Harvard Against the Authoritarian

My Remarks on the Hands Off Higher Education Rally

Below is a transcript of my remarks delivered at the Hands Off Higher Education: A Moment to Reflect Rally on April 17, 2025, on the steps of Memorial Church at Harvard. The short remarks articulate what the Harvard community must do moving forward in the face of the authoritarian assault on our institution.

It makes am so happy to see the faces of friends, students, and colleagues here today. You are the best of this place. The best of Harvard.

Those of you who have received emails from me recently or know me from rabble rousing in newspapers and faculty meetings may not believe this, but until last Saturday, I had never once spoken at a rally in my life. In fact, it makes me pretty nervous to do so.

So why am I here? I am here because I admire you. And I want to tell you all how much I admire you.

I admire you because you moved Harvard to do the right thing. I’ve spent a lot of time recently over in Mass Hall with Harvard leadership: pushing on them, talking to them, cajoling them. And, I have to admit, I was mostly pretty pessimistic.

But let me tell you something, and this is a true story – I sat down with a friend for lunch on Monday and I said “the community at Harvard has stood up and told Harvard to do the right thing: faculty, students, staff, alumni, and members of the Cambridge community. And it would be extraordinary if Harvard ignored them.” Two hours later, we heard that Harvard was taking a stand.

Harvard did this because of you. You showed the power of our community.

So I want to ask you to use that power for two things:

First, we have to use our power to support each other. What is coming is going to be painful. And it has already been painful for many on this campus. The Trump administration, just in the last 48 hours has announced new attacks on our most vulnerable community members.

A lot of people have real fears. There are people on this campus who are going to lose jobs. There are people who are worried about losing their immigration status. We need to be here for those of us that are vulnerable. The most vulnerable people in our community have way more courage than me or most of the rest of us. But courageous people need our love and support too. Use our power to give that to them.

We also have to use our power to keep insisting that Harvard do better. The administration did the right thing by standing up to external attacks on academic freedom. But we must remember that academic freedom at Harvard has also come under attack from within. We have had center directors dismissed, programs paused, and partnerships canceled. These are threats to academic freedom. If we sacrifice our soul in this fight against authoritarianism, we have done the bidding of the authoritarians for them. We all must hold each other and our leadership accountable to not let that happen.

Now, I am going to tell you something that may shock you…but professors sometimes say things that they aren’t sure about.

My coauthor Steve Levitsky and I wrote something about a month ago. We said:

“If Harvard and other universities make a vigorous defense of higher education and principles of free speech and democracy, much of the public will rally to its side.”

So, this was a prediction and, to be honest, we weren’t quite sure about it. But, hey, turns out, we were right. Look, Barack Obama is loving Harvard now. Fans of the NBA will see Steve Kerr was wearing a Harvard jersey and talking about academic freedom. Heck, the Wall Street Journal is on the Harvard train.

Many people suddenly admire Harvard. Let’s stand together, stand tall, protect our most vulnerable, and prove worthy of their admiration.

And, you know, Harvard has been admired before. Before the American Civil War, there were thinkers here who said Harvard must stand on the side of abolitionism. And you know what? There were people who said that that position was wrong and we had to stay out of politics. And it took time but eventually Harvard stood for what was right. And before World War 2, there were people who said Harvard had to stay neutral in the face of fascism. But instead Harvard chose to take a stand. We see now that Harvard was on the right side of history and we can be proud.

And in this moment too, we are on the right side of history. But there is going to be tremendous pressure not to be – both internally and externally. So, we must be in this struggle together. We must support each other. And if we can do that, then we will look back on what we did with pride.

Now, in closing, let me ask you. Have you been here in this place before? In this inspiring space on the steps of this beautiful church dedicated to members of the Harvard community who sacrificed for a greater cause? I come to these steps every year for Commencement. If you’ve ever done that, you’ll know that each year we sing the song Fair Harvard. Have you ever listened to the lyrics? Listen to them now (don’t worry, I’m not going to sing). They say:

With freedom to think, and with patience to bear,

And for right ever bravely to live.

All of you have worked so hard so that we can continue our freedom to think. To bravely live. Let’s stand together to keep it that way.