New Harvard President Claudine Gay can be expected to issue a fourth clarification of her initial reactions to the University’s large anti-Semitic contingent cheering on the Hamas massacre of Jewish citizens on October 7. To read Gay’s inaugural speech upon becoming the new president of America’s oldest and most storied educational institution, one would think “all is well” at Harvard, as Faber College student Kevin Bacon futilely screamed in the epic finale of “Animal House.” In marvelous ramalama-dingdong fashion, the standard issue race-obsessed progressive scholar babbled, predictably as Harvard’s first black President, about “this institution’s long history of exclusion and the long journey of resistance and resilience to overcome it.” Then she proved incapable of reacting forcibly when Harvard’s long history of anti-Semitism suddenly revealed itself not to have been resisted enough. Indeed, Harvard’s relentless efforts at woke indoctrination guarantee that it will flourish.

As discussed here, 31 Harvard campus organizations famously announced that Israel was fully responsible for all the violence erupting in and out of Gaza. Then, after efforts were made to reveal the names of the participating pro-terrorism and historically ignorant students so potential employers could cross them off their lists, we learned how well Harvard imbues its students with the ethical virtues of integrity, accountability, honesty, loyalty and prudence, along with such enabling virtues as fortitude, courage, and sacrifice. At least ten of the groups announced that they no longer endorsed the letter, now that there might be consequences attached to signing it. Some student members swore that they never approved the letter that their groups signed; others proclaimed that they didn’t really mean to say what the letters said, or that they hadn’t read it carefully.

Got it: you’re incompetent, irresponsible and cowardly fools. These reactions do not enhance your attraction as potential employees.

Never mind: siding with the terrorism fans and students who lack the courage of the convictions that Harvard has implanted, a group of Harvard students, alumni, and faculty have issued an open letter demanding that Gay condemn doxxing and provide greater support for the affected students now under scrutiny. Supposedly signed by more than 400 alumni (aka. potential donors), the letter says in part,

“It is deplorable that, at the time of this writing, the Harvard administration has yet to meaningfully criticize or condemn the public doxxing campaigns threatening students — primarily targeting marginalized students who are Palestinian, Black, Arab, South Asian, Muslim, undocumented, and/or international.”

Not to nitpick, but 1) The campaign targets students who signed the pro-Hamas/anti-Israel letter or who belonged to the groups that signed it, and their race or ethnic background is incidental (except that one can legitimately ponder why these “marginalized” students are so in favor of killing Jews) and 2) If a student group makes an inflammatory public statement, it isn’t “doxxing” to reveal the identity of the students responsible.

Harvard is, it seems, siding with the Hamas cheering section by establishing a task force to support students “experiencing doxxing, harassment, and online security issues following backlash against students allegedly affiliated with a statement that held Israel ‘entirely responsible’ for violence in the Israel-Hamas conflict,” according to the Harvard Crimson, which goes on to say,

“Aside from serving as a single point of contact, the task force will communicate proactively with students to share available resources, ensure the coordination of services, hear student concerns and suggestions, and communicate with residential staff and other College administrators.”

What Harvard really needs is a task force to determine why a Harvard education generates bigots, anti-Semites and extremists.

In yet another open letter—I have lost count of the dueling open letters at this point—Harvard grad Mitt Romney and others asked for “concrete actions that Harvard leadership should take immediately”…

• The University should restate and enforce the University’s existing moral code of conduct required of ALL students, employees and faculty members. Free speech is to be respected but hatred, threats and violence against students and faculty are unequivocally prohibited. Any member of the community who engages in behavior that is in direct violation of Harvard’s code of conduct should be held accountable, including by suspension and expulsion. Harvard leadership should immediately convene ALL students in person to communicate this requirement and should follow this up with written communication to the entire community to make clear the standard for moral conduct on the campus. Leaders should state that the campus police are viewing all videos of these hate-filled, violent altercations and that any students, faculty members or employees who have violated the code of conduct will be suspended or expelled.

• Recognize that the University campus is private property and that all participants in any protest must be enrolled students. Any outsiders will be escorted off the campus and, if any person is found to engage in repeated instances of trespassing, they will be charged with Security personnel will enforce this by checking student IDs.
• Permit only protests that have been scheduled and allow only students to attend. Protestors may NOT cover their A Harvard value is personal accountability; hiding your identity is not accepting personal accountability.
• In order to become a model for campus free speech, the University should immediately develop and require that all students participate in a semester-long course that teaches productive discourse, critical thinking and the interrogation of facts so students learn to debate through reasoned inquiry. Among other things, this would help improve Harvard’s ranking on the FIRE college free speech ranking where Harvard has consistently failed to meet the standards, ranking 248th — the very lowest score in this year’s ranking.

The letter concludes,

“Moral leadership matters. When strong moral leadership exists, most people rise individually and as a community; in contrast, when weak leadership exists, people sink like stones. Everyone is watching. Parents are asking if their children should attend Harvard. Will they be safe? Are Harvard’s campuses vibrant, diverse, positive educational environments with respectful behavioral norms that are upheld or politically charged, leaderless and dangerous? Will their classmates be a source of healthy debate and learning or of heated rhetoric and intolerance? Are students who are eager to spend four of what should be their most special years expanding their thinking and being challenged academically and socially to expand their friend groups, wondering understandably whether the decision to attend Harvard will involve checking themselves continually, fearing that sharing their opinions inside and outside classrooms will ostracize them from their classmates? Will they be forced to hide in rooms to avoid protests where classmates are allowed to harass them? Is Harvard a place where faculty members can effectively teach, or must they carefully lecture, avoiding content and speakers that might challenge students’ existing beliefs for fear of retribution?

We fear that history is on the verge of repeating itself. We know from studying the worst episodes of human history that violence must be nipped in the bud, bullies must be confronted, and inaction and handwringing incentivizes more acts of hate. Each of you needs to muster the courage to lead by re- establishing moral and respectful conduct on your campuses. A university is supposed to challenge and expand the forming minds of future leaders; not be bullied by them. Leadership demands courage. We will not be quiet. We will not have our children and grandchildren ask where we were when morality and humanity died, and Harvard looked away.

Over to you, Claudine!

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