‘I’m sorry’: Harvard president apologises over reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias

Harvard University released its long-awaited reports on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias, presenting a scathing critique of how its students treated each other in the aftermath of the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“I’m sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a letter Tuesday accompanying the reports, which offered recommendations for the university covering admissions, handling complaints and how it teaches.

Garber, who’s acknowledged he’s recently experienced antisemitism at Harvard, is releasing the studies as the oldest and richest US university faces multiple government probes over its treatment of Jewish students and the role race plays on campus. 

The reports scrutinize a tumultuous period in the previous school year marked by anti-Israel protests and tent encampments in Harvard Yard, as well as allegations that pro-Zionist groups doxxed demonstrators.

While the federal government slammed Harvard over antisemitism after the Oct. 7 attacks, its critique under the Trump administration has morphed into an attack on the university’s governance, its promotion of diversity programs and its perceived liberal bias. On Monday, the government opened another investigation, alleging discrimination at the Harvard Law Review.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school has fired back against the demands, saying they amount to an effort by the administration to exert government control over the school and not to address antisemitism. Harvard sued the government this month, accusing it of unlawfully suspending funding after the university refused to comply with “unconstitutional demands.”

Garber created the task forces on antisemitism and Islamophobia in January 2024, weeks after he stepped in as interim president following the abrupt resignation of Claudine Gay, the university’s first Black president. She was forced out after allegations of plagiarism and criticism of her disastrous response in congressional testimony over whether calling for the genocide of Jews goes against university policy.

Together, the task forces’ reports run to more than 500 pages, which at times offered searing accounts of life for Jewish, Israeli, Muslim and Arab students. They were derived from interviews with community members and written by groups of more than a dozen faculty, students and staff.

Antisemitism Report

The Task Force Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias described a campus in which antisemitism has been excluded from forms of prejudice such as racism or xenophobia.

The report included an example of a Jewish student planning to give a speech describing their experiences as a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. But the student recounted being told, “I cannot mention my grandfather’s rescue mission in my speech because his rescue mission involves Israel. Nowhere does my speech mention the current war or Zionism. It is strictly about the Holocaust.”

The report also described a “new era” of pro-Palestinian organizing with tactics such as injecting discussions of the Palestinian cause into a wide range of areas in student life and using disruptive tactics at important events including first-year convocation at Harvard College and match day at the medical school.

The task force on antisemitism recommended changes in eight categories, including admissions and discipline. For admissions, it suggested assessing an applicant’s aptitude in navigating situations with diverging viewpoints — something Harvard College already did with a new essay question announced last year.

Anti-Muslim Report

The Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab and Anti-Palestinian Bias said students and other members of the community felt “abandoned and silenced” during the 2023-24 school year.

Muslim students told the task force they were living in fear. One said peers had lost their jobs for being leaders in Muslim faith groups. They were also concerned about doxxing — the posting of private information about a person without their consent — which they said created a climate of intimidation that was compounded by the perception that the administration’s response was inadequate.

The report on anti-Muslim bias suggested seven sets of recommendations, relating to safety, freedom of expression and transparency. Proposals also included increasing courses on Palestinian studies and bolstering cross-cultural understanding.

The authors of the reports said they set out to listen to the concerns of community members and not to verify them.

“The conclusions that emerge from this work are clear,” Garber wrote. “We need to recognize and act on them and we are doing that.”

He said Harvard has made progress by limiting official statements on public matters unrelated to the school’s core mission and reiterating rules on the time and place of protests. The university also pointed to other actions it has taken, including building “dialogue skills,” offering enhanced kosher options and providing community support during Ramadan.

Focus Areas

The reports didn’t make recommendations on whether to divest Harvard’s $53 billion endowment from Israel or US weapons makers, which was a major demand of many pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Garber has said previously that Harvard’s consistent position is that it has no intention of “divesting from Israel.”

Garber said the school would focus on three areas: nurturing a widespread sense of belonging and promoting respectful dialogue; revising and implementing policies, procedures, and training; and strengthening academic and residential life.

New actions Harvard will take include an initiative to promote viewpoint diversity and further review of disciplinary policies and procedures to assess their effectiveness and efficiency. Harvard will also review the recommendations, some of which can be implemented by the university and some by individual schools, such as admissions.

The institution has spent more than a year emphasizing efforts it’s taken to combat antisemitism, including education and safety measures. In recent weeks, the school placed the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee on probation and forced the faculty leaders of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies to leave their posts. Harvard also suspended a partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank.

Harvard said Monday that its diversity, equity and inclusion office would be renamed as Community and Campus Life. That aligns with its current focus on building community, the school said.