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âWhen Harvard stumblesâ
As most FIREfollowers will remember, Harvard made the disgraceful decision this spring to terminate law professor Ronald Sullivan and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, as faculty deans of Winthrop House because of his agreement to represent Harvey Weinstein in his criminal trial. (FIREhad called for President Lawrence Bacow to put an end to this controversy while he still could and make a strong statement against stripping a professor of his position for ideological reasons. Obviously, that didnât happen.) The decision was for several days, and brought renewed attention to Harvardâs seeming abandonment of the basic principles of free inquiry, due process, and freedom of association.
Now Sullivan and Robinson have released a video entitled âWhen Harvard stumblesâŠâ that begins to tell the story of the situation in their own words and explains the importance of the principles that Harvard administrators seem all too willing to abandon, saying in part:
Letâs be clear: it was my willingness to represent Mr. Weinstein in the first place that prompted a furor, and ultimately Harvardâs decision to dismiss us as faculty deans. We know this to be true, as does the Harvard community, including its most senior leaders.
Hereâs the video:
(Harvard, for its part, the decision not to renew Sullivan and Robinson wasnât âdirectly related toâ Sullivanâs participation in Weinsteinâs defense.)
The whole video is worth watching. At the end, Robinson states that we will be hearing from them regarding âall of these issues in the very near future,â and the Boston Globe that âpart of our goal is to recenter the intellectual projectâ of universities. You can be assured that FIREwill be listening with great interest.
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