Harvard Medical School Cancels Student Groups’ Pro-Palestine Vigil

Harvard Medical School canceled a pro-Palestine vigil organized by two recognized student groups on Thursday, alleging the groups violated the school’s campus use rules by distributing and posting event flyers without authorization.

The event, which was organized by the HMS Student Alliance for Health Equity in Palestine and the HMS Student Human Rights Collaborative, initially received approval from school administrators. But on Thursday afternoon, five hours before it was slated to begin, HMS announced the cancellation in an email sent to all Harvard medical and dental students.

The email, signed by Dean of Medical Education Bernard S. Chang ’93, Dean for Students Jennifer E. Potter, and Director of Student Affairs Sheryl O’Brien, claimed the groups repeatedly violated policies on event promotion, on-campus gatherings, and collaboration with unauthorized student organizations.

Student organizations attempting to hold events on the HMS campus must first register them with the school, which maintains that requests will be evaluated under “content-neutral standards.”

“For approximately two weeks, the administration was supportive of the vigil, provided we followed their extensive guidelines for organizing and advertising it,” SAHEP wrote in a statement early Friday morning. “We did so to the best of our abilities.”

SAHEP complied when the Medical School decided midweek to move the vigil from the HMS Quad lawn to an indoor location, the Tosteson Medical Education Center Amphitheater, a decision administrators announced to students in a Wednesday email. SAHEP organizers wrote that administrators mandated the location change “due to security concerns.”

Then, on Thursday, the arrangements broke down entirely, with HMS canceling the event in a move that SAHEP blasted as “unilateral.”

“Our intent as co-organizers of this vigil was to mourn the hundreds of thousands of people that Israel has massacred in Gaza in their ongoing genocide and campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people,” SAHEP wrote. “This vigil was an avenue for our community to stand together in grief and solidarity.”

Many of the policies allegedly violated by the two student groups are contained in HMS’s campus use rules, which were adopted as an addendum to Harvard-wide policies that were rolled out shortly after the spring 2024 Harvard Yard encampment.

Tthe campus use rules drew criticism at the time from some faculty, who feared they would be arbitrarily enforced to discipline protesters. Harvard has removed signage, placed a student organization on probation, and fired a University employee under the policies, but Thursday is the first time they have been used to call off a planned demonstration entirely.

Chang, Potter, and O’Brien wrote on Thursday that SAHEP and HSHRC also broke school rules by sharing social media posts promoting the event alongside an unrecognized student group and by advertising the event “in a manner that broadened the invitation beyond the permitted Harvard ID holders.”

The groups’ actions “introduced substantial risks to the safety of our community,” the three administrators wrote, adding that access to the HMS Quad was limited to Harvard ID holders Thursday afternoon and evening “because of the problematic advertisement” of the vigil.

HMS’s campus use rules do not contain a blanket prohibition on public access, though they “reserve the right to limit participation in on-campus activities to Harvard University ID (HUID) holders.”

SAHEP’s statement criticized the Quad restriction, as well “heavy Harvard police and security presence” on Thursday, as a “profoundly troubling” decision.

“It heightens fear, suppresses expression, invalidates our grief around the immense loss of life in Palestine, and endangers the very individuals who make up HMS’ global student body,” organizers wrote.

The Student Human Rights Collaborative could not be reached for comment Thursday night. Asked for comment, HMS spokesperson Laura DeCoste referred The Crimson to the email sent to students.

The HMS-specific campus use rules limit student postering to recognized organizations “in connection with events that are open to all members of the campus community.” Groups must also have their posters and fliers reviewed and approved before being posted.

In the Friday statement, SAHEP wrote that the group used HMS-approved flyers that stated vigil attendance was limited to Harvard affiliates. SAHEP also posted flyers without the specification in buildings accessible only to HUID holders, according to the statement.

SAHEP first advertised the vigil online in a Monday Instagram post, which was cross-posted with Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine; Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, a recognized undergraduate organization; Healthcare Workers for Palestine Boston, which has no Harvard affiliation; and Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the unrecognized student group that organized the encampment.

The first slide of the post described the vigil as open to “Harvard affiliates only.” But the second slide and caption said the organization “invites all” to attend.

“Join medical students, healthcare workers, and allies from across Boston to mourn the martyrs,” the post read.

HOOP’s involvement may have raised eyebrows among Harvard officials, who have tried to crack down on collaboration with unrecognized groups in recent months. The University-wide campus use rules generally restrict co-sponsorship of events between recognized student groups and unrecognized student groups “unless explicitly permissible under a local policy.” The rules also state that “sponsorship by proxy” is not allowed.

But the campus use rules do not directly address social media messages. SAHEP’s statement said the Medical School’s policies were unclear, noting that its manual for student organizations “does not define collaborating on Instagram as a violation of campus rules.”

The Medical School has frequently been a locus for debates over free speech and pro-Palestine protests. The Trump administration launched an investigation in February into HMS over pro-Palestine messaging worn by students, before broadening the inquiry to all of Harvard.

Meanwhile, activists have accused the Medical School of censoring pro-Palestine speech. Student groups criticized HMS administrators last year for removing pro-Palestine imagery from an annual student-produced music video. The same year, HMS removed a potential graduation speaker from consideration over her pro-Palestine posts on social media.

The Medical School’s cancellation of a panel with Gazan patients in January of this year drew public outcry, though the event was eventually held later in the spring semester and drew hundreds of attendees.

—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at abigail.gerstein@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein.