Thousands of alumni have joined faculty and others in resistance
Bravo to Kirsten Weld and Andrew Manuel Crespo for their courageous op-ed, “Harvard faculty won’t cave to Trump demands” (Opinion, Aug. 15). Harvard is an institution whose existence precedes that of the United States by more than a century, and it should not be giving up its historic independence to a petty tyrant. Demands for money show Donald Trump’s so-called negotiation as nothing more than extortion, and nothing to do with antisemitism or “wokeism” (antidiscrimination, in other words). It is a serious attack on free speech and inquiry, just another of Trump’s swift steps to fascism.
It is wonderful to see faculty, students, and alumni stand up, even if the Harvard Corporation does not. Months ago, I was among thousands of alumni who signed a letter to Harvard urging the university to resist. Since then, thousands more alumni have supported Harvard’s legal resistance. We still hope the school does not cave in to a bully.
Susan Jhirad
Peabody
The writer holds both a bachelor’s and a doctoral degree from Harvard.
Withheld federal funding gives Trump the upper hand
Regarding the otherwise thoughtful and informative op-ed by Harvard history professor Kirsten Weld and law professor Andrew Manuel Crespo: The authors fail to fully consider the stakes, which loom large outside their respective academic departments — more than $2.2 billion of federal funding that is on hold for this fiscal year alone, most of which otherwise would support lifesaving and health-preserving research that almost entirely was to be undertaken at the Harvard Medical School and its teaching hospitals.
Weld and Crespo have the right to proclaim what they personally believe is “unacceptable,” but they will not and cannot succeed in thwarting what I am confident will be a reasonable settlement freeing up that $2.2 billion of federal aid.
John H. Henn
Cambridge
The writer holds both a bachelor’s and a law degree from Harvard.
Some of Trump’s foes have trouble keeping politics in proportion
Kirsten Weld and Andrew Manuel Crespo draw some interesting lines in the sand in their well-articulated op-ed “Harvard faculty won’t cave to Trump demands.” But when one looks closely, there seems to be a dichotomy in the message.
On one hand, their trumpet call urges the Harvard faculty to resist the university administration’s submission to certain of Donald Trump’s demands impinging on academic freedom, a concept presumably elastic enough to cover whatever ground necessary.
But then the battle seems to be reframed around the faculty’s defense of Harvard’s stance on certain generally inferred political issues — for example, “We will fight against … any policy favoring or disfavoring applicants for admission, hiring, or appointment on the basis of political viewpoint.” Is this academic freedom?
These days it is difficult to keep politics in proportion and in its proper arena, but the academy’s caretaking and transmission of unvarnished knowledge, i.e., the essence of academic freedom, does suggest it should guard its ability to do that most of all. After all, its job is to teach capable students how to think based on, let’s say, an appreciation and understanding of the liberal arts. Remonstrating with the Harvard Corporation and refusing to truckle to its imperatives are important, but separate, and very longstanding, squabbles.
Channing Wagg
Boxborough
Calling genocide in Gaza a fact undermines professors’ argument
Kirsten Weld and Andrew Manuel Crespo undermine the credibility of their argument when they offer as a fact “the genocide unfolding in Gaza.” While this claim has been ever more widely made as a proven fact by some media and some “experts,” it is also central in the Khomeinist and Hamas antisemitic narrative of Holocaust inversion.
Historically, Holocaust inversion as a theme goes as far back as the Holocaust itself. The Judenrein Palestine theme of the 1941 meeting in Berlin between Adolf Hitler and Arab nationalist Haj Amin al-Husseini is a root of Hamas’s genocidal charter.
Misrepresenting the claim of genocide in Gaza as a fact does little for veritas, academic freedom, Harvard, Palestinians, Israelis, or Iranians, but it splits our community and adds fuel to the multimillennial flame of antisemitism.
Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn
Cambridge
The writer is an associate professor of psychiatry, part time, at Harvard Medical School.