Today, I wrote a piece in The Harvard Salient about incendiary comments made by Harvard’s Resident Dean of Dunster House, Gregory Davis. Since publication, Davis has both deleted his Instagram account and has issued a half-hearted, non-apology to the “Dunster House Community.”
Davis opened his email asserting that his comments were “made on [his] social media prior to [his] start in the Resident Dean role.” This is the first of multiple falsehoods in Davis’s “apology.” In fact, perhaps the most egregious statement—an imploration to “hate the police”—was made while he was the Interim Resident Dean of Dunster House. This is not ancient history dug in from some forgotten teenage account. These were the public moral declarations of a man already entrusted with disciplinary authority over undergraduates.
He further claims that “these values do not reflect [his] current thinking or beliefs.” A convenient line, but not a credible one. The posture is familiar: progressive administrators caught saying what they actually think, then suddenly discovering a belief in “good faith discussion” once the screenshots circulate in public. The groveling tone of his letter is not repentance—it’s damage control.
Davis’s “apology” is not an apology at all. The closest he comes is the boilerplate conditional: “[He] regrets if [his] statements have any negative impact on the Dunster community.” That “if” says it all. Davis is not sorry for hating police, deriding White people, or for expressing ideological hatred incompatible with the duties of his office. He is sorry only that others found out.
The worst affront came at the end of Davis’s email. The only time the word “apology” appears anywhere in his message is at the very end, where Davis says, “I apologize for this disruption.”
Do not be mistaken. Gregory Davis is not sorry for any of the scandalous or divisive comments that have come to light. He is sorry only that his cushy months on parental leave have been rightfully disrupted by the exposure of his own words.
It is clearer now than ever that Gregory Davis must be fired. If Harvard wants to restore even a shred of its institutional legitimacy—let alone its federal funding—it will do what is right and remove him from any position of authority before he ever interacts with students again.
The fact that Davis said / wrote those things shows how intolerant and infantile he is. Not ‘dean’ material.
Amen.