Bunzl, a scruffy-looking freshman from New Jersey with a sign reading: "I support Pres Summers." Hertz-Bunzl said he favors women's rights and opposes sexism, but is even more opposed to an academic environment that stifles discussion and debate. "To limit free speech goes against what a university stands for," the Democrat said. The sentiment was echoed by Matthew Downer, a clean-cut sophomore and a Republican. "It's troubling when members of the faculty feel it necessary to silence a point of view with which they disagree," Downer said. "What we've seen over the last month is the slow undoing of those academic freedoms to which Harvard has always been committed." Harvard is not alone as it argues such issues. At Columbia University in New York, pro-Israeli students have complained about harassment by faculty in the school's department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures. --More 2027 Local Time 1727 GMT
