A prominent free speech advocacy group has rebuked Harvard University with an ironic “lifetime censorship award,” chiding it for censoring campus expression on hot-button issues from gender identity to Israel.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression made the announcement Tuesday, noting it ranked the Ivy League school dead last among all colleges in a recent free speech report.
Harvard has had “a long, sordid history of speech policing,” said Nico Perrino, executive vice president of FIRE.
“The university was already on the fast track to receive a Lifetime Censorship Award,” Mr. Perrino told The Washington Times. “But what sealed the deal was Harvard’s threat to sue the New York Post for its reporting on plagiarism allegations against [former Harvard president] Claudine Gay. Institutions that place ’a high priority on freedom of speech,’ as Harvard claims it does, do not bully newspapers into silence.”
Ms. Gay resigned in December after a public backlash over her refusal to denounce antisemitic slogans in student protests against Israel during her congressional testimony. Her resignation followed pushback from alumni and reports that she plagiarized the work of others in her academic research.
Student protests erupted on campuses nationwide in October over the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
On top of the Israel and Hamas controversy, FIRE pointed to the departure of Carole Hooven, a Harvard evolutionary biologist who asserted in public speaking appearances that biological sex is real despite pressure from transgender advocates to stop using phrases like “pregnant women” and “male and female.”
Last year, Ms. Hooven retired from a 20-year teaching and administrative career at the school, saying administrators failed to support her right to express her scientific views “in an environment free of harassment.”
Harvard did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
“I am sorry,” Ms. Gay, who continues to teach at the school, told the student-run Harvard Crimson in a Dec. 7 interview about her comments in the congressional hearing. “Words matter.”
Harvard has joined Georgetown University, Yale University, Syracuse University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and DePaul University on FIRE’s list of Lifetime Censorship Award recipients.
The Massachusetts campus previously appeared five times on FIRE’s annual list of the 10 worst campuses for free speech: in 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2020.
The only surprise is that FIRE didn’t give its lifetime achievement award to Harvard sooner, said Gregory T. Angelo, president of the right-leaning New Tolerance Campaign.
“The real question is whether the Ivy League institution will take these dubious honors as a wake-up call,” said Mr. Angelo, a former head of the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT group. “We’ll be watching to see whether Claudine Gay’s successor puts into practice what the school preaches about freedom of speech.”
Two Harvard graduates, conservative historian Alan Charles Kors and liberal civil rights attorney Henry Silverglate, co-founded the Philadelphia-based FIRE in 1999.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.