BUZZ
Activists tried ‘to the best of their abilities’ to follow rules and guidelines
Harvard Medical School allegedly canceled at the last minute a pro-Palestinian vigil organized by a pair of student groups, citing rules regarding “distributing and posting event flyers without authorization.”
According to The Crimson, the med school’s Student Alliance for Health Equity in Palestine and Student Human Rights Collaborative initially were given the green light for the event, but were informed just “five hours before it was slated to begin” that it had been scrapped.
Dean of Medical Education Bernard Chang, Dean for Students Jennifer Potter, and Director of Student Affairs Sheryl O’Brien noted in an email that both groups had “repeatedly violated policies on event promotion, on-campus gatherings, and collaboration with unauthorized student organizations.”
One of the unauthorized groups was Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, the brainchild behind last year’s pro-Gaza encampment in Harvard Yard.
In SAHEP’s Instagram advertisements for the vigil, it initially notes it is for “Harvard affiliates only,” but in the very slide the group “invites all”:
The vigil is the first event to be canceled “entirely” under the med school’s (campus) use rules, “rolled out shortly” after the 2024 encampment.
The SAHEP said in a statement it tried to follow the policies “to the best of [its] abilities.”
“Our intent as co-organizers of this vigil was to mourn the hundreds of thousands of people that Israel has massacred in Gaza in their ongoing genocide and campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people,” the SAHEP said in a statement. “This vigil was an avenue for our community to stand together in grief and solidarity.”
The Crimson report notes campus event policies “do not directly address social media messages,” and SAHEP claimed the med school’s rules were “unclear” as its student organization manual “does not define collaborating on Instagram as a violation of campus rules.”
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