Harvard Places Palestine Solidarity Committee on Probation Over Tuesday HOOP Rally

Harvard College placed the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee on probation and banned the organization from hosting public events until July on Wednesday over actions at a Tuesday rally hosted by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine.

The College also canceled all eight events that the PSC had already scheduled for April, including programming on Palestinian history and culture and an art installation, according to a PSC press release.

Tuesday’s rally — which the PSC publicized on their Instagram account but did not officially host or sponsor — drew roughly 300 attendees, who protested shake-ups at major academic centers and alleged Harvard has complied with “fascism” under the Trump administration.

A College spokesperson wrote that the Tuesday protest broke Harvard’s Campus Use Rules, which state that amplified sound is not “permitted without prior approval” and that protests “must not impede or block ingress or egress to or movement within and around campus buildings.”

The spokesperson also wrote that the protest violated a policy barring recognized student organizations from co-hosting events with unrecognized groups like HOOP.

The PSC routinely publicizes rallies hosted by HOOP and other unrecognized student organizations on its Instagram but states that the group does not co-host the events.

In a press release, the PSC claimed the College failed to provide a “substantiated basis” for its decision, disputing their role in sponsoring Tuesday’s rally.

“Their letter merely states that a rally happened and some unauthorized organizations cosponsored it, but it says nothing about what role, if any, the PSC played,” the press release stated.

Protesters on Tuesday entered Harvard Yard through Widener Gate, where a Securitas guard checked their Harvard University IDs. Traffic on the Massachusetts Avenue sidewalk slowed to a crawl as passersby stalled behind protesters waiting in line, and several people waited to exit the gate.

Once inside the Yard, the protesters gathered around University Hall. Organizers instructed attendees to leave space for people to walk on the path that runs behind the building, but the crowd only left a narrow route through.

Protest leaders led chants and gave speeches using a megaphone and sound system they had carried into the Yard.

Wednesday’s penalties continue a tense relationship between the PSC and administrators. The group was placed on probation in March 2024, then suspended in April 2024 for violating protest guidelines regarding the use of space and failing to register an April rally in Harvard Yard.

The group was eventually reinstated in September.

The PSC’s current probation comes just two weeks after more than 3,500 people — including more than 200 Harvard affiliates — signed an open letter asking Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 to permanently disband the student group, which they accused of antisemitism.

Harvard has also come under increasing pressure to enforce policies limiting unrecognized student organizations — and College Dean Rakesh Khurana encouraged students to report groups which violate the rules in an interview last week.

An organizer for the African and African American Resistance Organization, which is unrecognized, received a warning last week for attempting to reserve a room for the group.

The PSC press release alleged that the College had overstepped the bounds of its existing policies in order to target the group’s programming “within days of the Trump administration’s most overt threats to Harvard and sustained pressure to penalize Palestine organizing.”

The Trump administration has honed in on Harvard’s funding in recent days, suggesting that it could lose access to federal dollars if it does not crack down on what the government describes as rampant antisemitism.

On Monday, three federal agencies initiated a review of more than $8 billion in multi-year federal grant commitments to Harvard. Hours later, Garber sent a message to Harvard affiliates indicating he would cooperate with the task force conducting the review.

“Our commitment to creating a campus environment where free expression thrives requires that members of our community adhere to Harvard’s policies and rules, including those relating to time, place, and manner restrictions,” a College spokesperson wrote in a statement.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.