During an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition” that took place on Monday and was released on Tuesday, Harvard President Alan Garber said that “the administration and others have said conservatives are too few on campus and their views are not welcome, insofar as that’s true, that’s a problem we really need to address.” And “we have heard from some people that they do feel that way. So, we certainly need to address that. And that means changing views in the community, making diverse viewpoints more welcome, it includes skills in speaking as well as skills in listening.”
Garber said, “In my view, the federal government is saying that we need to address antisemitism in particular, but it has raised other issues, including issues about speech and it includes claims that we lack viewpoint diversity. There are also claims about failure to comply with laws concerning discrimination more generally. For some of this, we have been very clear that we think we do have issues, and I would particularly emphasize the speech issues. We think it’s a real problem if, particularly at research universities, students don’t feel free to speak their minds, when faculty feel that they have to think twice before they talk about the subjects that they’re teaching, that’s a real problem that we need to address. And it’s particularly concerning when people who have views that they think are unpopular, and the administration and others have said conservatives are too few on campus and their views are not welcome, insofar as that’s true, that’s a problem we really need to address.”
Co-host Steve Inskeep then asked, “Is it true?”
Garber answered, “I think that we have heard from some people that they do feel that way. So, we certainly need to address that. And that means changing views in the community, making diverse viewpoints more welcome, it includes skills in speaking as well as skills in listening. So, the federal government has referred to some of these areas, and, as I said, we agree that some of these problems we absolutely need to address. What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems. Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country, because, after all, the research funding, it’s not a gift. The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work, research work that the federal government designates as high-priority work. It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted. Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard, and it is hard to see the link between that and, say, antisemitism.”
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