Harvard's student government, the Undergraduate Council, has voted to support Act on a Dream, an activist student group calling for a boycott of The Harvard Crimson.
The council's statement does not specifically endorse the boycott. But it does express solidarity with Act on a Dream, whose members want the student newspaper to apologize for seeking comment from representatives of U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement in articles.
As I noted in my previous coverage of this kerfuffle, seeking comment from relevant parties is standard journalistic practice and ought to be commended. Instead, the activists have somehow convinced themselves that when The Crimson talks to ICE, it makes the campus less safe for undocumented immigrants.
"In this political climate, a request for comment is virtually the same as tipping [ICE] off, regardless of how they are contacted," the activist group's leaders wrote in their petition.
This concern is silly, and none of the activists have offered any evidence it is legitimate.
And yet yesterday the council voted 15–13–4 to pass a statement in support of this unfounded fear.
"It is necessary for the Undergraduate Council to acknowledge the concerns raised by numerous groups and students on campus over the past few weeks and to recognize the validity of their expressed fear and feelings of unsafety," the statement said.
The Crimson's own coverage of the vote points out that several campus groups, including both Act on a Dream and Harvard's chapter of the College Democrats, are refusing to speak to the paper until it bows to the demands. Time and time again ,sources of institutional authority at Harvard have not simply failed to rebuke unreasonable demands from the campus's progressive sect but have actively sided with them.
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