Letter to the Editor

To the editor:

Former University President Lawrence H. Summers’s argument that “universities as institutions must avoid acting in a way that suggests that they endorse any one position in a political controversy” is well-taken. When I read that, I initially thought he was preparing to apologize for his speech at morning prayers some 12 and a half years ago, when in his presidential capacity he offered a list of responses to the Israel-Palestine conflict that he deemed anti-Semitic and therefore inappropriate. The list was remarkably elastic, covering everything from neo-Nazis painting swastikas on Jewish memorials to international activists describing large-scale expulsion of Palestinians as “ethnic cleansing” to Harvard faculty signing a divestment petition targeting the occupation.

But no, he stands by that intervention, which is still posted online on the University website, under the “Office of the President” section. What crosses the line into improper endorsement, it seems, is when the “Global Engagement” section of said website hyperlinks to a faculty op-ed that touches on Israel and includes a sentence with which Summers disagrees.

Summers has strong opinions regarding the Middle East, and can be variously persuasive about them. Wholly unpersuasive, however, are his periodic attempts to dress these opinions up as above-the-fray high-mindedness. Academic freedom and institutional neutrality are deeply worthwhile goals. Balancing them can indeed be tricky. But in this case the self-styled champion of both is in fact committed to neither.

Curtis M. Brown