Dear Members of the HMS Community:
Harvard Medical School values mutual respect, civil public discourse, and freedom of speech. Members of our community hold diverse viewpoints, and we are committed to ensuring that all have the right to hold, promote, and defend their opinions.
We are also a community that expects freedom from personal intimidation, harassment, hate speech, and intrusive violations of our workplace. As an academic institution we must protect the rights of our members to learn and study, teach and research — in short, to ensure that our students, faculty, postdocs, and staff can continue the important work at the core of our mission as a medical school. Accordingly, we must balance our dual commitment to free expression and mutual respect so we can all work together to expand human knowledge and deepen understanding.
As we approach the end of the academic year — always a busy season of events and celebrations — I want to remind our community of the HMS Statement of Mutual Respect and Public Discourse (adopted in 2020) and the foundational University-Wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities (first adopted on an interim basis in 1970 and voted to remain in effect indefinitely in 1977). Notably, a January 19 email from Interim President Alan Garber and the deans of Harvard’s schools, including me, provided additional clarity on how the University-wide statement applies to planned public protest and demonstration, and how faculty, staff, and disciplinary boards are charged with enforcing its principles.
The University’s mission includes hosting lectures, speeches, and other events that expose community members to a diverse range of ideas, discussions, and debates. Disrupting such events or activities interferes with the normal activities of members of the University. Accordingly, community members may not protest a speech or event, whether held publicly, privately, or virtually, in a manner that interferes with the right of the speaker(s) to be heard or of the audience to hear them.
Those who wish to protest at an event — as is their right — must do so in a respectful, peaceful, and nondisruptive manner, according to the following prescriptions articulated in the University and HMS statements:
- No protest should interfere with the audience’s view or prevent the audience from hearing or seeing the speaker.
- Any use of signs, prolonged standing, or other activity should be confined to the back of the venue and not block the view for members of the audience.
- Shouting, chanting, or making sustained or repeated noise that substantially interferes with the speaker’s communication is not permitted, whether inside or outside the event.
Those who do not respect the guidelines expressed in the HMS statement, the University-wide statement, and the January 19 guidance will be subject to review and possible disciplinary sanction. As the medical profession requires licensure and attestation to professional standards of conduct — which require acknowledgment of past disciplinary actions — community members should understand that violations may carry long-term professional consequences.
I encourage sponsors of public activities to display the Rules of the Road slide, available for download here, at the beginning of speeches and other events to help set the tone for a mutually respectful community.
We are living in a time of strife and division pertaining to any number of global events. We all struggle with how to effectively advocate for heartfelt convictions, and how to satisfy the gnawing need to engage in an increasingly polarized political climate. However, we must remind ourselves that not everyone sees the world exactly as we see it. We must remind ourselves to engage respectfully and peacefully as we struggle to have an impact.
I want to leave you with a reminder of what brought us all to this community in the first place … the HMS mission (with my emphasis added): To nurture a diverse, inclusive community dedicated to alleviating suffering and improving health and well-being for all through excellence in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and leadership.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University