Harvard flip-flops, allowing 11 pro-Palestinian protesters to receive diplomas

After initially withholding their degrees, Harvard University has capitulated to 11 of the 13 seniors who were blocked from receiving their diplomas after their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment that disrupted the university in the spring.

The Harvard Corporation's decision to reverse course comes after the Harvard College Administrative Board decided to drop suspensions against five students involved with the protests and downgrade the disciplinary action of other students to probation.

"After relentless student and faculty pressure, Harvard conferred our undergraduate degrees today," Asmer A. Safi, an organizer for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine whose degree was initially withheld, wrote on social media. HOOP was the primary group behind the 20-day encampment at Harvard Yard.

“What does it mean to be conferred a degree from a university that holds millions of investments in illegal occupation, bankrolls the annihilation of Palestinians, and mistreats its students for a political agenda?” Safi continued. “The new title of a ‘Harvard graduate’ only gives us a deeper responsibility to speak out against the injustices that this institution is built on and stands for.”

Harvard spokesman Jason Newton confirmed the degrees were conferred in a statement, saying, “The Harvard Corporation has voted to confer degrees to 11 eligible candidates who have been restored to good standing following the completion of Faculty of Arts and Sciences processes.

"The University continues to work to strengthen and improve disciplinary processes, such as the recently announced procedures to enable the work of the University Committee on Rights and Responsibilities to enhance the consistency of investigation and factfinding processes in cases involving more than one school," Newton added.

Flip-flopping on the disciplinary action for the protesters comes after infighting among different powerful entities at the school, including among the administrative board, the corporation, and the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which chose to reinstate the 13 students after the administrative board's decision to strip them of their degrees.

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The reversal of the initial hard-line approach, which critics saw as a way to alleviate pressure from federal investigations, such as the one from the House Education and Workforce Committee, into the school's response to the protests, could draw more scrutiny to the school from critics who believe administrators either downplayed or facilitated antisemitism on campus.

The two students who did not receive diplomas are still on probation, which will expire at the end of the fall semester, according to the Harvard Crimson.