Harvard University will no longer weigh in on outside public matters: ‘Runs the risk of alienating some’

Harvard University announced Tuesday that it will stay silent on public matters that do not directly concern its “core function” — months after the Ivy League school’s statements on the Israel-Hamas war caused a firestorm of controversy.

Leaders at the prestigious school who recommended the new policy said that Harvard “runs the risk of appearing to care more about some places and events than others” by issuing public statements on sweeping issues and global politics.

“And because few, if any, world events can be entirely isolated from conflicting viewpoints, issuing official empathy statements runs the risk of alienating some members of the community by expressing implicit solidarity with others,” Harvard’s Institutional Voice Working Group recommended in a report.

The report noted that “[t]he university and its leaders should not . . . issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function”

Harvard said Tuesday that the school “accepted” the working group’s recommendations.

“The process of translating these principles into concrete practice will, of course, require time and experience, and we look forward to the work ahead,” interim president Alan Garber said in a statement.

As part of the new initiative, Harvard will no longer issue official statements concerning wars, like it had following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February and for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The latter ignited a firestorm for the school and former President Claudine Gay.

Gay had condemned the “barbaric atrocities perpetrated by Hamas,” but faced intense scrutiny for not criticizing 30 Harvard student groups that published a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ terror attack.

The former president resigned weeks after testifying before Congress and following plagiarism allegations.

The working group was established in April to debate how much and when the university should comment on far-reaching issues beyond Harvard’s jurisdiction.

It found that the “integrity and credibility of the institution are compromised when the university speaks
officially on matters outside its institutional area of expertise,” and that any comment will inevitably come under intense pressure.

“Those pressures, coming from inside and outside the university, will distract energy and attention from the university’s essential purpose,” the report states.

“The university is not a government, tasked with engaging the full range of foreign and domestic policy issues, and its leaders are not, and must not be, selected for their personal political beliefs.”

Rather than put out statements regarding global issues, Harvard’s working group suggests discussing the topic inside the classrooms, where debate is encouraged and a permanent stance would not be required.

Moving forward, Harvard will decline requests for official statements, referring to this new policy.

The policy announcement comes just days after Harvard’s commencement speaker blasted the Ivy League school for not allowing more than a dozen students to receive their diplomas.

Shruthi Kumar, the Harvard senior selected to deliver the English address during the ceremony, said Harvard had displayed an “intolerance for freedom of speech” for denying the students who had taken part in an anti-Israel campus encampment on school grounds.

More than 1,000 people then staged a walkout to decry the disqualification of the 13 students, with many chanting “let them walk.”