Harvard University’s board of trustees on Wednesday rejected a faculty effort to grant degrees to protesters sanctioned for participating in an anti-Israel encampment on campus.
The Harvard Crimson called the move “unprecedented” and reported that tensions between the Harvard Corporation and the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) have been high since 13 seniors were punished for their involvement in the anti-Israel protest movement that hit the university flooded the country. campuses this spring.
“I would expect a faculty revolt, possibly a faculty revolt against the entire governance structure, because there is quite a bit of distrust of the Corporation to begin with,” government professor Steven Levitsky told the student newspaper in an interview Tuesday.
FAS voted Monday to change the list of degrees that would be conferred at commencement to include the 13 students who were notified of disciplinary charges by Harvard College’s governing council three days earlier, the Crimson reported.
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The vote caused conflict among faculty members, who claimed that they had the authority under the University’s bylaws to override disciplinary actions by the Ad Board and the Corporation, which seemed to believe they were not doing so.
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“Today we voted to confer 1,539 degrees on Harvard College students in good standing,” the Corporation wrote in a statement Wednesday. “Because the students admitted as a result of Monday’s amendment are not in good standing, we cannot responsibly vote to award them degrees at this time.”
The Corporation pointed to rules in the student handbook that state students must be in good standing to graduate, and said the FAS vote did not reverse disciplinary action against the 13 protesters.
“Each of these students has been found by the College Board of Governors – the body established by the FAS faculty to investigate and adjudicate disciplinary matters – to have violated University policy by their conduct during their participating in the recent encampment at Harvard Yard,” the spokesperson said. said Corporation.
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“We respect the responsibility of each faculty to determine the appropriate discipline for its students. However, Monday’s faculty vote did not revisit these disciplinary rulings, there was no intention to engage in the individualized review of each case that would normally be necessary to do so, and, Most importantly that he has not claimed that he has returned the students to a good reputation.”
The Corporation added that it would be unfair to allow a certain group of students, who are not in good standing, to graduate while denying that opportunity to others who face disciplinary action for cases that have nothing to do with the protests on campus.
The controversy began Friday, when Harvard College’s board of trustees suspended five students and placed more than two dozen others on probation for their participation in an anti-Israel encampment on campus that ended earlier this month.
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Alan Garber, interim president of Harvard, made a deal with the student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine to end the encampment. According to protesters, the deal included a promise that the university would rescind suspensions, which students now claim the university has not kept.
The Harvard Corporation said the disciplined students must appeal their punishment through the Ad Board before they can be reinstated and receive their degrees.
“We understand that the inability to graduate impacts students and their families. We fully support the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ stated intention to provide expedited review of eligible requests for reconsideration or appeal,” the Corporation said.
“We will immediately consider awarding degrees if, upon completion of all FAS processes, a student qualifies for a degree.”
Harvard commencement will take place later Thursday.
Source of original article: Harvard Board Votes to Block 13 Sanctioned Protesters from Graduating, Risks ‘Faculty Rebellion,’ Says Prof
