News
Progressive Labor Party Organizes Solidarity March With Harvard Yard Encampment
News
Encampment Protesters Briefly Raise 3 Palestinian Flags Over Harvard Yard
News
Mayor Wu Cancels Harvard Event After Affinity Groups Withdraw Over Emerson Encampment Police Response
News
Harvard Yard To Remain Indefinitely Closed Amid Encampment
News
HUPD Chief Says Harvard Yard Encampment is Peaceful, Defends Students’ Right to Protest
To the Editors of The Crimson:
I think Dean Michael Spence is correct in stating that the University has a clear interest in the number and incidence of controversial speakers appearing here. The reason for this is clear enough: such speakers are a flashpoint for turmoil. This turmoil emanates from the unwillingness of foes of controversial speakers to regulate or dampen the emotionalism associated with their opposition. Thus turmoil-inducing events must be managed through University machinery--University police, administrative proctors, etc--and there are not infinite resources to be allocated to this task.
There is a rub however. Defining beforehand precisely who is or is not a controversial speaker is not always easy. Anti-Israel and pro-Ku Klux Klan speakers are clearly controversial. But do pro-Socialist and pro-Capitalist speakers--say, Paul Sweezey, editor of Monthly Review, and George Gilder, head of Manhattan Institute, respectively--fit the controversial label? Martin Kilson
Professor of Government
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.