Best not to say it

Many a campus administrator has undoubtedly had the same thought as did Harvard's Dean of Social Sciences, Lawrence Bobo, a former UCLA faculty member (1993-97). But most are able to resist saying it. Read on:

From Inside Higher Ed: [excerpt]

On June 15, Lawrence D. Bobo, dean of Harvard’s Division of Social Science, called for the faculty to stop publicly airing their grievances. Writing in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, Bobo decried “the appallingly rough manner in which prominent affiliates, including one former university president, publicly denounced Harvard’s students and present leadership.” He then posed two questions and answered them himself. “Is it outside the bounds of acceptable professional conduct for a faculty member to excoriate university leadership, faculty, staff or students with the intent to arouse external intervention into university business? And does the broad publication of such views cross a line into sanctionable violations of professional conduct?” Bobo asked. “Yes it is and yes it does.”

Bobo further wrote that “as the events of the past year evidence, sharply critical speech from faculty, prominent ones especially, can attract outside attention that directly impedes the university’s function. A faculty member’s right to free speech does not amount to a blank check to engage in behaviors that plainly incite external actors—be it the media, alumni, donors, federal agencies, or the government—to intervene in Harvard’s affairs.” His call for faculty members to shut up in public immediately backfired. Instead of stifling faculty criticism, Bobo ended up attracting more denunciations of both himself and Harvard, alongside a torrent of articles published in one of those “external actors”—the media—excoriating him and, sometimes, the institution as well...

But this didn’t end up being only a conservative pile-on. The Crimson and The Boston Globe wrote news articles on the backlash, and on June 19, the leaders of Harvard’s own Council on Academic Freedom, a faculty group that formed in March 2023, denounced Bobo’s op-ed in another piece in the Crimson. The leaders said it was “an unprecedented repudiation of the principle of academic freedom”...

In response to Inside Higher Ed’s requests for an interview or to answer written questions, Bobo initially emailed the same statement he sent the Crimson. It said, “The Crimson op-ed expresses my personal views as a member of the faculty, seeking to put important questions before the wider Harvard community.” On Tuesday, he provided Inside Higher Ed, through a spokesman, a slightly longer statement saying his op-ed “was not intended as a policy statement for the Division [of Social Science] or the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/06/26/dean-roasted-call-silence-harvards-faculty-critics.

We recently quoted former Governor Jerry Brown saying that not every human problem needed a law. The analogy here is that not every thought that comes to mind needs an op ed, particularly if you are a university administrator.