Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and right to associate freely are bedrock principles for a democracy to hold. That said, Harvard is doing a great job of showing its students, staff, and the world that it isn’t a democracy. After suspending law students and professors for quietly studying in the library, the students asked the school to reverse the suspensions. The Crimson covered the school’s refusal:
Harvard Law School administrators rejected appeals from students to reverse temporary suspensions from the school’s library in Langdell Hall over their participation in pro-Palestine “study-ins” last month, according to the school’s chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
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“Absent mistaken identity, meaning only that you were not a participant at the organized demonstration and have been mistaken for another person, the HLSL is applying University rules, and your suspension remains,” [Assistant dean for library and information services Amanda] Watson wrote in an email to one student obtained by The Crimson.
Harvard’s commitment to the ban has its students asking very reasonable questions about why their “study-in” was more disruptive to the use of the library than other coordinated events, like the school-sanctioned Halloween event.
If the prior enforcement of Harvard’s censorship wasn’t enough for you, how about cracking down on prayer? At the Divinity school? Also from The Crimson:
Harvard Divinity School students were issued two-week suspensions from its library for participating in a pro-Palestine “pray-in” demonstration last Monday.
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Divinity School Dean Marla F. Frederick announced the suspensions in an email sent Monday morning. In the email, Frederick acknowledged the “importance of prayer.”
“At HDS we honor the importance of prayer and what it represents for so many. And, as one colleague reminded us recently, ‘prayer is protest,’” Frederick wrote. “In and of itself, advocacy for the cause of people under duress — whether in Israel, Gaza, or other parts of the world — is noble,” she added.
Noble or not, prayer-as-protest is still enough to get you kicked out the library? What’s next? Will a study group reading a paper on how the bombing of Gaza is worsening global warming get environmental science students kicked from the building for protesting? Would a silent in-depth costs/benefit analysis of the United States’ spending on Isreal’s military operations by reading Linda Bilmes‘s work count as a protest if 10 people are reading together? What if it were three — or one?
Harvard’s crest is emblazoned with the word Veritas — Latin for truth. To know the truth on campus still appears to be fair game. But pursuit of it through study, prayer, or the company of like-minded pursuers, will get you banned from the library.
Harvard Law School Denies Student Appeals to Reverse Library Bans [The Crimson]
Students Suspended from Harvard Divinity School Library After Pray-In [The Crimson]
Earlier: This Is The Actual Campus Censorship The Free Speech People Should Be Worried About
So Much For Free Speech: Harvard Law Students Punished For Reading Together At Campus Library
Harvard Doubles Down On ‘Protest’ Retaliation & Punishes Teachers For Studying In Library
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
