- CEOs called on Harvard to release the names of students who signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas attacks.
- But First Amendment experts said universities should defend their students' freedom of speech.
Harvard and other high-profile universities would be wise to abstain from wading into political discourse like the current Israel-Hamas conflict and instead focus on their responsibility to protect and promote students' freedom of speech — even when that speech is unpopular, according to First Amendment experts.
"If a university takes any position on these issues they're going to make people angry," Alex Morey, director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Insider. "But worse than that, they move themselves away from their core mission, which is to be the host of debates on campus."
Harvard is in the hot seat this week after more than 30 student organizations signed on to a joint statement from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups that "entirely" blamed Israel for the wave of attacks by Hamas in the country over the weekend.
The letter prompted outrage on social media, particularly among a group of business leaders who, spearheaded by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, called on Harvard to release the names of students who are members of the organizations that signed the letter so CEOs could avoid "inadvertently" hiring them.
Several of the business leaders who initially backed Ackman's call have since softened their demands, instead encouraging students involved to resign from their organizations in protest of the statement. Multiple Harvard students and groups have retracted their support for the letter, claiming they never saw the statement before it was published.
The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee said in a Tuesday Instagram post that the names of the organizations were removed from the letter "to protect the safety of affected students."
But that hasn't stopped some students from being doxxed as a result of the statement. On Wednesday, a truck drove around Harvard's campus with a digital billboard that claimed to show the names and faces of students associated with the letter.
Universities that promote free speech have a duty to defend it
Harvard President Claudine Gay addressed the letter in a Tuesday statement, affirming students' "right to speak for themselves," while stressing that no student group speaks for the institution or its leadership.
While universities may have a moral obligation to protect students' freedom of expression, the decision over whether to release students' names is entirely up to Harvard, Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, said.
"But it's probably not good practice to subject your students to external attacks whether their position is right or wrong," he told Insider.
Harvard did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal business hours.
Just as Harvard students have the right to condemn Israel, so too does Ackman have the right to call on the university to release their names, Paulson said. Business leaders also have the right to not hire any such students based on their support for Palestine.
"You don't have to hire somebody," Paulson added. "But it's also not good practice to target them."
In at least two cases, consequences have been swift for those who shared support for Palestine. A Philadelphia sports writer lost his job after tweeting about the conflict, while law firm Winston & Strawn rescinded a job offer for the president of the New York University Student Bar Association after she penned a viral newsletter accusing Israel of bearing "full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life."
In a statement to The New York Times, NYU suggested the student could be under investigation for her comments — a troubling development that the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is tracking, Morey said.
"At a minimum colleges that promise free speech cannot be punishing students," she said. "At their best, universities should be stepping up for students and faculties to have these discussions in the best way possible."
Colleges have long been hotbeds for contrarian opinions
But, amid the racial reckoning of 2020 and on the heels of the #MeToo movement, universities have begun wading into issues directly, issuing institutional statements on social and political topics, Morey said.
"If you dip your toe into the water once, the expectation is you will be vocal the next time around," Paulson said.
From Ukraine to Black Lives Matter, most private, prestigious colleges have taken a public stance on the pressing issues of our time. Crafting a popular statement on the geopolitical complexities of Israel and Palestine has proven trickier for universities to nail.
"It's tough to be a university president these days," Morey said. "But they only make it tougher for themselves when they commit to getting on this treadmill of making social and political statements in every circumstance even when there's really no good way to weigh in."
If universities have a genuine interest in encouraging a free marketplace of ideas on campus, they should abstain from taking one side over another in nearly all instances, Morey said.
"Colleges should take advantage of their very unique role to foster discussion on these issues," she said. "They can create a space where these problems get closer to being solved."