Harvard FAS to Review Student Disciplinary Processes After Faculty Backlash

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is reviewing the disciplinary processes of both Harvard College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, months after many professors criticized the schools’ sanctions against pro-Palestine protesters as inconsistent and excessive.

Faculty frustration with the schools’ disciplinary bodies boiled over last semester when the Harvard College Administrative Board sanctioned student protesters who participated in the Harvard Yard encampment — blocking 15 of them from graduating. In an unprecedented move, the FAS voted to sidestep the Ad Board and add the students back to the list of graduates.

The review, by a committee of faculty and administrators, is the clearest indication yet that FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra is not ignoring their complaints.

“The events of last year yielded important lessons that the Committee will consider as part of the review process,” FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm wrote in a statement.

The review will be conducted by a group of eight professors and administrators, who will review the composition of the administrative boards, their frameworks for deciding punishments for students who violate school policies, and the processes for appealing the boards’ decisions.

The committee’s far-reaching mandate suggests Hoekstra is willing to entertain major changes after a year in which Harvard’s disciplinary practices have come under scrutiny like never before.

That scrutiny has extended even to Congress. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is leading an investigation into antisemitism at Harvard, released a trove of student disciplinary records last month and said the University “failed to enforce its own rules and impose meaningful discipline.”

But the faculty-led review of the two ad boards, whose authority is delegated by the FAS, seems likelier to respond to concerns from professors in Cambridge than politicians in Washington.

“As bodies empowered by the Faculty to take on the day-to-day enforcement of Faculty regulations regarding education and conduct, periodic reviews play an important role in ensuring that our practices evolve to accommodate changes in policy and our society,” Hoekstra wrote in an email to FAS faculty.

The review process could open the door to significant changes to the membership of the Harvard College Ad Board, whose disciplinary committee is primarily composed of non-tenure-track faculty and chaired by College Dean Rakesh Khurana.

Disciplinary processes have been a recent point of focus for Hoekstra, who personally attempted to convince tenured faculty members to join the College’s Ad Board. Two tenured professors joined the Ad Board at the start of the fall semester, breaking a three-year drought.

Half of the GSAS Ad Board, in contrast, is composed of tenured faculty.

The review committee, chaired by University Professor Ann M. Blair ’84, will share its recommendations with the FAS’ Faculty Council in the spring. Any proposed changes must be approved by a vote of the full FAS to take effect.

The FAS hopes to implement recommended changes for the fall 2025 semester, Chisholm said.

—Staff writer Tilly R. Robinson can be reached at tilly.robinson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tillyrobin.

—Staff writer Neil H. Shah can be reached at neil.shah@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @neilhshah15.