Harvard to stay silent on issues that don’t impact university’s ‘core function’

Harvard University announced Tuesday it will no longer weigh in on public matters that don’t impact the Ivy League school’s core function, a shift that follows a historic period of turmoil at the storied university.

Harvard University announced Tuesday it will no longer weigh in on public matters that don’t impact the Ivy League school’s core function, a shift that follows a historic period of turmoil at the storied university. Harvard leaders announced the new policy after forming a working group in April to debate when the university should speak out. That group concluded that Harvard has a “responsibility to speak out to protect and promote its core function,” including to “defend the university’s autonomy and academic freedom when threatened.” “The university and its leaders should not, however, issue official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function,” the working group said in its report. The report went on to warn that the “integrity and credibility of the institution are compromised when the university speaks officially on matters outside its institutional area of expertise.” The move comes after Claudine Gay, the first Black president in Harvard’s nearly 400-year history, stepped down in January amid a swirl of controversy and plagiarism allegations.