March 29,1971

On Friday, March 26, a crowd of several hundred people in Sanders Theater shouted down members and guests of the University and prevented them from communicating their views. This incident followed closely upon an earlier one in which threats led to the cancellation of a scheduled lecture by a well-known scientist. These are the first occasions in our memory on which visitors invited to speak to Harvard audiences have been prevented from doing so. On the contrary, Harvard has repeatedly offered a forum to speakers representing a wide variety of unpopular and dissenting viewpoints.

Actions contrary to this principle deny both speakers and their listeners the rights of free speech and assembly; they suppress dissent; and they create an atmosphere of coercion and intimidation hostile to the exchange of views. Such an atmosphere can produce an insidious form of censorship in which members of the University refrain from inviting certain guests or even from expressing certain ideas.

Two days before the incident in Sanders Theater the Faculty Council reminded the University community that "deliberate interference with... freedom of speech (including that of any speaker invited to express his views) ... is incompatible with a free university and unacceptable." During the disruption itself Professor Archibald Cox, on behalf of the President and Fellows of Harvard College, similarly stated that "freedom of speech is indivisible. You cannot deny it to one man and save it for others." What occurred in Sanders Theater was not the kind of heckling or spontaneous interruption that often and naturally accompanies political meetings. It was not an attempt to argue with the speakers. It was a concerted and sustained effort to silence them.

In these circumstances it is imperative that members of this University reaffirm their support of free speech and think through their responsibility to maintain it. We can defend the right to dissent within the broader society only if we protect that right within our own community.

In this spirit we associate ourselves with a "declaration on free speech" drafted by a group of undergraduates and tutors. This declaration is now being circulated, and we commend it to our colleagues for their endorsement and support:

"We the undersigned

1) Uphold the right of any guest or member of the University to express his or her opinion on any subject, however controversial.

2) Uphold the right of any guest or member of the University to hear any speaker, however unpopular, on any subject.

3) Believe that no one who accepts the obligation of membership of the University, whether as student, faculty member or administrator, has the right to take an active part in preventing the free expression of opinion."

James S. Ackerman

Nicolaas Bloembergen

Harvey Brooks

John T. Dunlop

Archie Epps

Andrew M. Gleason

James F. Hays

Alan Heimert

Howard Hibbett

H. Stuart Hughes

Samuel P. Huntington

Doris H. Kearns

Thomas Kirk

Janet Martin

Norman Ramsey

Edwin O. Reischauer

Roger Rosenblatt

Henry Rosovsky

Zeph Stewart

George Wald

(The Members of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences)