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Harvard University has temporarily banned roughly two dozen faculty members from Widener Library after they held a silent study-in to challenge the Ivy League institution’s recent discipline of similarly protesting students.
The university revoked the faculty from physically accessing the campus’ flagship library until Nov. 7, according to an undated copy of the suspension notice shared with Higher Ed Dive. The ban does not affect access to online library services or the rest of the campus.
A university spokesperson declined Friday to give details or confirm the suspensions, saying Harvard does not comment on individual matters related to library access.
Faculty members staged the demonstration to protest Widener Library’s decision to temporarily ban a group of pro-Palestinian student activists for holding a similar study-in on Sept. 21, according to The Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper.
The students silently sat in one of the library’s reading rooms with signs for about an hour to protest the Israeli military’s attacks in Lebanon. The organizing group, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, has made ongoing calls for Harvard to divest from weapons manufacturers and companies with ties to Israel.
Following the students’ library suspensions, about 25 Harvard faculty members on Oct. 16 similarly sat at tables in one of Widener Library’s reading rooms, Erik Baker, a history lecturer who participated in the demonstration, told Higher Ed Dive in an email on Friday. Baker confirmed he was one of the faculty members suspended from the library.
Each set out a folded piece of paper. One side included the faculty members’ intended reading lists for that day, and the other displayed excerpts from university documents, including the library’s statement of values, Baker said. One sign shared on social media read “Reasoned dissent plays a particularly vital part in [our] existence,” quoting Harvard’s statement on rights and responsibilities.
After the faculty sat silently for about an hour, a security guard and another person Baker could not identify told the group they were violating the library’s demonstration policy and wrote down each person’s university ID.
Participants later received an email from the library’s administration notifying them of their library suspension.
“Given your violation of these rules, and consistent with the University’s response in prior situations, your physical access to Widener Library will be suspended from today until November 7, 2024,” the email notice said.
The notice gave faculty until Oct. 29 to appeal their suspension to library leadership. It told them to reach out to Martha Whitehead, vice president for the Harvard Library and university librarian, if the penalty prevents them from fulfilling their teaching, research or writing duties.
If our library spaces become a space for protest and demonstration — quiet or otherwise, and no matter the message — they will be diverted from their vital role as places for learning and research.
Martha Whitehead
Vice president for the Harvard Library and university librarian
Baker said he has asked library leadership to discuss the suspension while a representative from his union, Harvard Academic Workers-UAW, is present. As of Friday afternoon, he said he had not heard back.
He estimated the university had suspended 25 faculty but couldn’t confirm an exact number.
According to the suspension notice, Widener Library officials said faculty members assembled with the purpose of “capturing people’s attention through the display of tent-card signs.” That violates the university’s policies against demonstrations in libraries, according to the notice.
“The university’s communications have emphasized the ‘capture of attention’ as the salient violation here,” Baker said. “I’m not sure where this criterion originated and I have a hard time seeing how it could possibly be enforced in an objective fashion. Would sufficiently ostentatious fashion be banned? A T-shirt endorsing a political candidate?”
Harvard’s rights and responsibilities statement says the institution must ensure and protect the rights of its members to engage in free expression, including through orderly demonstrations. However, the university issued guidance in January saying that protests were not permitted in libraries or other study spaces without explicit exceptions.
Silent protest has long been recognized as an acceptable form of protest precisely because it’s non-disruptive.
Alex Morey
Vice president of campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
The library’s publicly available patron agreement does not reference rules about capturing attention.
Alex Morey, an attorney and vice president of campus advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, expressed concerns about the situation on Friday.
Harvard, like many colleges, has struggled “to strike the correct balance between protecting protest and preventing disruption,” Morey said in an email.
FIRE is looking into the circumstances, she said.
“What’s troubled us about Harvard’s response to the recent library protests is they seem totally non-disruptive,” Morey said. “Silent protest has long been recognized as an acceptable form of protest precisely because it’s non-disruptive.”
When asked about the faculty suspensions, the university’s spokesperson pointed to a Thursday post from Whitehead.
Whitehead acknowledged that study-ins had “sparked debate and discussion on our campuses in recent months,” though she didn’t mention specific disciplinary actions.
“An assembly of people displaying signs changes a reading room from a place for individual learning and reflection to a forum for public statements,” she wrote. “If our library spaces become a space for protest and demonstration — quiet or otherwise, and no matter the message — they will be diverted from their vital role as places for learning and research.”
Despite Harvard’s recent spate of disciplinary actions, the library study-ins show no signs of slowing.
Harvard Law School issued temporary suspensions to its own library to some 60 students this week who had held a study-in, according to The Crimson. In response, 50 students held another study-in on Thursday — marking the second demonstration to hit Harvard Law School over the past couple weeks.
