Crimson Disconnect

A few weeks ago, Harvard students had reason to rejoice: they would rarely if ever have to use the University’s shoddy Web portal, my.harvard.edu, again. Thanks to CrimsonConnect.com, a new Web portal co-founded by Tom D. Hadfield ’08 and Benjamin P. Schwartz ’10, students would be able to read their e-mail, find out the weather, check campus events and happenings, scope out the dining hall’s menu, and access their course Web pages—among other things—all at one beautiful, easily customizable portal. Students would only have to navigate the clunky, seven-year-old my.harvard interface to print their study cards and fill out their CUE guide evaluations.

At least that was the idea until Harvard intervened.

Since nearly all course websites require PIN authentication, the portal’s use of course Web site materials caught the ire of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Computer Services, which demanded that course material be taken off CrimsonConnect.com. Hadfield, who is also a Crimson editor, had virtually no choice but to comply, and students have no choice but to use my.harvard once again.

Access to course Web sites is crucial for the success of CrimsonConnect.com, and one of the few reasons besides registration that students still use my.harvard. Legal experts have disputed whether Harvard has copyright claim over password-protected web sites and can even force Hadfield to remove this outstanding feature.

But issues of copyright aside, the administration’s approach is wrongheaded, and clearly not in the best interests of students. My.harvard—which Harvard somehow thinks is wonderful and responding to student needs—should not be supported by giving students no other alternatives. Harvard should be impressed that students have created a portal that has so many more features and work with CrimsonConnect.com and not suppress such innovation.

It would be a different case if Hadfield was doing something potentially harmful with the PIN-protected material. This was the case against Facebook.com founder and former undergraduate Mark E. Zuckerberg, who in 2003 created a Web site that randomly paired pictures of undergraduates culled from House facebooks and let users vote which was more attractive. Hadfield’s site is in a completely different category. It simply mirrored factual content like announcements and syllabi from Harvard Web sites with the best interests of Harvard students in mind.

If the administration’s concern is that only authorized users should access course material, it should work with CrimsonConnect.com to create an authentication process for users of that Web site. According to Hadfield, CrimsonConnect.com offered to do just that. Computer Services should take up the offer. Such an action would show that the administration actually cares about the interests of its students more than defending its pride and an obsolete Internet monstrosity.