According to Will’s letter, Nelson also criticized The Harbus’s photo coverage in the meeting and suggested that The Harbus should provide writers with the opportunity to enhance the image of Career Services in future issues.
The deans complained that the cartoon violated HBS Community Standards, which stipulate that HBS community members must have “respect for the rights, differences and dignity of others.”
“We do not want students to engage in discourse that hurts others,” Clark said.
But the Community Standards have never been invoked before to restrict editorial content.
“Invoking Community Standards to supersede editorial judgment and issue personal threats against those involved in the paper is in my personal view as unreasonable a posture for the administration as it is an unsustainable one,” Will wrote in his resignation letter.
Will added that he ran the cartoon in its original form.
“The words made no specific reference to any specific entity, and sufficient measures were taken to ensure the cartoon was clearly distinguishable as satire,” Will wrote.
After his meeting with Nelson, Will contacted The Harbus News Corporation legal firm’s chief counsel, who affirmed that the cartoon was printable according to free speech laws.
“In fact, each reviewing attorney...was shocked that the HBS administration invoked Community Standards to take any action at all,” Will wrote.
The administration expressed regret at the miscommunication that precipitated Will’s resignation.
“In subsequent conversations, the cartoonist made it clear that it was not his intent to attack career services,” Kester said. “If we had known that, we would have approached the whole issue differently—I regret that we didn’t learn that earlier.”
“We are sorry and distressed by Nick’s resignation,” he added. “It does suggest that our reaction to the cartoon is subject to misinterpretation.”
Students were also upset that the administration’s reaction to the cartoon led to Will’s resignation.
“About half the students were outraged after Nick resigned—they couldn’t believe that the school tried to interfere with the newspaper,” said Dan Erck, HBS first-year and Harbus reporter. “The other half don’t know what happened yet or don’t really care.”
Jensen and fellow Student Association co-president Sal Kahn set up an online message board on Friday to discuss career services and related issues.
Clark is also hosting an open forum on Nov. 25.