Image 01 Image 03

Harvard Libertarian Club Removes ‘Free Speech’ from Event Name to Avoid Shutdown

Harvard Libertarian Club Removes ‘Free Speech’ from Event Name to Avoid Shutdown

“The event title originally was ‘Why Minorities Need Free Speech’

Is Harvard really this triggered by the concept of free speech? Also, there are Libertarians at Harvard? Who knew?

The College Fix reports:

Harvard student club removes ‘free speech’ from event name to avoid shutdown by officials

“Free speech” is such a touchy subject at Harvard University that a student club took the phrase out of an event name so it would be approved by administrators.

The Harvard Libertarian Club has been “walking around eggshells” to avoid having its events shut down, board member Natalie Bao Tran told The College Fix in a phone interview.

The club co-hosted an April 19 event with Ideas Beyond Borders, which “promotes the free exchange of ideas and defends human rights … to counter extremist narratives and authoritarian institutions.”

It featured speakers including Ideas Beyond Borders founder Faisal Saeed Al Mutar and Flemming Rose, who published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as editor of a Danish newspaper in 2005. A film crew recorded the event for a coming documentary about Al Mutar and Rose.

Harvard media relations has yet to respond to Fix phone and email inquiries about Associate Dean of Student Engagement Alexander Miller, whose interactions with and alleged authority over the HLC are at issue.

Pulled out after ‘administrative debacle’

The club’s history with Miller led it to take precautions and proactively change the event title, lest the associate dean try to shut it down, according to Tran.

“The event title originally was ‘Why Minorities Need Free Speech,’ but knowing the dean [Miller] we went with ‘Dissent From Minorities Within Minorities,’ even though they convey the same things,” she told The Fix.

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.