A sampling of what Harvard people are saying, and what is being said about Harvard, in the press.

Advice and Dissent

Yesterday, The Crimson reported that President Bok criticized members of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for presenting too much scandal and not enough substance in their coverage of American higher education. The Crimson, however, neglected to tell of an address, given later in the day, by Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz, in which the self-styled law maven took exception with Bok's remarks. The details, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

...In an afternoon session five hours later, Dershowitz advised the editors, "Ignore what Derek Bok told you this morning."

"We are producing a generation of students who do believe in political correctness...This is the most serious issue that faces universities today. We are tolerating and teaching intolerance and hypocrisy."

From Skokie to Cambridge

From a recent Boston Globe article on free speech at Harvard, an interview with government professor Martin Kilson:

"As the world gets more complex, you have to manage aggression better. Speech codes are a way to manage the frustrations, anxieties and hysteria of a more complex world," said Martin Kilson, professor of government at Harvard. "Some succeed, some fail. That's how we learn, by trial and error."

The First Amendment absolutist position should not necessarily reign supreme in this issue, Kilson said. "Occasionally you have to rethink the boundaries between free speech and speech that harms and hurts. When the Nazis march in Skokie, Ill., before hundreds of Jews whose relatives died in the Holocaust--that's no longer speech, in my view. That's violence."

Struggling Strugnell

Late last year, John Strugnell, a Harvard Divinity School professor, was thrust into the spotlight when he was removed as chief of the team editing the Dead Sea Scrolls after making anti-Semitic remarks to an Israeli newspaper. In the recent issue of the Biblibcal Archaeological Review, there appears a glib bio of Strugnell under the heading "Major Players" in the Scroll project. Strangely enough, the author can't seem to decide whether he loves or hates the man he describes as a manic-depressive, alcoholic anti-Semite.

John Strugnell. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Professor of Christian origins at Harvard Divinity School. Never wrote a book. A wonderful teacher. A generous, caring mentor. An original member of the scroll editing team, appointed in 1953 at age 23. Since 1987, chief editor of the scroll editing team. An alcoholic. A manic-depressive. An anti-Semite. Rabidly anti-Israel. Warm and friendly to individual Jews and Israelis. Beloved by many of his students; others regard him as arrogant. Does not suffer fools gladly. Recently removed from his post as chief editor. Remains in control of a substantial hoard of unpublished texts.