Wesleyan president accuses Harvard of 'cowardice' for neutrality policy, says school is afraid of upsetting Trump
Wesleyan President Michael Roth has accused Harvard University of 'cowardice' for adopting institutional neutrality policies after anti-Israel encampments on its campus.
On the topic of academic freedom and free speech, Roth described the Harvard policy as 'an educational disservice at best, and cowardice at worst.'
A college president from a liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut has accused Harvard University of “cowardice” for adopting institutional neutrality policies.
In an interview with CNN’s Audie Cornish earlier this month, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth defended anti-Israel encampment student protesters and rebuked Harvard for adopting a neutrality policy following similar protests on its own campus last school year.
On the topic of academic freedom and free speech, Roth described the Harvard policy as “an educational disservice at best, and cowardice at worst.”
Roth even alleged that Harvard adopted its new neutrality policy because the school believes Donald Trump will retake the White House following this year’s presidential election.
Referring to the Harvard policy as “silly,” Roth stated, “I think they did that ‘cause they thought Trump was gonna win, and if they make statements defending basic academic freedom, they’ll anger the Trump administration.”
“I’m more proud that the students cared about Gaza and made their voices heard,” Roth said in the interview about Wesleyan’s anti-Israel encampment on campus. “Even if they did violate some of our rules … I think it was a victory in the sense that it showed that the administration of the university and the board will listen to them.
Roth explained that the “Israeli government is so blind, or stupid, or self-interested” that it keeps falling for Hamas trap “to kill Palestinian children.”
Roth insisted that the Wesleyan encampment did have some “vandalism,” but said it was mostly peaceful from his experience as people were “playing guitar” and “working on their computers.”
He also said that he does not consider the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel chant of “from the river to the sea” to actually be a call for genocide, while likening its usage to when Americans say “from sea to shining sea.”
Roth also accused Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of promoting “replacement theory” and accused Tucker Carlson of having a “Nazi apologist” on his show.
Harvard’s faculty-led report on adopting a neutral policy states, “And because few, if any, world events can be entirely isolated from conflicting viewpoints, issuing official empathy statements runs the risk of alienating some members of the community by expressing implicit solidarity with others.” The Institutional Voice Working Group also advised the school in the report not to “issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function.”
The neutrality policy applies to “any person or body authorized or purporting to speak on behalf of the university or its component parts,” such as the university president, provost, deans, and department chairs.
Campus Reform contacted the office of the president at both Harvard University and Wesleyan University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
