Harvard Alumni for Free Speech Responds to Department of Education Demands

Cambridge, MA - Harvard Alumni for Free Speech (HAFFS) believes deeply in the principles of academic freedom, free expression, and genuine viewpoint diversity. These values are not merely aspirational — they are essential to the mission of any university, and to the health of a democratic society.

We have reviewed the federal government’s letter to Harvard University dated April 11th. The letter goes far beyond ensuring that Harvard does not discriminate. This letter includes demands that Harvard modify its hiring and admissions practices to comply with the federal administration’s wishes, that Harvard permit the federal government to monitor teacher and student views to assure compliance with the government’s understanding of “viewpoint diversity,” that international students be screened for alignment with “American values and institutions,” and that Harvard allow the federal government to impose its views on the intellectual life of the university.

We believe that further changes are needed to current Harvard policies and that the implementation of changes made at Harvard in the past year needs to be assessed to confirm that the core principles of academic freedom and free expression are being advanced. However, we do not think it appropriate for the federal government to be the party responsible to determine and monitor what values are acceptable for private universities to foster, and we are deeply troubled by the growing federal overreach into the intellectual life of universities.

Free expression cannot thrive under any orthodoxy — whether imposed by university administrators or by federal agencies. We do not believe that academic freedom is served by simply replacing one set of ideological mandates with another.

All universities, including Harvard, must be held accountable to their highest ideals: to foster open inquiry, to protect students and faculty of all backgrounds, and to ensure that its policies reflect a genuine commitment to equal rights under the law. But lasting reform must come through a recommitment to core academic values — not through government mandates that seek to impose political viewpoints on academic institutions.

We thus express our support for Harvard’s principled response and encourage continued resistance to the federal government’s demands.

Harvard Alumni for Free Speech is a nonprofit organization comprised of Harvard alumni, donors, students, and faculty who are committed to promoting and strengthening free expression, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity, both on campus and throughout the global Harvard-Radcliffe community.

Contact@HarvardAlumniforFreeSpeech.com