The College Fix

As reported by The College Fix this past weekend, Harvard Dining Services had decided to cease doing business with the Israeli company SodaStream.

However, the college’s administration has put a halt to that.

“Harvard University’s procurement decisions should not and will not be driven by individuals’ views of highly contested matters of political controversy,” Harvard Provost Alan M. Garber said.

Boston Magazine reports:

That [Harvard Dining Services] decision, which was discovered only yesterday by Garber and university President Drew Faust, after The Crimson published an article online, was out of bounds, according to the administration.

“As President Faust has indicated to members of the Harvard community who have made inquiries, she and I both learned of this issue from today’s Crimson,” Garber said in a statement. “She has asked staff to get to the bottom of how these conversations started, and to learn more about where matters currently stand.”

HUDS backtracked their decision, which was based on input from members of Palestinian student groups, and admitted their mistake.

“We value and regularly seek input on a wide range of issues from members of the community who use HUDS facilities. In this instance, we mistakenly factored political concerns raised by students on a particularly sensitive issue into a decision on soda machines,” said Crista Martin, a spokesperson from HUDS, in a statement sent to Boston. “As the President and Provost have made clear, our procurement decisions should not be driven by community members’ views on matters of political controversy.”

Read the full article.

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