Harvard University announced on Tuesday that university leadership will no longer issue public statements about social or political issues unless they directly affect the university's “core functions.”
Going forward, university officials said they would only issue statements on behalf of the university on issues related to its core values, such as academic freedom and an open environment for research.
“University leaders are hired for their ability to lead higher education institutions, not for their public policy expertise,” the report released by the eight-member task force said. “Accordingly, they should limit their public comments to matters that are within their institution's expertise and responsibilities: running the university.”
Harvard's new stance comes amid a year of turmoil on campus since the start of the war in Gaza last October, sparking campus protests and dividing students, faculty, staff and alumni.
The report was released by a faculty-led group that formed in April and calls itself the Institutional Voice Working Group, as part of Harvard's initiative to foster constructive dialogue, academic freedom and open inquiry on campus.
“We have accepted the Faculty Working Group's report and recommendations, which have also been endorsed by the Harvard Board of Trustees,” Interim President Alan Garber said in an email to campus officials on Tuesday.
The directive applies to any individual who can speak on behalf of the university, including presidents, deans, deans and other administrative leaders, according to the report.
Task force members said their recommendations and new policy do not call for absolute institutional neutrality, such as the stance adopted by the University of Chicago in 1967 at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, in which universities would not take public positions on any social or political issues.
Noah Feldman, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-chair of the working group, said Harvard's leaders can speak publicly not only about everything that goes on at the university, but also about the school's core values.
“That's their area of expertise, and they shouldn't be neutral about it,” he said in an interview. “The university as a whole is not an expert on foreign policy, and the university as a whole is not an expert on domestic policy.”
Feldman added that the working group was not a direct response to Harvard's struggles over responding to the war in Gaza and the resulting protests and encampments, but he said the tensions underscored the fact that formal guidance was desperately needed.
“If the university had a clear policy that people could understand, it would be much harder for anyone, inside or outside the university, to criticize the university for not taking a stance, or for taking too strong a stance, or for it not taking the stance that people would want it to take,” he added.
Former Harvard University president Claudine Gay came under fire for her comments shortly after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, first for the delay in her statement and then for not condemning the attacks more strongly.
In a Q&A with the Harvard Gazette, Harvard's official news channel, working group co-chair and philosophy professor Allison Simmons elaborated on the timing of the new policy, noting that the rapid spread of messages through social media and today's “extreme political polarization” pose obstacles to the university's ability to control its communications and how people respond to them.
“These two changes have only become evident since October 7, but they've been there for some time,” Simons told the outlet, “and the combination of these two new realities makes it important to have policy in place.”
The working group's recommendations were developed and written by eight Harvard faculty members from a range of backgrounds and personal political positions, along with representatives from the departments of Theology, Education, Public Health and Law. Members also surveyed and interviewed more than 1,000 faculty and students.
“One of the main lessons that emerged from the hearings is that few people are particularly happy with the statements the university has made in the past,” said working group member Martin West, who is also dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
West acknowledged that it will take some time for the public to get used to the new policy, in part because they are accustomed to hearing from university leaders when major world events occur. West hopes that university leaders will take the time to remind the community that the absence of a statement now that the new policy is in place does not mean they don't care. In fact, he hopes that the move will create a more inclusive environment on campus.
“I think it's going to take some time for our community to adjust to this new reality,” West said.