Harvard University became a “police organization” during Claudine Gay’s administration, a physics professor told The Wall Street Journal.
Following another round of plagiarism allegations against Gay, she resigned as president of the university Tuesday. One physicist described to the WSJ an environment of intolerance to certain opinions, and told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an email that faculty members at Harvard are “afraid to speak their mind.”
“Faculty are reluctant to speak their mind out of fear from being disciplined or canceled. It is an Orwellian reality dominated by ‘virtue signaling’ among like-minded people, even when the adopted policy violates the principles it aims to promote. Free speech is often granted to those who think alike,” Avi Loeb, a theoretical physicist in Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, told the DCNF.
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, testifies before the House Education and Workforce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on December 05, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“The message was, don’t deviate from what they find to be appropriate,” Loeb told the WSJ. “It became more of a police organization.”
Gay pushed left-wing ideals and pushed for more racial diversity among university staff when she was dean of faculty, according to the WSJ.
Gay played a role in pushing out Gary Urton, who had allegedly violated sexual misconduct policies at the school, according to the WSJ. Gay stripped Urton of emeritus status, which denied him the ability to use Harvard’s resources.
Urton, who believes he was targeted by Gay for his views, said he first met Gay when she was a dean, according to the WSJ. Gay spoke with him about the lack of females in his department.
“She was concerned about that. I was concerned about that,” Urton told the WSJ.
“She became quite distressed and argued that there was no inherent conflict between diversity and merit,” Urton told the WSJ. “She was saying that if you build diversity, it will, in the end, strengthen the faculty, even though some candidates, on the merits, might seem stronger.”
Gay cited “racial animus” as one of her reasons for resigning from the Harvard presidency in a Tuesday letter and also cited racism in an opinion piece written for The New York Times.
More than 70 Democratic and Republican representatives signed a letter calling for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth and Gay to be removed from the schools after their testimony at a Dec. 5 House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing where each president refused to say if calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct. The committee opened an investigation into the universities’ “learning environments, policies, and disciplinary procedures” following the hearing, and Magill resigned from the UPenn presidency on Dec. 9.
“Instead of enhancing polarization by subscribing to the far left of the political spectrum, academia should heal societal tension and represent the diverse set of views within American society. The students should witness dialogues where opposing ideas are debated on campus, so they can make their own choice. Faculty should not be afraid to speak their mind,” Loeb told the DCNF.
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