Posted: Monday, November 4, 2024
What has been happening?
To date this fall, there have been seven protests involving libraries at Harvard.
- September 21: on Widener Library steps and in Loker Reading Room, Widener Library – approximately 30 participants
- September 26: on Widener Library steps – approximately 60 participants
- October 11: in front of Widener Library steps – faculty and staff, approximately 15 participants
- October 16: Loker Reading Room, Widener Library – faculty, approximately 30 participants
- October 17: Law Library 4th floor reading room, Langdell Hall – students, approximately 80 participants
- October 24: Law Library 4th floor reading room, Langdell Hall – students, approximately 45 participants
- October 29: Loker Reading Room, Widener Library – approximately 60 participants
Last year on December 10, 2023, a protest organized by a coalition of student groups was held in the Loker Reading Room, Widener Library, involving more than 100 participants.
What is the rule about protests in libraries?
On January 19, 2024, the President, the Provost, and the Deans of the University issued a Statement to the University community to address questions about how the guarantees and limitations regarding protest and dissent found in the University-wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities (USRR) apply in specific settings. They clarified:
Accordingly, unless a particular School makes an explicit exception, demonstrations and protests are ordinarily not permitted in classrooms and other spaces of instruction; libraries or other spaces designated for study, quiet reflection, and small group discussion; dormitories, residence halls, or dining halls where students live and take their meals; offices where the work of the University is carried out; or other places in which demonstrations and protests would interfere with the normal activities of the University.
What are the principles underlying this Statement?
As underscored in the USRR, we have all made the choice to join this academic community whose mission is dedicated to learning, teaching, research, and scholarship. The USRR explicitly aligns the right to protest and dissent alongside the concept of community and our responsibilities to one another. Accordingly, in the January 19 Statement, reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on protests and demonstrations were implemented in order to appropriately strike this balance.
Whether an action is described as a protest or a demonstration or a study-in, a group activity, for example—even a silent one— that is explicitly using a space to make a point is engaging in a demonstration or protest. When that occurs in a library, it is a violation of the USRR. The fact that participants read quietly does not change the fact that they are protesting or demonstrating. The very point of these group actions was to draw attention—to express a point of view to others. Whether or not done quietly, these groups’ taking spaces in a library reading room to display signs and to express a shared message interfered with the library reading room as a place of study and research. That the organizers of each library study-in publicized it widely either before and/or after the protest underscores that it was intended by its organizers and participants to draw attention to a message.
The Harvard Library Patron Agreement which applies to all libraries and library facilities at Harvard and to all users of the Harvard libraries (students, faculty, staff, and other authorized users of the libraries) requires library users to respect Harvard’s policies regarding access to the libraries, including the USRR.
The University Librarian has shared her views on why even silent protests change the nature of a reading room in her October 24 essay.
How is the rule being communicated and upheld?
The rule was communicated community-wide in January via the Statement. In the first library protest this fall, three notifications were issued both before and during the demonstration/protest indicating that the planned protest would violate the rule against protests and demonstrations in libraries: 1) on the day prior to the protest through a communication to the organizations calling on community members to join them in the action; 2) as participants entered the library building; and, 3) as they sat in the reading room. Single notifications were provided in subsequent protests occurring inside a library through handouts or posted signs.
In each of the protests inside libraries, participants who, upon receipt of these notifications, ceased participating in the demonstration were not asked for their Harvard IDs. Only those continuing to participate in the demonstration were asked for their Harvard IDs. To explicitly state, IDs were not requested based on clothing or the ideas being expressed.
After each of the protests occurring inside libraries, participants received a two-week revocation of access to the particular library building at which they demonstrated. These notifications were shared with participants’ deans. Participants retained all other library access, including all collections and services. The notifications made clear that those whose library privileges were suspended should reach out as needed and would receive accommodations to ensure that the suspension would not interfere with their ability to perform their academic responsibilities.
Are There Other Places This Kind of Protest Could Have Taken Place?
Yes, there are many spaces available for protests and demonstrations on campus. As examples, the September 26 and October 11 protests (raising the same ideas as the protests occurring inside the library) occurred outside the library and did not violate the January 19 Statement or other University rules. Accordingly, no action was taken with respect to participants in those protests.