Harvard president urges the school to address lack of conservatives on campus

Harvard’s president said the lack of conservatives on the Ivy League campus, and fear of expressing "unpopular" views among students and faculty are problems the school "really need[s] to address."

"The administration and others have said conservatives are too few on campus and their views are not welcome. In so far as that's true, that's a problem we really need to address," Harvard President Alan Garber told NPR.

Garber said the university needed to address a lack of "viewpoint diversity" on its campus, sharing how students don’t feel free to speak their minds. He added how faculty members have to "think twice" before teaching certain subjects. Garber said people have come forward claiming a stifling environment on campus. 

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"Many members of our community have been alarmed that students have become increasingly reluctant to speak openly about controversial or uncomfortable topics, especially if they believe their personal views are unpopular. That’s a problem we need to solve," Garber said in a separate interview with The Harvard Gazette. 

Garber was appointed as president of Harvard in August 2024 after having served as interim president starting in Janurary 2024. His predecessor, former President Claudine Gay resigned amid mounting antisemitism at the university, a plagiarism scandal and disastrous testimony before Congress. Gay said calls for exterminating the Jews were against Harvard’s code of conduct "depending on the context" when questioned by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY., at the December 2023 hearing.

In the wake of increasing antisemitism on college campuses, Garber has faced escalating pressure from the Trump administration to crack down on antisemitism and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies. 

The White House froze $3.2 billion in grants to Harvard, attempted to disqualify the school from admitting international students, and instructed federal agencies to cancel $100 million of the remaining contracts with the school on Tuesday.

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"As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter to Harvard.

Garber pushed back on the administration’s attempts to crack down on antisemitism by withholding research grants to the university, claiming that money goes towards scientific research that benefits the country.

"What is perplexing is that the measures they’ve taken to address that don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems," Garber told NPR. 

The university president went on to say that the most disturbing element of antisemitism on his campus arises from "shunning." He claimed Israeli students have spoken out about incidents where students refused to continue speak with them after learning of their nationality. However, Garber said the university had made progress in combatting antisemitism over the last year.

"There has been tremendous division on campus over that period of time. There are faculty and students who disagreed with one another about what the university should do. But the main purpose of that report was to identify the problems that we face, particularly with regard to our Jewish and Israeli students," he said.