Money Talks at Harvard, Even When Speech is Chilled

Further proof of the indisputable chilling effect that Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow's denunciation of the private e-mail of one of her students has had on the community arrived in FIRE's mailbox last week, in the form of a gracious letter and donation from Harvard employee Gary McGath. His letter reads in relevant part:

Enclosed please find a check for $250 payable to FIRE. I am making this special contribution on behalf of the students at Harvard University who have felt the chilling effect of Dean Minow's denunciation of a student for raising taboo questions in a private e-mail discussion. 

FIRE thanks Mr. McGath for his donation to the cause of liberty on campus. 

I encourage other disappointed Harvard supporters and alumni to consider giving FIRE half of their usual gifts to Harvard for the defense of students and faculty members who dare to ask the "taboo questions" of the day, with the purpose of restoring the marketplace of ideas to America's first university.