Faculty Members Suspended From Harvard’s Main Library After ‘Study-In’ Protest

Harvard Library suspended roughly 25 faculty members from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they conducted a silent “study-in” protest in the library’s main reading room last week, an extraordinary disciplinary action taken by the University against its own faculty.

The faculty study-in protested the library’s decision to similarly suspend student protesters who conducted a pro-Palestine study-in last month. The University’s decision to suspend students from the library had already come under fire from free speech groups, including the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard.

During the faculty study-in, professors silently read materials on free speech and dissent while placing signs on the tables in front of them.

The faculty protest forced University administrators to choose between maintaining the disciplinary precedent it set by suspending student activists or taking action against their own colleagues.

Though the University has previously disciplined faculty members for engaging in academic misconduct or violating policies on sexual harassment, the decision to suspend professors’ from a library for protesting appears to be unprecedented. The Crimson was not able to identify any past instances where Harvard told a group of faculty members they could not access a particular library as a result of their activism.

The suspension notification sent to faculty members, obtained by The Crimson, was largely the same as the email sent to student activists last month, though it doubled down on the move to suspend study-in participants by citing “the University’s response in prior situations.”

Faculty members were told their borrowing privileges from the library had not been affected and that they would still be able to access other locations in the library system. However, the email said they would not be allowed inside Widener — the University’s flagship library.

The faculty protesters were also told they could appeal the suspension to Martha Whitehead, the head of the Harvard Library system, by Oct. 29 if they felt the suspension was made “in error.”

Harvard spokesperson Jonathan L. Swain declined to comment on the suspensions, saying the University wouldn’t comment on “individual matters.” Harvard Library spokesperson Kerry Conley referred The Crimson to a Thursday statement from Whitehead.

In her statement, Whitehead wrote that while libraries support free speech and civil discourse, they are “not intended to be used as a venue for a group action, quiet or otherwise, to capture people’s attention.”

“In the study-ins in our spaces, we heard from students who saw them publicized and chose not to come to the library,” she continued. “Seeking attention is in itself disruptive.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

—Staff writer Neil H. Shah can be reached at neil.shah@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @neilhshah15.