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Here. We've had a similar group at Chicago for a couple of years. Are there other such groups on other campuses? Please post links in the comments.
(Thanks to Ned Hall for the pointer about the new Harvard group.)
This may be ancient history, but anyone familiar with Harvard's history of dealing with political protest will be struck by this new organization's invoking 1970's "Statement on Rights and Responsibilities" as a founding document of Harvard's commitment to free speech.
This document, along with a "Committee on Rights and Responsibilities", was the administration's response to the antiwar protests of 1969–70. Their purpose was punishing, to the point of expelling, those who had participated in sit-ins and other forms of protest, all nonviolent. Not surprisingly, the "Statement" was largely ridiculed and the "Committee" never achieved legitimacy. (See "Your Rights, Our Responsibilities" by Steve Luxenburg, Harvard Crimson December 13, 1973).
Those expelled did not just cease to be students. They were barred from engaging in any future political protest in or around Harvard, under threat of arrest if they failed to comply. All of this according to the high principles contained in the "Statement on Rights and Responsibilities."
In the fall of 1970, almost a year after being expelled for political protests, and after starting my graduate education elsewhere, Harvard decided to arrest me for picketing in protest of the Cambodian invasion the previous spring. I was tried in Cambridge District Court, convicted on two counts of "criminal trespass", and sentenced to 60 days in jail. When asked why Harvard went to all this trouble so long afterwards around someone no longer even there, Harvard's spokesman–Archibald Cox–appealed to the "Statement on Rights and Responsibilities" and the need to defend the "values" of the University against those who "threaten" them.
This was, admittedly, a rather bizarre example of how an institution can invoke values like free speech to squash legitimate political protest. But it remains a cautionary tale. By the way, several years ago I was invited to give a talk at Harvard and decided to inquire if I was still banned from appearing on its campus. I wrote the President's office, who forwarded to the Provost's office, who forwarded it to campus security, who replied that there was "no outstanding warrant" for my arrest. Thus assured, my talk proceeded without incident.
If, in fact, the Statement was used to punish lawful speech, then its application was flawed. (I am not privy to the details of what transpired at that time, but it was not uncommon for political protests, even when nonviolent, to disrupt the academic functioning of the university. Was that a factor then?)
The new group states its central principles as follows (the "Statement" appears only in a list of resources):
"The Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard is a faculty-led organization devoted to upholding these ideals at America’s oldest university. Its members differ in many of their ideas. They are united by their commitment to the following three principles:
Free Inquiry. The Council advocates for academic freedom in teaching, research, and speech for members of the Harvard community.
Intellectual Diversity. The members of the council believe that Harvard should promote the thoughtful engagement of students and scholars who represent a broad range of opinions.
Civil Discourse. The Council encourages respectful, honest, and courageous discussion of controversial ideas in and outside of the classroom."
None of the protests at Harvard involved the "academic" functioning of the university, if by that one means instruction or research. The most egregious was the sit-in at the University administration building against ROTC. It was the administration's response to this action–specifically, calling in the police to arrest protestors–that led to the disruption of classes, etc. The action for which I was arrested involved picketing that same administration building, peacefully. I believe there was an action some years later that disrupted a talk by the S Vietnamese ambassador, but that was not the inspiration for the "Statement on Rights on Responsibilities". I agree that this was a flawed application of the "Statement" principles, though I would note that the enforcer in this case was liberal icon Archibald Cox and that none of Harvard's celebrated champions of free speech dissented with him at the time
Lots of liberal icons, alas, turn out to be frauds, so this does not surprise me. I assume the recently tenured Alan Dershowitz did not speak out either. But perhaps I'm wrong!
I've had the pleasure of serving as advisory board member at the Global Observatory for Academic Freedom, a global initiative supported by OSUN and hosted at CEU. Some very good things have happened at the GOAF over the last two years. You can find about some of them here:
https://elkana.ceu.edu/global-observatory-academic-freedom
The Observatory, unfortunately, would no longer continue after May 1st, at least not under the auspices of OSUN or CEU. Hopefully over the next months we will secure another host institution and funding to keep supporting excellent work and thoughtful discussion on this important topic.
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