Harvard English has reissued its invitation to poet Tom Paulin. The Harvard Crimson notes that this reversal may have an interesting domino effect: in the wake of Harvard's cancellation of Paulin's lecture, the University of Vermont cancelled a Paulin appearance that would have taken place today.

Harvard English Chair Lawrence Buell said that a major factor in the department's unanimous decision to re-invite Paulin to speak was ìwidespread concern and regret for the fact that the decision not to hold the event could easily be seen, and indeed has been seenóboth within Harvard and beyondóas an unjustified breach of the principle of free speech within the academy.î The language is telling--if Buell's statement is accurate, this amounts to a confession that Harvard English is motivated less by the desire to promote open expression than by concern about what people think. There is no acknowledgement that the reason the disinvitation was seen as "an unjustified breach of the principle of free speech within the academy" is that it was one.