Harvard University’s President Alan Garber said in a recent discussion that faculty activism in their classes chilled students’ free speech and created a repressive climate on campus.
An article in The Harvard Crimson reported on President Garber’s comments.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 said the University “went wrong” by allowing professors to inject their personal views into the classroom, arguing that faculty activism had chilled free speech and debate on campus.
In rare and unusually candid remarks on a podcast released on Tuesday, Garber appeared to tie many of higher education’s oft-cited ills — namely, a dearth of tolerance and free debate — to a culture that permits, and at times encourages, professors to foreground their identity and perspectives in teaching.
“How many students would actually be willing to go toe-to-toe against a professor who’s expressed a firm view about a controversial issue?” he said.
The remarks mark Garber’s most explicit public acknowledgement that faculty practices have contributed to a breakdown in open discourse on campus — and that he is committed to backtracking toward neutrality in the classroom…
Though Garber has carved some exceptions to the policy — notably when he, in his personal capacity, condemned a Palestine Solidarity Committee post marking the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack — he has increasingly emphasized restraint, particularly in the classroom.
“I’m pleased to say that I think there is real movement to restore balance in teaching and to bring back the idea that you really need to be objective in the classroom,” he said….
In his responses, Garber echoed the sentiment of a Faculty of Arts and Sciences reportreleased last January, which affirmed professors’ right to “extramural speech” but warned that instructors must proactively encourage disagreement in the classroom to avoid alienating students…
Instead of relying primarily on punishment, Garber touted changes to University orientations — including the addition of a module on discussing controversial topics — alongside the expansive reports produced by Harvard’s twin task forces on combating bias toward Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian affiliates.
“It’s about learning how to listen and how to speak in an empathetic way,” he said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a career teacher I moderated classroom debate, challenged, “Can you back that up with data?” and when asked my opinion in class I made clear I was “Socrates”… simply honing student skills in a marketplace of ideas.
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It’s almost guaranteed the “faculty activism” means either or both of (a) teaching inconvenient facts about things like the history of Palestine before and since the Nakba and/or (b) refusing to allow “debate” on things that aren’t debatable like do/should trans people exist?
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You imply strongly here that you oppose what the Harvard president said. Coercing students to conform to a given ideology is a real problem on most campuses.
Performative virtue-signaling has become a threat to higher ed
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Do not confuse “teachers” with professors.
Most public-school teachers have to earn a credential to teach and that credential usually comes with learning how to teach.
The program I went through was an urban residency which included an entire school year in a master teachers classroom learning how to teach before I could teach. And during my thirty years of teaching, I didn’t share my personal political views with my students. My job was to teach them critical thinking and problem-solving skills in English classes mostly through literature and writing.
The closest political thing I did was one Halloween, while teaching at the high school level when I came to class dressed like President Nixon, who I voted for twice, mimicking him, saying, “I’m not a crook.” My students loved it. Lots of laughter. I was a registered Republican then.
I spent nine years in college, total, as a student, and some professors were good teachers and others horrible, boring … put to sleep boring, who did not earn the right to be called a “teacher.”
How many professors expressed their personal political views in class? Does Garber reveal that answer?
Not all college/university professors share their personal views in class! I cannot remember one of my professors doing that. Not once. And I was a registered Republican until 1983, which was after I had completed all my college years. In 1983, I switched to become an independent voter because at the time I still thought the Democratic Party was toxic too. I refused to stay a Republican because of Reagan’s corruption and lies.
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That Halloween I wore a Nixon mask and a suit that looked like what he wore.
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Have you ever noticed how right wingers NEVER, NEVER, EVER complain about right wing colleges which indoctrinate their students with RIGHT WINGER ideology. Just amazing. They only complain, whine and mewl about universities which tend to lean liberal. If a person is so liberal averse, then go to a right winger nut university, they do exist.
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I’d argue that threatening to take away billions of dollars in funding has a more chilling effect on free speech in classrooms, but it’s easier to blame professors.
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As a college French major, I was taught that having a particular point of view in literature was acceptable to express as long as there was evidence to back up the assertion. People may disagree, but they may not disparage others that disagree. The method of pedagogy is called “explication de texte,” and it is somewhat similar to close reading. I used this approach successfully with my students as well. It is an effective evidence based system that encourages healthy debate, critical thinking and tolerance for dissenting views. People need to understand that disagreement is not a personal attack. Clearly, DJT never got the memo.
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If Ginsburg and Scalia figured out how disagree, but maintain a civil relationship, Harvard should be able to figure it out too.
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RT,
Donald was a business major at the Wharton school at Penn. Unlikely he took any classes in literature or history. His niece Mary said in her first book that he paid someone to take his SATs. Didn’t learn much about business as most of his ended in bankruptcy.
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““How many students would actually be willing to go toe-to-toe against a professor who’s expressed a firm view about a controversial issue?”
Just the really good ones, the ones who deserve A+.
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