Harvard Says It Will Refrain From Taking Stance on Public Matters That Don’t Affect Its ‘Core Function’

A tour group looks through the closed gates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 29, 2024. Alice Giordano/The Epoch Times

Harvard University said on Tuesday that it would refrain from taking a stance on matters that are not related to “the core function” of the university amid protests over the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in Gaza.

This comes as university leaders accepted a faculty committee’s report, which states that they should not “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function,” according to a May 28 statement.

The committee, dubbed the Institutional Voice Working Group, said in a three-page-long report that “the integrity and credibility of the institution are compromised when the university speaks officially on matters outside its institutional area of expertise.”

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

“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.”

The report states that Harvard “runs the risk of appearing to care more about some places and events than others” by issuing “official empathy statements” on national and global issues.

“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,” it reads.

“Furthermore, anodyne official statements may cause further distress to the very groups they are meant to comfort,” it adds. “When pressure builds on the university to make an official statement, as will sometimes happen, the university should refer publicly to its policy.”

Harvard said it accepted the committee’s recommendations, but added that “the process of translating these principles into concrete practice will, of course, require time and experience, and we look forward to the work ahead.”

Protesters hold signs in support of Palestine's “resistance” during a rally at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 14, 2023. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

The university has faced criticism since more than 30 of its student groups signed a letter blaming Israel for being “entirely responsible” for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise assault into Israel, killing over 1,200 civilians.

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January after backlash over her testimony before Congress in which she refused to state that calling for the genocide of Jews constituted harassment. She also faced allegations of plagiarism.

When asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House GOP, during the hearing last year if calling for genocide against Jews is bullying or harassment, Ms. Gay demurred.

“It can be, depending on the context,” Ms. Gay said. “Anti-Semitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct, that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action.”

Ms. Gay later issued a statement apologizing for her answers. Despite her resignation as university president, Ms. Gay will remain a Harvard faculty member. Her tenure was just over six months, the shortest in the school’s 387-year history.

Jackson Richman, Bill Pan, and Aaron Pan contributed to this report.