The first letter, written by Jim Stodder ’71 was published in response to Khalil’s arrest. Stodder, a former Vietnam War student protester who now regrets participating in the 1969 University Hall takeover, initiated the petition on the class of 1971 email list, edited it with peers, and published it online on March 18. Now signed by 1,888 alumni, the letter urges “Harvard to make an open-letter statement that it will govern its own internal affairs, and protect the free speech and right to due process of all its students, faculty, and staff.” Stodder condemned Khalil’s arrest, writing, “It is hard to imagine any government action more destructive of academic freedom and open debate.”
He encouraged Garber to resist demands that the federal government might make of Harvard. (Read about those demands, made on April 3.) “Unless the presidents of U.S. colleges and universities speak out and stand together for their students and faculty, the Trump administration will feel no limits in going after those institutions,” the letter continues. “We cannot appease the Trump administration—it always asks for more. It will soon ask to see our course offerings, speakers’ lists, staff’s CVs, admissions notes, and so on.”
Notably absent from Stodder’s letter is any mention of campus antisemitism—the nominal reason for the federal administration’s demands.
More here.
Throughout the past month, several groups of Harvard alumni and faculty members have written and signed open letters encouraging President Alan M. Garber and the Corporation to stand up to the Trump administration. The ways in which the letters build off each other, adjusting requests over time, reflect the changing nature of the government’s pressures on higher education.