Scathing Harvard reports expose ugly activist culture infecting Ivy League school with antisemitism, Islamophobia

A pair of scathing reports released by Harvard University laid bare how the school has devolved into an ugly activist echo chamber — where both antisemitic and Islamophobic crusading run rampant.The inward-looking reports outline the ways in which the Ivy League school has routinely failed to live up to its mission, including stifling diversity of thought and denying historical facts to prop up activist political agendas.Harvard President Alan Garber called the previous academic year “disappointing and painful” in a note published alongside the reports, apologizing for “moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community.”Two university task forces made up of students and faculty authored the missives, one focused on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias and the other on anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias.

Both offered a scathing critique of the problems that have plagued Harvard’s culture for decades.The task forces made some troubling findings as they interviewed more than 500 members of the Harvard community for the reports.In one instance, they learned that one professor told a class that Jewish people have no historical connection to Israel.They also found nontenured faculty with links to political advocacy groups, and identified a “laziness” about including the Israeli perspective in classroom discussions about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.An unidentified faculty member quoted in the report admitted they have “never seen the university so polarized.”The educator fears that the bitter divisions, if left unaddressed, could pose an “existential” threat to the school, the Wall Street Journal reported.Among the changes the university has endeavored to implement are better defining teaching expectations to encourage intellectual openness, establishing rules governing where campus protests take place and encouraging more diversity of perspectives through its enrollment processes.The release of the repor...