The Harvard Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., Defends His Decision to Represent Harvey Weinstein | The New Yorker

The Harvard Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., Defends His Decision to Represent Harvey Weinstein | The New Yorker

A few noisy students at the dorm Sullivan oversees have protested his involvement in the case, and the Harvard administration has focused on placating them rather than backing the faculty member and the legal traditions of presumption of innocence and the right to counsel.

"[Q.] Is this on the dean of Harvard College, who launched this survey, or is this in response to student pressure? Do you blame the administration, or do you think that the students forced his hand?"

"No, students have every right to protest. It's in the nature of students to protest. The adults in the room, however, do not have to react in the way that they have."

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"[Q.]" There's been a lot written about political correctness running amok on campus the last few years. Do you consider this an example of it? Has this incident changed the way you think about that larger issue?"

"To the first part of your question, the term political correctness has so much freight that I'm going to choose my own term and say that this situation is a particular instantiation of a larger threat to both academic freedom and the norm of open and robust exchanges of ideas that have typically characterized universities. It has not changed my thinking, because I have long been concerned with forms of silencing that go on in the university space with respect to people who have different ideas. I have gotten scores of notes from students who very quietly give strong support to me, and I appreciate those notes. But one constant is that they say that they feel as though they cannot say anything publicly because they will be tarred and feathered as 'rape sympathizers' and that they're disinclined to step out publicly. This sort of thing has no space in the university. People have to be able to exchange ideas, even ideas with which they disagree, freely and openly. That's that."