The governing board of Harvard University on Wednesday rejected an effort by faculty to confer degrees on protesters sanctioned because they participated in an anti-Israel encampment on campus.
The Harvard Crimson called the move "unprecedented" and reported that tensions between the Harvard Corporation and the university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) are high since 13 seniors were disciplined for their involvement in the anti-Israel protest movement that swept the nation's college campuses this spring.
"I would expect a faculty rebellion, possibly a faculty rebellion against the entire governance structure, because there’s already a fair amount of mistrust toward the Corporation to begin with," government professor Steven Levitsky told the student paper in an interview on Tuesday.
FAS voted on Monday to amend the list of degrees for conferral at commencement to include the 13 students who had been notified of disciplinary charges by the Harvard College Administrative Board three days earlier, the Crimson reported.
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The vote created conflict between faculty members, who claimed they had authority under the university's governing statutes to overrule disciplinary actions from the Ad Board, and the Corporation, which appeared to believe they did not.
"Today, we have voted to confer 1,539 degrees to Harvard College students in good standing," the Corporation wrote in a statement on Wednesday. "Because the students included as the result of Monday’s amendment are not in good standing, we cannot responsibly vote to award them degrees at this time."
The Corporation pointed to rules in the student handbook which state that students must be in good standing to graduate and said the FAS vote did not overturn the disciplinary action against the 13 protesters.
"Each of these students has been found by the College’s Administrative Board—the body established by the FAS faculty to investigate and adjudicate disciplinary matters—to have violated the University’s policies by their conduct during their participation in the recent encampment in Harvard Yard," the Corporation said.
"We respect each faculty’s responsibility to determine appropriate discipline for its students. Monday’s faculty vote did not, however, revisit these disciplinary rulings, did not purport to engage in the individualized assessment of each case that would ordinarily be required to do so, and, most importantly, did not claim to restore the students to good standing."
The Corporation added that it would be unfair to permit one particular group of students who are not in good standing to graduate while denying that opportunity to others who face discipline for matters unrelated to the protests on campus.
The controversy began on Friday, when the Harvard College Administrative Board suspended five students and placed more than 20 others on probation for their participation in an anti-Israel encampment on campus that ended earlier this month.
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Harvard Interim President Alan Garber struck a deal with the student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine to end the encampment. According to the protesters, the deal included a promise that the university would retract suspensions, which students now claim the university has not kept.
The Harvard Corporation said the disciplined students must appeal their punishment through the Ad Board before they can be returned to good standing and receive their degrees.
"We understand that the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families. We fully support the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ stated intention to provide expedited review, at this time, of eligible requests for reconsideration or appeal," the Corporation said.
"We will consider conferral of degrees promptly if, following the completion of all FAS processes, a student becomes eligible to receive a degree."
Harvard's commencement will take place later Thursday.
