Harvard president says students report being pushed ‘to the periphery of campus life’ over their identities and beliefs.
Two reports by Harvard University task forces found that students and staff have faced anti-Muslim bias as well as anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic bias.
The release of the reports on Tuesday follows the establishment last year of separate task forces on combating “Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias” as well as “Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias” amid campus protests over Israel’s war on Gaza.
It also comes as Harvard is embroiled in a legal fight with US President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to freeze more than $2bn in funding for the university, a move Trump claims was taken in response to rampant anti-Semitism on campus.
In a statement announcing the findings, Harvard President Alan Garber said that “Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and pro-Palestinian community members reported feeling judged, misrepresented, and silenced” and that Jewish, Israeli and Zionist community members reported hiding “overt markers of their identities to avoid confrontation”.
“Especially disturbing is the reported willingness of some students to treat each other with disdain rather than sympathy, eager to criticise and ostracize, particularly when afforded the anonymity and distance that social media provides,” Garber said.
“Some students reported being pushed by their peers to the periphery of campus life because of who they are or what they believe, eroding our shared sense of community in the process.”
The task force on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias found a similar climate of hostility, describing a “deep-seated sense of fear” among students and a state of “uncertainty, abandonment, threat, and isolation” on campus.
“Muslim women who wear hijab and pro-Palestinian students wearing keffiyehs spoke about facing verbal harassment, being called ‘te