Harvard to reconsider student discipline processes amid anti-Israel protests
Harvard University is reviewing its disciplinary processes in response to ongoing anti-Israel protests.
Critics, including a House Committee report, allege that Harvard has failed to take adequate disciplinary action against students accused of anti-Semitic behavior on campus.
Harvard University faculty will soon reconsider the school’s disciplinary processes following the anti-Israel student protests that have taken place at the school throughout this year.
“The events of last year yielded important lessons that the Committee will consider as part of the review process,” Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) spokesperson James M. Chisholm wrote in a statement.
The Harvard Crimson has reported that eight professors and university administrators will conduct the review and will determine the mechanism by which disciplinary measures will be doled out at the school.
“As bodies empowered by the Faculty to take on the day-to-day enforcement of Faculty regulations regarding education and conduct, periodic reviews play an important role in ensuring that our practices evolve to accommodate changes in policy and our society,” Harvard FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra wrote in an email.
Potential changes in Harvard’s disciplinary procedure could be implemented as soon as fall 2025, according to The Crimson.
Individuals on both sides of the Israel-Palestine issue have vocally critiqued Harvard’s disciplinary procedure as biased and ineffective.
In September, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce published a report that found that Harvard had failed to impose meaningful disciplinary measures against anti-Israel student activists at the school.
“Documents obtained by the Committee show that Harvard has failed to impose meaningful discipline on antisemitic students who engaged in conduct in violation of University rules, including participating in the Harvard encampment, occupying a campus building, and disrupting classes,” the Committee’s report explained.
“Harvard has also failed to hold student groups accountable for antisemitic conduct,” the report found. “Harvard investigated and documented student violations of its policies, some of which were deemed to warrant semesters-long suspensions, but ultimately failed to enforce its own rules and impose meaningful discipline.”
Previous instances of anti-Semitism at Harvard included stickers with an Israeli flag and a swastika on them being found on campus.
“Stop Funding Israeli Terrorism,” stated a slogan on the stickers.
“First we saw for a long stretch of time this was happening on social media, and then there were calls for escalation,” Harvard Hillel’s Executive Director Rabbi Jason Rubenstein said in a statement about the stickers. “Now, we’re seeing it happen physically — in a physical manifestation — just a few feet from the Hillel building.”
Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
