Political Bias In and Out of Harvard Classrooms: A “Systematic” Problem

BY CLAIRE CHUNG ’29 AND JULIA BOUCHUT ’29

On Jan. 19, Harvard College student Tejas Billa ’28 was featured in a Fox News article, where he contributed a video interview, discussing how Harvard professors’ political biases have impacted classroom environments. Billa spoke in response to commentary from University president Alan Garber ’76 on classroom neutrality on the “Identity/Crisis Podcast,” which focuses on exploring issues that affect Jewish communities. 

The January Fox News piece emphasizes how Harvard’s left-leaning political biases have negatively affected students, particularly in the context of the Israel-Hamas war, which has been the source of considerable tension on campus. Still, not all students agreed with Billa’s thoughts, instead describing experiences where a range of political beliefs are welcomed. 

In his interview with Fox News, Billa explained that political bias is a systemic issue on campus, even influencing how students choose classes. While Billa recognizes that higher education favors liberal views, he said this new widespread political bias limits students’ education.“It’s absolutely isolating students,” he shared. 

“Conservatives will intentionally avoid taking certain courses, especially social science, because they won’t feel comfortable or have the opportunity to voice their opinions,” Fox News reported. 

Billa’s commentary created a stir on Harvard College’s campus, as many undergraduates expressed dissent for the sophomore’s statements. “I do think that there’s organizations and areas on campus that everyone can go to to feel supported,” Sarina Harjani ’29 said in an interview with the Independent. “For example, I think that the Institute of Politics does a really good job of fostering this type of environment because it is a non-partisan organization.” 

However, other students noted that Billa’s comments sometimes resonated. In GENED1092: American Society and Public Policy, student Olivia Kim ’28 shared that professors Theda Skocpol and Mary Waters made a conscious effort to teach the material in a nonpartisan way. “They did explain that the U.S. gives more social provisions in some ways that people might think, so that was good of them to be pretty nonpartisan,” Kim said.

Still, Kim felt that the course leaned left overall. While most students were still able to speak freely in class discussions, she noted that “maybe for the [conservative] minority of the students taking the course, it might have been a little bit limiting for them in sections.” 

The classroom bias extends to how professors teach the Israel-Hamas war, Billa explained. Harvard has recently faced increased scrutiny amidst concerns about antisemitism on campus and both political and financial pressures from the Trump administration. 

With increased media attention resulting from Harvard and the Trump administration, Nylah King-Boyd ’28 has noticed an escalation in outside scrutiny on Harvard. For example, a recent New York Times article called out Harvard students for obtaining high grades while remaining unengaged in class.“This whole recentering on academics sort of thing is definitely being brought upon by pressure from the outside, people are just saying Harvard students are lazy and we don’t do anything,” King-Boyd said.

This pressure from the Trump administration has led to effects beyond the classroom. “I’m in a club called Girl Up, which is the Harvard chapter of this nationwide organization focused on women’s advocacy, and we worked really closely with the Women’s Center last year, and they were amazing,” said Kim. As of xxx, the Women’s Center has shut down, eliminating the club’s former meeting space. Additionally, the Center and the Office of BGLTQ Student Life were combined and relocated to the Thayer Hall basement. “That’s just really unfair, because the Trump administration, first of all, didn’t specifically say ‘You have to close down these centers and consolidate them,’” Kim said. “And two, they offer a lot more limited support for their students.”

On Jan. 19, 2024, Garber issued two presidential task forces: the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias and the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias. Both an attempt to navigate the increased reports of antisemetic, anti-Islamic, and anti-Arab actions following Oct. 7, 2023. 

In the Final Report by the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli, the Task Force found that students reported experiencing “politicized instruction,” in which certain antisemetic and anti-Israeli ideas were normalized, though these occurred less frequently than other acts of antisemitism. 

“While reported less frequently, the third category—politicized instruction that mainstreams and normalizes antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias—was especially concerning,” the Presidential Task Force wrote. “It often occurs in the context of instruction about Israel/Palestine, a subject of considerable student interest, but one with a shortage, in our view, of high-quality offerings meeting Harvard’s standard for intellectual excellence,” they wrote. The frequency of these events, and similar ones, were not provided in the report.

According to Billa, this report on “politicized instruction” shows that political bias is systemic at Harvard. “We had this Religion and Public Life program… they said it was taught in a case study format, and for the last eight years, they have been focused on Israel and Palestine as the only case study,” he said. “They haven’t switched, they haven’t even considered switching, and they’ve taught that from only one side.”

In contrast, other students noted professorial efforts to avoid political bias in the classroom. “Our classroom had a lot of healthy debate from both sides, and [my professor] fostered an environment where that debate was encouraged in that class, so the flow of the class wasn’t solely dictated by his own political beliefs,” said Ellyce Butuyan ’29, referring to a Government class where the professor explicitly stated his beliefs leaned conservative. 

In contrast to Butuyan’s experience, Billa claimed that professors have rescheduled classes to allow students to attend left-wing protests. According to the Final Report, a student filed a report when a professor in the Harvard Chan School rescheduled class seemingly to allow students to attend the “Palestine Solidarity Global Strike” on Oct. 20, 2023. “This student reported feeling ‘disheartened, isolated, and scared’ as a result,” the Task Force noted.

“I definitely think that professors do try to create an environment where everyone can be heard, and try to maybe keep their own political views out of the conversation, especially in some of the writing classes that I’ve taken,” said King-Boyd. As an Applied Math concentrator, she noted having few political conversations in the classroom. Still, since Harvard promotes intellectual vitality, it is important that professors, like students, feel comfortable sharing their political views in class, King-Boyd  noted. “It also helps just facilitate conversations, if professors do put themselves out there and want to share their opinions.” 

Harjani emphasized transparency in the classroom to help foster productive discussion. Some of her professors shared their political beliefs with the class at the beginning of the semester. She explained that, by making an effort to encourage students to share their viewpoints, professors can ensure that classes are balanced and inclusive. “I felt that they were being very honest with us about their beliefs, their opinions. But it was never the case where I felt as though any of my professors were trying to influence us to believe the same things that they believed.”

Julia Bouchut ’29 (julia_bouchut@college.harvard.edu) and Claire Chung ’29 (clairechung@college.harvard.edu) write News for the Harvard Independent.