Harvard quietly opened disciplinary investigations after students recorded former university president Larry Summers discussing his ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a classroom setting; the students who recorded the session face potential sanctions for how they obtained and shared the footage. The case crystallizes tensions over classroom privacy, academic norms and activist tactics on elite campuses. At the same time, opinion writers and campus leaders are debating a broader crisis of civility in higher education. One essay traced historic conceptions of civility—from Hobbes to Locke to Roger Williams—and argued universities lack a shared standard for managing passionate disagreement. Administrators are being asked to reconcile commitments to free expression with community safety and inclusion. The Harvard episode and the civility debate underscore growing governance challenges: universities must refine policies on recording, invited‑speaker protocols and conduct enforcement while safeguarding academic freedom.