Harvard s Dean of Speech Sanctions – WSJ

Mr. Bobo was a leading ally of former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned in January amid pressure over her failure to address antisemitic protests on campus. She appointed him to his current position and his work was among the sources Ms. Gay plagiarized (and later corrected) in a 2001 article for the American Political Science Review.

As an institutional matter, Mr. Bobo s position as a Harvard dean is especially problematic. Harvard President Emeritus Larry Summers notes that the call to censure faculty members comments on university affairs is an obvious intrusion on academic freedom and worse because of his position. Mr. Bobo has authority over salaries, setting promotions and resource allocations, Mr. Summers notes, and until his views are repudiated by university leadership, academic freedom at Harvard will be in jeopardy.

The Harvard faculty hasn t so far embraced Mr. Bobo s speech notions, and it will be useful if the gaffe encourages them to reread the University of Chicago free-speech principles over summer vacation. But Mr. Bobo s broadside is a reminder that censors haven t vanished from the top rungs of America s supposedly elite universities.

via www.wsj.com