Harvard and other universities face extraordinary pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over allegations of antisemitism and leftist bias. The reports, jointly amounting to more than 500 pages, were the result of two task forces Harvard set up a year before Trump took office, one on combating antisemitism and the other on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian bias.
Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter accompanying the reports that they included “searing personal accounts” drawn from about 50 listening sessions with about 500 students and employees.
He wrote that Harvard would do more to teach its students how to have “productive and civil dialogue” with people from different backgrounds and would promote “viewpoint diversity”.
Garber wrote that Harvard will begin a research project on antisemitism and support “a comprehensive historical analysis” of Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians at the university. He said the school would also make its disciplinary processes more effective and efficient.
Both Harvard task forces conducted an online joint survey last year, gathering 2,295 responses from students, faculty and staff.
The survey found 47% of Muslim respondents and 15% of Jewish respondents did not feel physically safe on campus compared to 6% for Christians and non-believers, while 92% of Muslims and 61% of Jews felt there were academic or professional repercussions for expressing their political beliefs.
the Council on American Islamic Relations’ research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said his Muslim advocacy group stood by its designation of Harvard as hostile to Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians.
Vlad Khaykin, an executive vice president with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, sharply criticized how long it took Harvard “to even begin an honest reckoning” of antisemitism on campus, adding it “is not merely negligent – it is a disgrace of historic proportions”.
