Harvard Corporation won't give diplomas to 13 students, despite faculty vote

Harvard's highest governing body has spurned a recommendation from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and will decline to confer degrees Thursday to 13 undergraduate seniors facing discipline for taking part in the campus protest over the war in Gaza, according to a statement it issued late Wednesday afternoon.

"Because the students included as the result of Monday's amendment are not in good standing, we cannot responsibly vote to award them degrees at this time," the statement read, citing the "express provisions of the Harvard College Student Handbook" regarding degree eligibility.

The decision comes on the eve of main commencement exercises for Harvard, raising immediate questions about the ceremony and longer-term concerns about the campus environment moving forward.

The decision by the Harvard Corporation was met with immediate rebuke by Kirsten Weld, a history professor and member of the faculty.

"I think this is a damning error on the part of the Corporation," she said Wednesday. "A show of complete disregard for the clearly expressed and legislated will of the faculty and it is going to generate an immense crisis in governance at this university going forward."

The Corporation said in its statement it's conferring a total 1,539 total degrees to students "in good standing" this year.

It added that each of the 13 suspended seniors had been found by the Administrative Board to "have violated the University's policies by their conduct during their participation in the recent encampment in Harvard Yard" and that Monday's vote by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences "did not ... revisit these disciplinary rulings, did not purport to engage in the individualized assessment of each case that would ordinarily be required to do so, and, most importantly, did not claim to restore the students to good standing."

The decision doesn't bar the impacted seniors from receiving a degree down the road but they must follow certain processes and return to good standing.

In a regular meeting Monday, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to reinstate the 13 students to a list of those receiving degrees this year. There were 115 faculty members in attendance, a Harvard spokesman said.

Many faculty have strongly criticized the disciplinary actions imposed by the Administrative Board. At least five students were suspended, and 20 others were placed on probation.

Weld and some of her colleagues argued that Harvard statute gives the faculty body ultimate authority to confer degrees to students.

"For the Corporation to come down and say 'no, we're just following the rules and you need to get back in your lane' — I think a Pandora's box has been opened up here," Weld said. "I think, at the very least, a faculty vote of no confidence in the Harvard Corporation is foreseeable."

A Harvard spokesman offered no further comment on Wednesday.