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After Anti-Semitic Incident, Delayed Response by Harvard to Jewish Students

Harvard Union / Wikimedia Commons
May 3, 2016

A group of Jewish students at Harvard received a response this afternoon to a meeting request sent to school President Drew Faust last Wednesday – only two hours after the Washington Free Beacon inquired with Faust’s office for a story about the delay in responding to the meeting request.

The students first asked Faust for a meeting on April 27th, the week after an anti-Semitism scandal at Harvard received national media attention. The students sought the meeting to raise their concerns about Harvard administration policies that they believe have supported and legitimized the growth of extremist anti-Israel events, groups, and programs on campus.

After failing to receive a response to the meeting request, the students called President Faust’s office on Monday.

They were told the request had been received and it would take one to two weeks to receive an answer on whether a meeting would be granted, according to a source who spoke to the Free Beacon about the situation.

The response would have pushed the date for a possible meeting past the end of the school year on May 14th, by which time most students have departed campus.

Early this afternoon, the Free Beacon inquired with Harvard about the delay. Approximately two hours later, the Free Beacon learned from a Harvard source that the student group had just received an invitation to meet with President Faust.

After responding to the students' request for a meeting, Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal informed the Free Beacon in an email that the students had been invited to meet with President Faust and Provost Alan Garber.

Reached for comment, one member of the student group seeking the meeting told the Free Beacon that Harvard should make an effort to address the increasingly hostile anti-Semitic environment on campus.

"This incident of anti-Semitism didn't occur in a vacuum," the student said, referencing the verbal attack last month by Harvard BDS leader Husam El-Coolaq on a visiting Israeli official. "Harvard has become a fertile environment for anti-Israel activism through its constant hosting of speakers and events, and support for student clubs and programs, whose major purpose is the demonization of the Jewish state."

The Free Beacon will update this story as more information becomes available.