We, the Board of the Harvard College Democrats, have decided to withdraw from the annual Visitas debate between our organization and the Harvard GOP this year. We made this decision due to a series of comments and public communications on the Harvard GOP’s Twitter account. The debate is a great opportunity for prospective students to have the chance to see students respectfully engage in political discourse, and it saddens us to not be participating. However, we found that the public communication and messages of the Harvard GOP crossed a line. We could not dignify this sort of behavior as our peer organization at the debate, particularly concerning tweets directly mocking and ridiculing other students on the basis of their identity, from the thread regarding a Crimson column to comments regarding other peers and their campus programming. This is not an acceptable way to treat members of our community, especially under the banner of our respective student organizations as we carry a certain responsibility both in and beyond this campus. The bottom line is that this behavior could not have gone without a response, nor could the debate have moved forward as if the public comments had never been made.
In good news, since having made this decision, our organization has been in touch with the Harvard GOP and the Harvard Political Union. Leaders from the Harvard GOP and our organization met to discuss our decision and the matter. This meeting was productive and respectful, and we are happy to see some of the tweets of concern already being deleted. We are hopeful for healthier and more respectful discourse within our campus and appreciative that the Harvard GOP has been receptive of ours and other concerns. In this vein, we support the Harvard Political Union moving forward with a Visitas debate event for prospective students to attend. We will also be hosting an event where we look forward to welcoming prospective students to our wonderful campus.
Sincerely,
The Harvard College Democrats Board