Free Republic

A group of Jewish students at Harvard received a response this afternoon to a meeting request sent to school President Drew Faust last Wednesday – only two hours after the Washington Free Beacon inquired with Faust’s office for a story about the delay in responding to the meeting request. The students first asked Faust for a meeting on April 27th, the week after an anti-Semitism scandal at Harvard received national media attention. The students sought the meeting to raise their concerns about Harvard administration policies that they believe have supported and legitimized the growth of extremist anti-Israel events, groups, and...

Universities serve as society’s critics and conscience. We are meant to be producers not just of knowledge but of doubt—of understanding rooted in skepticism and constant questioning, not in the unchallenged sway of accepted wisdom. More than perhaps any other institution in our society, universities are about the long view and about the critical perspectives that derive from not being owned exclusively by the present. For nearly four centuries now, Harvard has looked beyond the immediately useful, relevant, and comfortable to cast current assumptions into the crucible of other places and other times. Universities are so often judged by their...