Harvard Says Police May End Protests That Cause ‘Substantial’ Campus Disruption

Harvard Executive Vice President Meredith L. Weenick ’90 told affiliates on Friday that the University is prepared to use police to end disruptive large-scale protests, the clearest signal yet that Harvard’s top leadership will not tolerate another prolonged encampment on campus.

Weenick’s message comes just one day after Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 issued a similar but less specific warning, saying that students should be “prepared to be held accountable” if they engage in protests that violate University policies.

The decision by Harvard’s leadership to fire off back-to-back missives about its policies on protest and dissent indicate that the University believes its best option to avoid a repeat of the spring semester is to take preemptive action in hopes of deterring student protesters.

“Where there is substantial disruption of the normal operations of our campus, University police may remove or remediate the disruption,” Weenick wrote in her email Friday afternoon.

The use of police force was a central question for Garber and his administration during the 20-day pro-Palestine encampment in late April and early May.

Harvard University Police Department officers maintained a constant presence in the Yard during the encampment, but the encampment ended on its own without any use of force by the police. In the spring, Garber said in an interview with The Crimson that he had a “very, very high bar” for requesting a police response to a large-scale campus protest.

The peaceful resolution of Harvard’s encampment contrasted with the scenes at many other college campuses across the country, where students clashed with the police and law enforcement officers physically cleared the encampments.

Garber’s handling of the campus protests also helped persuade the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — to remove his interim tag and formally appoint him as Harvard’s 31st president.

Almost the opposite happened at Columbia University, where former President Minouche Shafik’s decision to request the New York Police Department to clear an encampment organized by student protesters contributed to her decision to suddenly resign after just more than one year in office.

But the messages from Harvard leadership, as well as other policy changes implemented by the University over the summer, suggest that Garber’s bar for a police response will be lower this fall.

Most of the key features of the encampment, including the use of tents and tables, unauthorized signs, and megaphones are explicitly prohibited, according to an updated list of campus use rules. And now, rule violations — especially those that involve the use of University property — could be punished far more severely than they were in the spring.

Weenick’s message also reminded affiliates that they are required to show their Harvard ID if asked by a HUPD officer or a University administrator.

She also warned students that “continued engagement in an activity that is disruptive or otherwise violates Harvard’s policies or rules may be captured digitally, and participants should be prepared to be held accountable for their actions.”

Both policies were already in force during the encampment in the spring, as Harvard administrators often conducted daily ID checks and occasionally filmed encampment participants.

HUPD officers also entered the encampment to photograph student protesters and their supplies.

Harvard’s graduate student union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Harvard for the police surveillance of the encampment, which they considered protected activity.

Even before Weenick sent her email on Friday, the repeated messages from Harvard’s leadership about the University’s policies on campus protests drew condemnation from pro-Palestine advocacy groups.

Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine called the new protest rules “repressive” and “discriminatory” in a press release earlier on Friday.

“The University’s current intent is clear: to chill and police the speech of students, faculty, and staff advocating for justice in Palestine and institutional divestment from the military-industrial complex,” the group said.

“We will continue to push for divestment of our University endowment from companies that profit from the mass killing, displacement, and forcible starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the illegal Israeli occupation,” they added.

—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles or on Threads @camkettles.