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Harvard University

Progressives at Harvard believe in “free speech for me, not for thee.” If you are a left-wing protester who repeatedly violates school rules against disrupting class and occupying campus spaces, nothing significant will happen to you, because you are a fellow progressive. But if you are a scholar who politely advocates anti-crime policies that are said to have a “disparate impact” on black people, or criticize Black Lives Matter, you can lose your job (for example, a lecturer’s course on Counter-Criminal Continuum policing was canceled). And if you express the view that sex is biological and binary, you be effectively driven out of Harvard, where you taught for 20 years, even though that makes a mockery of Harvard’s claims to prize academic freedom. Harvard progressives don’t respect academic freedom when it would mean tolerating a non-woke viewpoint that offends them.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found that when it comes to not respecting academic freedom, Harvard is the worst institution in America, coming

in dead last with the worst score ever: 0.00 out of a possible 100.00….What’s more, granting Harvard a score of 0.00 is generous. Its actual score is -10.69, more than six standard deviations below the average…Harvard…has a dismal record of responding to deplatforming attempts — attempts to sanction students, student groups, scholars, and speakers for speech protected under First Amendment standards. Of nine attempts in total over the past five years, seven resulted in sanction.

But if you are an anti-American, pro-Hamas protester, you can stay on campus even if you ignore repeated warnings from university officials and violate school rules blatantly over and over again.

The College Fix reports that “Harvard University has reversed its decision to suspend five students for participating in pro-Palestinian encampment protests after sustained faculty pressure.”

“The College informed students on Tuesday of their updated disciplinary charges, which saw the suspensions downgraded to probations of varying lengths,” the Harvard Crimson reported. “The most severe probation charge will last for just one semester, a remarkable change from the initial punishments which required at least one student to withdraw from the College for three semesters. Some students who were initially placed on probation in late May also had the length of their probations reduced.”

The organization that led the three-week long protest — Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — reacted with glee, saying: “After sustained student and faculty organizing, Harvard has caved in, showing that the student intifada will always prevail.”

The Crimson notes that “It’s not the first time Harvard has flip-flopped in its attempts to take disciplinary and administrative actions against pro-Palestine protesters. The College initially placed 20 members of the encampment on involuntary leaves of absence before reinstating them just days later, after the occupation ended.”

The National Review observes that the “decision to retract its suspensions for students has raised questions about how seriously Harvard takes its own code of conduct.”