By Hugo C. Chiasson, Abigail S. Gerstein, Amann S. Mahajan, and Elise A. Spenner:
A group of faculty members is pressing Harvard’s top brass to overhaul how it investigates professors, raising concerns that current procedures lack basic safeguards and could expose faculty to unfair or overly opaque disciplinary processes.
The effort, led by a working group within the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, has gained momentum in recent months as faculty examine investigations that have unfolded across the University.
At the center of the push is a call for clearer and more consistent standards of due process — including greater transparency for accused professors and more uniform procedures across Harvard’s schools.
“We are concerned that some investigations have failed to adhere to reasonable standards of due process and that this threatens academic freedom,” University Professor Eric S. Maskin, a co-president of CAFH, wrote in a statement.
A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
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