After releasing two reports about allegations of increased prejudice on its campus that cited examples of "antisemitism" and "Islamophobia," the Ivy League school has pledged to review its academic offerings and admissions policies.
According to President Alan Garber, Harvard has made "necessary changes and essential progress" over the past year, and more is reportedly coming.
"We will redouble our efforts to ensure that the university is a place where ideas are welcomed, entertained, and contested in the spirit of seeking truth," he said in a campus letter.
Zachary Marschall, editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, is not making too much of this announcement.
"This is something that Harvard has been told to do and asked to do since October 8th," he notes. "It is really just appallingly low expectations at this university that they're projecting this news as a good piece of progress and a milestone. It's not a milestone. It's an embarrassment that it's now mid-2025, and they still haven't fixed anything on their campus."
Harvard's investigation was meant to be a response to complaints that its instruction had become too politicized and too anti-Israel. According to the campus antisemitism task force, prejudice against Jewish people had made its way into coursework, social life, hiring practices, and particular academic programs.
Marschall says they went through a year and a half of dysfunctional task forces and then "whitewashed antisemitism to make the investigation more about racism as a whole rather than actually fix the problem at hand, which is antisemitism."
President Garber apologized for these investigation results and cited the conflict between Israel and Hamas as an ongoing reason for them.
He said Harvard cannot and will not "abide bigotry."
One of the changes is that deans are to ensure that faculty promote intellectual openness and keep from endorsing political positions that "may cause students to feel pressure to demonstrate allegiance."
Still, Marschall calls it "a moral failure on every level."
"While this is a necessary announcement, I think that we are wrong to commend Harvard," the editor submits. "This is not a gold star moment."
The reports, which encompassed hundreds of pages, come the day after Harvard announced it was changing the name of its diversity, equity, and inclusion office (DEI) to "Community and Campus Life."
