Harvard’s new anti-bullying, discrimination policy will ‘discipline’ offenders, expand administration
The Fix reports on Harvard’s new anti-bullying and discrimination policy is set to go into effect on September 1, 2023, “setting in motion a personnel expansion and raising free speech concerns.”
The Fix asked FIRE’s Director of Policy Reform for her input and she underscored that the policy may serve to chill free speech on campus. The policy definitions “‘only require that conduct is severe or pervasive, rather than both severe and pervasive… As a result, [constitutionally] protected speech that is particularly severe, but not pervasive, or vice-versa, may be subject to punishment,’” she told The Fix.
“‘Students may fear their speech on controversial issues will be deemed harassment or bullying and sanctioned by the university… [and] may reasonably self-censor in order to avoid punishment, preventing the true marketplace of ideas that a university should embody,’“ she explained.
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