(VitalNews.org) – Harvard has a current interim President, taking the place of their previous president who stepped down after being accused of antisemitism and not doing enough to tackle the antisemitic rhetoric on campus. However, the new interim president says that they will tackle “pernicious” antisemitism on campus.
Alan Garber, who is the interim president, has told the Harvard Crimson that he is concerned about reports of “social shunning” of Jewish students on campus. He spoke of a task force that would focus on this in the hopes of bringing about change.
Garber said, “What I have found the most disturbing of all are situations or experiences students describe where they have felt they could not speak in class because there are attacks on Israel or maybe Israelis.”
Garber has begun making changes and listening to the students who are in the school and what they feel should be done.
“I’ve heard complaints that in some classes, only certain points of view on controversial issues are presented and seen as welcome. The students who have spoken to me don’t think the solution is a speech code or any other means of suppressing speech. Neither do I,” he said.
He continued, “Rather, they want the opposite. A classroom environment in which alternative perspectives are taken seriously. Enabling that type of environment is work I am committed to advancing.”
The school is under investigation by the House Committee on Education and Workforce because of its response to antisemitism. This all came after the previous president, Claudine Gay, stepped down from the position of president at Harvard University. Gay was being scrutinized for her answer to a question that was asked during a congressional hearing.
She was also investigated on accusations of plagiarism, and the investigation was said to continue despite Claudine Gay no longer being president of the University. This being said, the interim president and many other leaders at the University have made a commitment to change and solve the problems that the University is currently dealing with.
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