Over 100 Harvard professors and staff stand up for free speech with new council: 'We are in a crisis time'

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Over 100 Harvard professors have added their names to the school’s new Council on Academic Freedom in an attempt to defend free speech in one of America’s most famous schools. 

"We are in a crisis time right now," Janet Halley, a Harvard Law School professor and feminist legal theory scholar, told The New York Post. 

"Many, many people are being threatened with — and actually put through — disciplinary processes for their exercise of free speech and academic freedom," Halley said. 

Halley is one of 103 members of the Council on Academic Freedom as of April 27.

HARVARD ESTABLISHES FACULTY-LED 'COUNCIL ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM' FOCUSED ON FREE SPEECH

Over 100 Harvard professors have added their names to the school’s new Council on Academic Freedom in an attempt to defend free speech in one of America’s most famous schools. (Michael Fein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The initiative has been led by professors Stephen Pinker and Bertha Madras, who announced the council in an op-ed for the Boston Globe. The organization, both professors wrote, was intended to "inform new faculty about Harvard’s commitments to free speech and the resources available to them when it is threatened," the Harvard professors wrote.

The newly established Council on Academic Freedom plans to promote and uphold the principles of "free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse" at the university, according to the two Harvard professors on the council.

Professors Pinker and Madras wrote that as members of the council, which was established in March, they plan to "sponsor workshops, lectures, and courses on the topic of academic freedom." 

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Harvard professors Pinker and Madras also emphasized that they would defend other academics who are canceled by "activists" for speaking their minds on campus. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Pinker and Madras also emphasized that they would defend other academics who are canceled by "activists" for speaking their minds on campus. 

"We will encourage the adoption and enforcement of policies that protect academic freedom. When an individual is threatened or slandered for a scholarly opinion, which can be emotionally devastating, we will lend our personal and professional support."

"When activists are shouting into an administrator’s ear, we will speak calmly but vigorously into the other one, which will require them to take the reasoned rather than the easy way out," they continued. 

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A seal hangs over a building at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nov. 16, 2012. (Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi )

The original idea for the council originated in 2022, according to the council’s website. 

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.