by Harvey A. Silverglate

About the author: Harvey A. Silverglate is a graduate of Harvard Law School and specializes in criminal defense and civil liberties work in Boston.

Repression at American universities continues apace and has reached the mighty Harvard Law School.

The faculty, in a move that received surprisingly little attention, voted overwhelmingly in April 1996 to adopt a set of “Sexual Harassment Guidelines.” Weighing in at 11 single-spaced pages of substantive text, and bolstered by eight pages of enforcement procedures and a 15-page “appendix of related materials,” the guidelines contain a provision that critics contend violates the rights of free speech and academic freedom. It punishes, among other things, “any . . . speech . . . of a sexual nature that is unwelcome . . . abusive . . . and has the purpose or effect of unreasonable interfering with an...