“Attempts to silence free speech have continued, and especially on matters concerning Israel and Palestine,” Rita Hamad ’03, Georgetown University student Shadi Hamid and University of Massachusetts at Amherst student Yousef Munayyer wrote in a November editorial in The Crimson.

‘Abhorrent’ Views

When the Department of English invited Paulin to give the Morris Gray Lecture, they never imagined that a honorary lecture would snowball into a campus-wide protest.

After Paulin was invited in November, Lecturer in Literature Rita Goldberg e-mailed her students, encouraging them to abstain from attending the poet’s talk.

As Goldberg’s message spread, so did the unrest over the poet’s invitation, and within a week Department Chair Lawrence Buell announced that Paulin’s invitation had been withdrawn.

While acknowledging possible “counter-charges of censorship,” Buell said at the time that the department wanted to prevent any “undue consternation and divisiveness” that might result from the poet’s visit.

But instead of quieting outcry on campus, Buell’s announcement had the opposite effect—pitting proponents of free speech against those who advocated the use of discretion when offering Harvard up as a bully pulpit.

As the controversy refused to die down, the English department changed its mind yet again, reinviting Paulin and citing concerns about “an unjustified breach of the principle of freedom of speech.”

The department also distinctly stated that although they had reinvited Paulin, they did not endorse his beliefs.

But many who were against Paulin’s invitation said that while they respected Paulin’s right to free speech, they were upset by Harvard’s official invitation to a poet known for making anti-Semitic remarks.

“The Faculty would have never invited anyone who defames blacks, Hispanics, women, or homosexuals,” wrote Ruth R. Wisse, Peretz professor of Yiddish literature and professor of comparative literature. “Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, is quite the trend.”

But others said that Paulin’s views should be heard, regardless of the message he expressed.

“It is vital that this campus…should support academic freedom of speech,” Hamad wrote in a letter to the editor published in The Crimson on November 21.

However, in a letter published in The Crimson on the same day, Shai A. Held ’94 retorted that just because Paulin had the right to express himself did not mean that Harvard had the responsibility to “provide him with a platform.”

“University communities should be committed to freedom of speech, but also to the responsible and intelligent use thereof,” he wrote in another letter to The Crimson.