Faculty launched departments in subjects like gender studies and African-American studies to focus on the history and experiences of marginalized communities. The groups began trying to leverage their power as donors to demand more free speech protection and viewpoint diversity on campus. Former Harvard President Larry Summers blasted Harvard President Claudine Gay’s initial statement after the Hamas attack, urging her to explicitly condemn the protesting students and more forcefully express outrage at Hamas’s actions. But Magill’s fall and the realization that the Ivy League had been breached, has sent waves of anxiety through faculty across the country. Whether it leads to broader change on university campuses is an open question.

Source: Wall Street Journal December 17, 2023 16:13 UTC