A Shirtless Man, Speakers Galore And Palestinian Fundraising: What I Saw In An Hour On Harvard's Campus

OutKick's Riley Gaines is hosting an event promoting fairness in women's sports on the campus of Harvard University on Thursday, October 26.

I am here to cover that event. Why? Because despite trying to push the narrative that universities like Harvard are into "free speech," the truth is that they aren't. They are into speech with which they agree.

Gaines constantly faces harassment and backlash for her views -- the apparently "abhorrent" perspective that only biological women belong in women's sports -- and I'm here to see just how "tolerant" and "accepting" this particular university is of her.

My bosses thought it might be interesting to send me one day early to "get a lay of the land." Boy, they nailed that one.

What I learned walking around Harvard campus

Let's actually start before I even made it all the way to the campus. And here I'll admit that the headline on this piece is slightly inaccurate. Harvard University is laid out like many colleges and universities that reside within a city. Therefore, the divide between the campus and the public space is small.

Just before reaching the campus, I came across a man on a street corner. This gentleman was not wearing a shirt, but he did have a colorful bandana around his head, was sitting on top of a trash can and had his knapsack hanging from a traffic light post.

He appeared to be homeless, but I cannot confirm that assessment. This man was yelling to all passers-by things like "there is no God" and other similar sentiments.

Like any good reporter, I wanted to get a picture of this man. However, I tried to do it discreetly. Mission failed. He noticed me noticing him and decided to engage me verbally.

Very judgmental -- and possibly homeless -- man near the Harvard University campus.

He saw that I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt emblazoned with the OutKick logo.

"OutKick?" he remarked with a scoff. "You look like you need to do some sit-ups."

I'm not sure if the two ideas were connected, but to be fair, he's not wrong. I probably could use a few extra sit-ups. Still, I'd be remiss if I didn't have a snarky comeback chambered.

"Why? So I can be more like you, sitting on a trash can in the middle of the afternoon?" I replied.

"No, so you can get a brain in your head and realize not to try to match wits with someone who's so far beyond your level you can't even comprehend," he snapped back.

I thought about engaging further, but I just laughed and walked away. After all, life clearly doesn't provide him with many victories, I figured I could allow him to have this one.

Actual Harvard adventure begins...

Outside of that very interesting man, little else caught my eye on the way to campus. There were several street musicians and homeless asking for money, but that's fairly typical for any city. Harvard University is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is just outside of Boston.

I finally reached the actual campus and began to look around. There are a lot of community cork boards throughout the area I circulated. They advertise campus events for EVERYTHING.

I saw advertisements for a lot of different speakers, including one for a lecture on ethics titled, "Culture and Injustice." That speaker wrote a book called Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor. I wonder where she stands on social issues?

Community cork board on the campus of Harvard University.

I also saw an advertisement for a rally called "Recognize the Genocide in Gaza" from a student organization standing "in solidarity with the Palestinians." That was just below a sticker calling for the end of cash bail.

A sign on Harvard University campus calling for students to gather in support of Palestine.

Plus, a lecture on "Extractive Capitalism in the Middle East," which essentially argues that their capitalism is better than America's capitalism.

A sign on Harvard University campus promoting a lecture on "Extractive Capitalism in the Middle East"

You know what I didn't see, though? Anything about Riley Gaines appearing on Thursday. I'd heard from a source that people were tearing down Gaines posters around the campus. I cannot confirm that, however, I can say that I walked past no less than 10 of these boards and did not see a single promotion for Riley Gaines.

Nor did I see anything in support of the innocent Israeli citizens who lost their lives in the deadly Hamas terrorist attack. No support group for any Jewish students who might want to gather and talk about their experience.

That would be bad enough, but it got much worse.

Pro-Palestine fundraising event

Outside of a campus building in a large public space I saw a fundraising effort for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. To be fair to them, they weren't talking about supporting Hamas. Their banners featured Palestinian flags and they were asking for donations -- offering Henna tattoos and stickers in return.

I decided to ask them why they chose to support this cause. They gave some line about the citizens of Gaza needing support. Fine, no problem.

I asked them if they thought Jewish students might be offended by their fundraising efforts. They said no because they aren't against Jewish people, just the state of Israel. But, they pointed out that raising funds for Palestinians didn't mean that they didn't care about Israeli civilians.

So, I simply asked why not hold a fundraiser for everyone affected by the conflict in the Middle East.

The response: "Hamas actually treats the Israeli hostages really well." Then, they told me I should "look it up." I asked them to show me. They showed me a CNN.com article.

As any good reporter does, I did later go look at the article they were referencing. I'm not going to dive into all the craziness of the article and how it reads like the released hostages were given a script to read straight from Hamas.

I do want to point out one of the first lines from this article that somehow convinced these organizers that they need to raise money for Palestine and not Israel, though.

"Yocheved Lifshitz, a frail 85-year-old grandmother who was one of two hostages released by Hamas on Monday, recounted the moment that militants snatched her from her home in the kibbutz of Nir Oz and drove her away on a motorbike towards Gaza, a 'painful act' during which she said she was beaten and sustained bruises," the CNN article reads.

Apparently, these organizers don't understand the definition of "treated really well." I'd make fun of their Harvard education, but I don't know for sure that they're students. I do know that I saw a lot of students come out of a nearby building and stop by this display, either to give money or talk to the organizers.

I saw far fewer students interested in a nearby booth supporting the Harvard University football team.

A booth on the Harvard University campus promoting the school's football team.

I also passed a church during my walk, which I found interesting. More interesting is that the church's exterior messaging board was adorned with both a "gay pride" sticker and a "Black Lives Matter" sticker.

Sign outside the Memorial Church at Harvard.

I spent around 90 minutes wandering around the Harvard campus and encountered all of what I shared with you in this piece.

So, what did I learn after being on the Harvard University campus for under two hours?

Don't send your kids to Harvard University.