are actually engaging across differences in a serious, respectful, and ideally, curiosity-driven manner. And the sense from the students, especially the ones involved…
Harvard Crimson: Two Takes on the Council
On May 1, the Harvard Crimson Editorial Board published two editorials with very different takes on the Council on Academic Freedom. Read them and see: “We don’t entirely trust the council’s intentions in constructing this freedom right now.”Editorial Board: “Some Cautious Counsel to the Academic Freedom Council” “[W]e should begin by assuming good faith and…
New York Post: “Over 100 Harvard professors form council in fight for free speech amid ‘crisis’”
“We are in a crisis time right now.” https://nypost.com/2023/04/26/harvard-professors-band-to-fight-for-free-speech/…
Press Release: A Voice for Academic Freedom at Harvard
You can’t walk across Harvard’s campus without seeing Veritas everywhere. “Truth” is Harvard’s brand, and it is a noble one. What should a university stand for if not the pursuit of knowledge? This quest rightly drives Harvard’s world-class teaching and research. But the pursuit of truth will falter without a commitment to academic freedom. Harvard…
New York Times: “Promising Signs for Free Speech on Campus”
“The faculty at Harvard University is also stepping up.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/opinion/free-speech-campus-universities-promising-news.html…
Harvard Crimson: “More than 70 Harvard Faculty Form Council on Academic Freedom, Co-Led by Steven Pinker”
“I love Harvard, I think it’s the greatest university in the world, and I want it to stay that way…And the only way it’s gonna stay that way is if it’s a welcome place for people to voice unpopular opinions and to be oddballs in various ways and countercultural in various ways.” https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/4/14/pinker-academic-freedom-council/…
Boston Globe: “New faculty-led organization at Harvard will defend academic freedom”
“The embattled ideal of academic freedom is not just a matter of the individual rights of professors and students. It’s baked into the mission of a university, which is to seek and share the truth — veritas, as our university, Harvard, boasts on its seal.” https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/12/opinion/harvard-council-academic-freedom/…
WSJ: “Harvard Has a Free Speech Moment”
“The academic freedom group includes former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine Jeffrey Flier, law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, economist Gregory Mankiw, social ethics professor Mahzarin R. Banaji and Islamic intellectual history professor Khaled El-Rouayheb, among others across the ideological spectrum.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-council-on-academic-freedom-professors-free-speech-steven-pinker-bertha-madras-6ac96bc4?mod=opinion_lead_pos2…