Professor Lawrence Bobo, Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Harvard University and WEB Du Bois Professor of Social Sciences, spoke in ” Harvard Crimson Appropriate limits on teacher statements that must be read to be believed.
He wrote:
Does it exceed the bounds of acceptable professional conduct for a faculty member to chastise university leaders, staff, or students in order to provoke outside interference in university business? Would the widespread expression of such views constitute a sanctionable breach of professional conduct?
Yes, indeed.
Any university interested in promoting free speech should expect and encourage vigorous debate. But here’s the rub: As events last year demonstrated, sharply critical comments from faculty, especially prominent ones, can draw attention that directly hinders university operations.
Faculty members’ free speech rights do not amount to a blank check to engage in conduct that blatantly incites outside actors—whether the media, alumni, donors, federal agencies, or the government—to interfere in Harvard affairs. In addition to free speech and tenure protections, there is a responsibility to exercise good professional judgment and avoid taking conscious actions that would seriously harm the university and its independence.
In support of this stance, he even noted that “you can’t get away with shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”
Conor Friedersdorf gave an appropriate response to Dean Bobo’s argument, Tweet: “Harvard Dean Lawrence D. Bobo’s op-ed incited me, an outside actor, to publicly lament Harvard leaders who neither understand nor support free speech. By his logic, I guess he needs to be sanctioned. “
https://x.com/conor64/status/1802280647563661516
One suggestion made by the article that is worth considering is that faculty should be sanctioned for encouraging students to engage in civil disobedience that violates university policy and puts students at risk for sanctions. I agree that teachers who encourage students to put themselves at risk of punishment while they sit on the sidelines are cowardly, but I disagree that encouraging others to engage in civil disobedience is itself civil disobedience that can or should be sanctioned.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have heard university administrators recommend that the speech of faculty or other members of the university community should be limited if their speech is likely to be controversial, elicit responses, or otherwise reflect poorly on the university. (I can also say from personal experience that if my university had taken such a stance, I would have been in the crosshairs.) Some university administrators—not to mention prominent professors like Dean Bobo—don’t this way.
