Columns
What Harvard Can Learn from the Senate’s Mistake
As Harvard continues its negotiations with the Trump administration over federal control of University governance, it should learn from Senate Democrats’ mistakes and avoid a similar, unnecessary capitulation.
The Case Against Taking Five Classes
A fifth class wrecks any chance at work-life balance, feeds Harvard’s toxic culture of optimization, and, with grading likely about to get tougher, might even hurt your GPA.
The Professor and the Pedophile
Summers should choose the most straightforward path and resign. Should he refuse to, though, the University must cut ties with its former president to the greatest extent possible.
Harvard Is Training Us for a World That No Longer Exists
At the end of the day, Harvard doesn’t need to end its liberal arts focus — it just needs to modernize the process. Harvard exists to train future leaders. Let’s make sure we equip them with the skills they need to lead well.
Harvard Students Hate Capitalism — Until Recruiting Season
While this negative outlook is not necessarily true, it is certainly counterproductive. If you genuinely believe that something is unjust, actively work to change it instead of giving up and accepting your corporate fate.
Harvard Must Buck Ideological Conformity
Our incredible student body consists of passionate young people eager to advocate for the issues they care about. But our campus culture should make space for those who are still formulating their views on important topics.
A Lesson in Teaching Feminism from MIT
When it comes to Women and Gender Studies, the University should take a lesson from MIT and regularly offer a survey of feminist theory.
By Ignoring Race, Alumni Interviews Erase Reality
This policy may satisfy Trump, but it betrays Harvard’s own principles. The College cannot claim to value diversity while systematically erasing the identities that make its community diverse in the first place.
Recentering Academics Demands a Revolution
As students seek an avenue to respond to the turmoil before them, Harvard’s curriculum must adapt – or risk becoming obsolete altogether.
When Extracurriculars Become Full-Time Jobs
A common defence of grade inflation is that it protects student welfare. That might be true, but at Harvard, concerns over wellbeing should be directed elsewhere: pre-professional clubs that demand grueling hours from students.
In Defense of the New Housing Day
The importance of Housing Day isn’t the exact day of the week on which it falls, but the fact that it happens in the first place. Instead of lamenting the loss of a random Thursday before spring break, students should welcome the change.
Who’s Going To Do Claybaugh’s Dirty Work?
Instituting grade deflation requires a whole lot of manpower that we don’t have.
I Didn’t Deserve To Be Admitted To Harvard
Can Harvard’s admissions office actually determine who deserves an acceptance letter? Probably not.
The Cost of Classroom Kindness
Professors should also be encouraged to critique boldly, constructively, and honestly. Harvard attracts students not because we fear difficulty, but because we seek it. If this University believes in our potential, it must trust us enough to demand more than comfort. Let discomfort return to the classroom.
Changing Grades Won’t Fix the Humanities — Here’s What Will
The humanities are serious disciplines — it’s time for academic programming at Harvard to treat them as such.
What Grades Can’t Measure
A Harvard education isn’t defined by the hours spent in Lamont. It’s defined by how we learn to balance ambition with curiosity. Administrators can change the grading curve, but the real learning happens when students decide what matters to them.
The Fun You’re Missing Is in Lavietes
Harvard's women's basketball team is winning and making history — all while playing to half-empty bleachers.
Ethicist, Should I Let Go of My Zionist Friends?
At the end of the day, a friendship built across disagreement does not demand that you hide or abandon your beliefs. Sustaining conversations across ideological and moral divides might require that you strengthen your convictions.
Independence Isn’t Cheap, but Harvard Can Afford It
Talk is cheap, and in our case, inaction far too expensive. It’s time to put our money where our mouth is — that starts with the endowment.
Harvard, Stop the Handholding
When it comes to building a real family at Harvard, less parenting from the College is better.
Does Community Input Speak for Cambridge? According to the Data, No
That’s not to say Cambridge shouldn’t listen to its residents. But when public comment becomes a ritual stage for a tiny, unrepresentative minority, it’s worth asking whom that process really serves.
Institutional Neutrality Is Impossible. Harvard Must Accept That Fact.
For Harvard, institutional neutrality is a convenient cop-out. In the face of intense public, political, and financial scrutiny, urging the University to pick a side, it can remove itself from the equation entirely. Meanwhile, Harvard’s partisanship lurks in the decisions it inevitably has to make.
The Tourists Know More Than You
By encouraging the student body to wrestle with the weight of Harvard’s legacy, the University can both educate and inspire students to wield its name wisely.
Ph.D. Cuts Are the Beginning of the End for Academia
Trump’s attacks have irrevocably altered the playing field for academia, and it may never recover.