After the turmoil of the last several months, do you think the Board of Overseers should step in to reassure donors? If so, how?
I don’t know why the question is specifically aimed towards donors, instead of aimed towards stepping in to reassure everyone in the Harvard community that wants to ensure that the school is in a position where it continues to be a standard bearer for how higher education is done, where it continues to be a place where people feel that they belong.
Yeah, our donors are important, and Harvard can be the school that it is because of its endowment, which comes from donors, but I think everyone in our community is in need of reassurance.
Of course there are many people who are concerned right now. But there’s been lots of reporting about reductions in people’s willingness to donate, and the Board of Overseers serves as a very visible point of contact for the alumni community, including donors.
It’s very problematic that people are not feeling confident in the school, and as a result, probably not donating as much. And I do think that it’s important for the Board of Overseers, the alumni community, and others to make it clear that the school is in a good place, and is working hard to address the challenges that it’s faced since October. But I want to emphasize: All communities need to be reassured.
Do you think the current Board of Overseers election process is fair? Would you support lowering the write-in candidate signature threshold?
Fair, to me, means that anyone can nominate somebody, which is possible. They just opened the process to allow people to be nominated for next year’s slate. What I learned from the recent process is that there were lots of complaints about the portal being hard to navigate and things like that.
The Board of Overseers should examine what went on and then try to think about what changes could be made if it’s determined that that process is unfair. Absent of doing some investigation, I can’t say that there’s a number that should be thrown out. What I can say is that I would want a process where the Overseers further look into what the right number is.
So, to be clear, you don’t have a position on whether the threshold should be lower?
I don’t have a position on that right now, no. I would want to do more research on what I think that threshold should be.
As Harvard now prepares to select Claudine Gay’s permanent successor, would you like to see any changes relative to the search process that selected Gay?
I do think that, as with any situation where there has been a challenge, it needs to further be looked into. There are allegations going around that she was a DEI hire, that she wasn’t qualified for the position. I’m not privy to all of the details around what people think went wrong in the search process. But I would recommend really reevaluating and looking into the criteria, the process and seeing if something could be done to make it even more egalitarian and transparent.
Recently, Harvard has grappled with campus antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism. In light of these issues, what is your perspective on the current state of campus culture?
The current state of campus culture at Harvard and beyond is really troubling and sad to me. I can say that as a university professor myself. In October, I had Jewish students who felt they didn’t feel safe. I recently was teaching and a student who is Palestinian said to me that they are afraid to mention or let anyone know that they’re Palestinian. And I have Muslim students who are also fearful and frustrated with how things have transpired.
And so I’m really unhappy with how things are. People are fearful, people aren’t being able to bring their full selves to campus environments. There is hate going around. You all witnessed it, I see it myself, and I think so much more needs to be done to change that so that everyone feels that they belong, that they aren’t going to be harassed for aspects of their identity, that they can have differences of opinions and actually share them in an open manner.
Those are all qualities that made my educational experiences so powerful, and it hurts me deeply that our schools are not creating the environment to make people feel safe.
Do you support Harvard committing to institutional neutrality? In what areas should Harvard remain neutral?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to whether and when you take a position on a political issue. What I do think needs to happen is that we need guidelines that are going to be used to determine whether or not a position needs to be taken on something. Is the matter relevant to the Harvard community? Who’s helped or harmed if Harvard takes a position? What is the reputational risk or the safety risk?
Generally speaking, I do think that a campus like Harvard’s or any institution needs to understand that it is representing diverse perspectives, people from different backgrounds, who on any issue will have differences in opinion. So neutrality is an important thing to have. I just don’t think you can guarantee that in every situation, neutrality is going to be the way to go.
Could you give us a sense of the kind of cases in which you might imagine statements or public positions wouldn’t be appropriate?
For instance, back in the day with apartheid. I think it’s important for institutions to make it clear that policies or systems of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race are not supported by the institution. I would want the school to say we do not support something like that. We do not support things that are antithetical to our values — that’s when I would expect a statement.
I teach a course on Rwanda, where there was a genocide 30 years ago. I would think that institutions should be able to say that we don’t support genocide like you saw in Rwanda.
The University of Chicago, perhaps the most high-profile school to follow a policy of institutional neutrality, has cited that policy to reject calls from student activists to divest from certain financial interests, including in fossil fuels. Do you believe a policy of institutional neutrality should extend to investment decisions?
Students protested and said Harvard should divest from South Africa. And gradually it did. I’m absolutely in support of divestitures from behaviors or actions that are killing the environment, or are counter to important values that I believe the school should espouse.
How can Harvard respond to attacks against its credibility, or the credibility of higher education more broadly, if it is to be institutionally neutral?
We have to understand that there are times when it is important to correct the record on certain situations or make sure that you are still operating in a way that’s aligned with your missions and your vision and your values. That has to happen. I do think that there are times where even if, on average, your position is one of greater neutrality, that statements or comments need to be made that set the record straight on what a perspective is that matters and shapes how people experience the campus and the University.
As I’m sure you know, Harvard will soon complete its first admissions cycle following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision curtailing the use of race in college admissions. As the University looks to maintain diversity at the College, do you support Harvard ending preferences for legacies and the children of donors?
Because we know there’s not allowed to be race-conscious admissions and it violates the 14th Amendment, that does suggest that any preferential treatment in the admissions processes should be eliminated.I’m an alum. And I’m a donor. And I loved Harvard, and I would love for future generations of my family to go to the school. But that’s not fair. And it disadvantages people who have fewer connections, and less privilege.
The past decade has seen a number of allegations of serious misconduct against tenured Harvard professors, ranging from repeated sexual harassment to falsification of data and other research misconduct. Still, to date, there are no known cases of Harvard revoking a professor’s tenure. In what cases, if any, do you believe revoking tenure is justified?
Well, you said not a case in recent years, but I remember when I was a grad student, tenure was revoked from a professor in Psychology. You should look into that. But yeah, I don’t believe that you should be a tenured professor and fake data. I absolutely am in support of the idea that tenure can be terminated for cause when there are circumstances that indicate that you have violated the rules and norms of how research should be conducted, and not just research but the rules and norms of how you should conduct yourself as a professor.
It is true that the University has initiated proceedings to revoke tenure in the past. But it’s never completed that process. You’re referring to the case of Marc Hauser, a Psychology professor, who resigned before his tenure could be revoked.
I see. So, look, I do think that engaging in those processes is critical. You can’t control whether someone will resign versus not, but I do think initiating those processes is absolutely key.
I’m a professor.I work very hard to make sure that I’m engaging in research that’s fair, where I’m upstanding in what I do, and I would want other colleagues of mine to do the exact same thing. And if someone isn’t, then that needs to be addressed and they shouldn’t be a tenured professor — at Harvard or any institution. I feel very strongly about that.
Now, I do think that, about some of the current allegations about plagiarism, we need to be very thoughtful about what and how you think about the rules around some of those types of allegations. The standard should be equally applied across people. And what plagiarism is — people have misconceptions of that.
Do you support the creation of an Ethnic Studies department?
I absolutely think that it’s really important to have courses that tap into and focus on ethnic studies. When I was an undergrad, I took a course called “Black Women and Their Fiction,” and just having that there, being able to learn about women of color and their writing and how it affected me and having classmates in that class where the literature resonated — I think it’s critical for people to have courses where their identity is highlighted.
So I believe that ethnic studies is absolutely critical. I’m really saddened that Harvard and Columbia are two of the schools with the lowest numbers of courses in ethnic studies.
Do you specifically support the establishment of a department for ethnic studies?
Yeah, I think that it’d be great if Harvard had an Ethnic Studies department. I do.
