Congress Could Be Wrong. That Doesn’t Mean Harvard Is Right.

One front in Harvard’s defensive campaign to resuscitate its sullied reputation just faced a major incursion — from the United States Congress.

For the first time ever, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce subpoenaed a university, requesting Harvard release communications and documents regarding its response to campus antisemitism.

The committee’s decision to dedicate their valuable time to Ivy-League intrigue is undoubtedly dubious. We can easily imagine better ways that the least efficient Congress in decades might spend its time.

But in the same way that Congress is obligated to fulfill its duty to the American people, Harvard is bound to do the same for its students. And if they have failed, Congress might provide some much-needed accountability.

After all, Harvard does receive substantial federal funding, and the House committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Virginia A. Foxx (R-N.C.), has talked of revoking it. Like all recipients of taxpayer revenue, Harvard is fair game for congressional investigators who have legitimate cause to scrutinize the institutions it supports.

Harvard must therefore comply with these subpoenas.

Though Congress is clearly dead-set on embarrassing our University, Harvard should take the high road by complying with their subpoena request. There are few better ways to aid Congress’s humiliation of Harvard than by fighting Congress in a courtroom standoff.

We hope Harvard has scrupulously abided by the highest moral standards and has no wrongdoing to hide. But if our University has indeed behaved dishonorably, Congress’s transparency may provide a welcome disinfectant.

Campus affairs have undoubtedly harmed our Jewish peers these past few months, and we would like to know if the University failed to adequately respond. Hiring lawyers to fight subpoenas while we pull a blindfold over our eyes would be a ludicrous response to very real concerns on our campus.

Instead, Harvard should provide the House committee with the requested minutes from meetings of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, delivering desired transparency on how Harvard has handled controversy in the wake of Oct. 7. To best serve its students, Harvard must supply these documents.

However, for that exact same reason, there must be one critical caveat to Harvard’s compliance: Harvard must not provide any information that undermines the safety of its students. The committee’s requests — particularly for documents related to student disciplinary records — are an obvious cause for concern about student privacy.

We hope that these subpoenas are followed by thoughtful and productive action from both Harvard and Congress. We’re equally aware that these subpoenas probably won’t be the last headline that thrusts our University into the national spotlight, but Harvard has to keep learning and improving until it’s no longer a source of controversy.

Ultimately, the best — and only — way to improve Harvard’s public image is by actually improving Harvard.

This staff editorial solely represents the majority view of The Crimson Editorial Board. It is the product of discussions at regular Editorial Board meetings. In order to ensure the impartiality of our journalism, Crimson editors who choose to opine and vote at these meetings are not involved in the reporting of articles on similar topics.

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