Harvard students describe ‘hostile’ campus environment for conservatives

special: Three Harvard University Students are speaking out about their experiences as members of the political right on a campus they feel is “hostile” to their ideas.

The students, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described selfless feelings and experiences that undermined the idea that the school community was tolerant of all. political ideology.

“A good example of this is that the university is very strict about not co-sponsoring events with outside groups. Republican ClubLet’s try to organize a program, said a student. No questions asked.”

Conservative students at Harvard University described the campus as “hostile” to their ideas. (Getty Images)

The student also described what he sees as “selective enforcement” of campus rules when it comes to right-wing incidents on campus.

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“There are other things, like, the Republican Club puts on a big event, and they send a bunch of administrators to really strictly enforce the fire code rules, you know, make sure the audience is in their seats properly, while the Democrats can put on an event and the whole place can be jammed and there’s no worry,” the student said.

Inside the classroom, the student described a culture of silence among those who disagreed with the left-leaning professor, fearing academic and social change.

“I think most students realize that doing the sane thing, for academic and social reasons, is just kind of a stepping stone,” the student said. “That is, grading, especially in the social sciences, is left subject-wise to graduate students, usually those who are on the teaching staff of the course. So what students usually do is copy what the professor says for the sake of the grade.”

Harvard President Alan Garber accepts an extended round of applause during Harvard University’s commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The student also described a feeling of social “outcast” that stems from “finding myself out in the classroom.” The student later added that “liberal orthodoxy” is “baked into the institution.”

As proof of the latter claim, the student on 9 Oct. Rosie pointed to a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics panel titled “Across the Divide: Organizing to Build Bridges in Partisan Times,” which he called a “lumponeish” example of institutional bias.

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He mentioned that three speakers are running panel Democrats were all about bridging the partisan divide: Former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III; Derrick Johnson, president of the notably left-wing NAACP; and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Another student described the social repercussions from other students when he mentioned that he was considering joining a right-leaning organization on campus.

“They give you dirty looks. They don’t want to associate with you anymore. They start arguing with you, attacking you,” the student said.

Protesters gather on Cambridge Common to protest Harvard’s stance on the war in Gaza and show support for the Palestinian people, outside Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 25, 2025. (via Joseph Prezioso/AFP Getty Images)

Noting that some fellow students engage in political discussions in good faith, the student said most are hostile.

“Most say, ‘Well, do you support Trump’s racism? Do you really support the deportation rates that are tearing families apart and leaving children without parents?'” the student said.

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“The main thing I’ve experienced is that the (Trump) administration has come out against Harvard. If people know you’re pro-Trump, they see you as an enemy of the university, just like they see Trump as an enemy of the university. And by that they see you as their enemy, because their identity is wrapped up in the fact that, you know, ‘I’m a Harvard student. So if you’re pro-Trump, that means you’re anti-Harvard, that means you’re my enemy. You are against

The student noticed a similar attitude among the professors.

“I believe that the professors at this university, through their thinking in public and in the classroom, have demonstrated that they do not tolerate conservative thinking,” he said. “These professors are very ideologically skewed in one direction and share this very clearly through their public and private comments in the classroom and do not respect the views of conservative students.”

The Trump administration announced it is freezing more than $2 billion in grants and contracts after Harvard University said it would not comply with federal demands regarding anti-Semitism. (Reuters/Nicolas Fossey)

A broad sentiment shared by all three students is what they see as Harvard’s current attempt to appease the Trump administration by embracing right-wing ideology. No student believes that the efforts are sincere.

“Harvard is under a conservative lens right now,” said one student. “And so Harvard’s administration has tried to position itself to be friendly with conservatives, or at least appear to be. It’s all for show, right? Their words are the necessary measures they’ve taken to soften the blow of the (Trump) administration’s funding cuts.”

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That student referred to Carol Hooven, who spent 20 years teaching biology at Harvard until 2021. In an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” she said the words “male” and “female” are indispensable to science teachers and that intellectuals should continue to use them despite the push to banish words. Her language was branded “transphobic” by the DEI coordinator in the school’s Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology.

Things escalated from there, with students attacking her and the administration refusing to stand by her, as she described it. Commentary piece Last year. She retired from teaching in 2023, never recovering from the reputational damage caused by her comments.

A banner over the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Sophie Park/Bloomberg)

“So obviously when they have Biden on their side, they’re … soft-firing conservative professors, pressuring people,” the student said. “They’re going to go crazy if they’re excited by whatever liberal presidential administration is serving up at the time.”

The student then compared Hooven’s case to Dean Gregory Davis, who has recently done so come under fire For anti-white and anti-police social media posts. He is on leave for the semester, but still employed by the university, proving that anti-conservative bias is alive and well on campus, according to the student.

Another student said that when Trump won the presidency in 2024, it felt like little weight was lifted and some conservative students openly supported Trump while the school administration focused on open communication.

But it was too little, too late, the student said.

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“We, it really felt like, OK, it’s a little late,” the student said. “It was completely adversarial, and now you’ve changed your tune to save face and not upset your donors and the (Trump) administration.”

The student also brought up Davis’ controversial social media posts to suggest a left-leaning bias on campus.

“This recent event with this dean, I think proves the point,” the student said. “It’s all functional, because when a guy is in a position of power that has a… history and even in the last year, in 2024, there was an Instagram post where he’s talking about hating the police, as a person who makes direct violent statements, they’re not going to fire him, right?”

State Department officials say they will begin scrutinizing all visa holders associated with Harvard University, not just student visas. (Blake Nissen for the Boston Globe for Getty Images)

“Any service they’re doing us right now and trying to make us feel better about the whole situation and trying to say ‘we represent all views’ and things like that, it’s all efficient, and because they really have to deal with federal investigations and different situations,” the student said later.

Trump administration this year Harvard investigated for anti-Semitic discrimination in the campus.

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Although students view conservatives as anti-partisan, one predicts a conservative uprising, citing the Charlie Kirk assassination as fuel for more right-wing college students to speak out.

“I will say that I think that in small groups of conservative students, in the face of fire, in the face of the enemy, as you say, or at least in the face of opposition, I think is stronger than ever.”

Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.