Op Eds
We Lead the Intellectual Vitality Initiative. Harvard Needs To Set Its Standards Higher.
So yes, we’re fans of the report — not for its prescriptions, but for its provocation. It has forced Harvard, for the first time in a long while, to think out loud about what it’s doing. And that, finally, is something worth grading highly.
Grade Inflation is Bad. Grade Deflation Would Be Worse.
Changing the generosity of our grading system will not end the game of grade grubbing — it will just make the game far more toxic.
Grading the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Harvard
I suggest Trump drop the project — and his involvement with higher education — immediately.
The Harvard Square ‘KiOSK’ is a Waste of Space — and $12.6 Million
One look at the new KiOSK confirms that the old, eclectic Harvard Square has been strangled by the virulent spread of millennial gentrification once and for all.
Student Workers and the Fight for Academia
Harvard’s refusal to bargain in good faith makes clear that it will not change on its own. Real progress will come only through collective action — with graduate workers, faculty, staff, and students standing together — to resist the cuts to our programs and the assault on our rights as workers, as well as to demand a fair contract.
At Harvard Chan, We Need To Talk About Hard Things
We should be angry about these failures, but not certain in judgment. Certainty forecloses the possibility of dialogue that we need for actual accountability. Staying engaged with the complexity is crucial for any progress.
No, America Doesn’t Hate Harvard
It’s a neat narrative, though it doesn’t fit the facts. Yes, Americans are less confident in institutions like Harvard than they used to be. But the drop isn’t as steep as declinists say — and it’s not primarily driven by culture-war controversies.
What College Rankings Are Missing
If universities aspire to help students flourish, then surely it would be worth knowing whether their students think they are succeeding.
My Father Died Biking in Cambridge. We Can Build a Safer City By Voting on Nov. 4.
These are issues that affect Harvard students and our neighbors every day. Lives are at stake. No other families need to be destroyed. What greater impact could you make during your time at Harvard?
Harvard Must Take a Stand Against Trump’s Compact
Harvard, rather than quietly pursuing its own appeasement strategy, should lead the way to preserve academic freedom and democracy.
I’m a Non-Citizen Professor. Here’s Why I Testified Against Trump.
I am glad that I could re-learn this crucial lesson. Surround yourself with the right people. Stand in solidarity with them. Courses of action will make themselves known to you, along with the resources you need to follow through. Figuring out what to do isn’t something any of us needs to do alone.
To Avoid Federal Micromanagement, Harvard Must Earn Trust
The best way to promote a good deal with the Trump administration is to combine touting the great things at Harvard with a determination to fix the things that are not great. This is how to build the trust needed for Harvard to work together with the government to make universities great again.
The Trump Lawsuit You Haven’t Heard of Is the Real Game Changer
This week’s ruling is an important vindication of that core mission. And in winning our own independently enforceable judicial order, our organizations have helped protect our community’s essential rights from being bargained away in any backroom deal.
Harvard Should Require Pre-Orientation
By expanding resources to pre-orientation programs and introducing a new lottery system, Harvard can reaffirm its dedication to an enhanced first-year experience.
My Lab Displayed A Message of Solidarity on Our Windows. Harvard Took It Down.
If we continue down this path, we risk not only Harvard’s future as an institution of free inquiry and expression but also its integrity and trustworthiness.
Harvard Doesn’t Think You Deserve a Seat at the Table
Harvard's pattern of labor suppression makes it clear that it does not think its workers deserve a seat at the table. It does not want students, faculty, or staff to have a real say in running this institution.
Harvard Taught Me to Speak Out. Big Law Fired Me When I Did.
I didn’t end up in conflict with Harvard’s values — I ended up in conflict with a system where those values were never meant to survive.
Harvard Has Purged Its Values Alongside Its DEI Websites
Harvard thrives on a precedent of convenient non-communication. But make no mistake, this was a choice. A choice to strip away our infrastructure in the shadows, replace identity-based support with ambiguous language, comply without admitting they're doing it, and commence the destruction of our communities.
President Garber, a Bad Deal With Trump Will Not Protect Us
But without academic freedom, Harvard can no longer call itself a university. A deal with the White House can never infringe on our pursuit of veritas by allowing the federal government to restrict which courses we can take, students can be admitted, and professors can stay. Harvard can never be complicit in infringing on our personal rights to integrity and free speech.
This Isn’t Negotiation. It’s Authoritarian Extortion.
Defending democracy requires sacrifice. There are moments when we must pay a price to ensure the long-term survival of our basic freedoms. This is one of those moments.
What Makes Harvard Great
The same forces behind events like January 6th and anti-LGBTQ legislation are driving the assault on higher education fueled by an unrelenting obsession with all things “DEI.” Their real target? Multicultural democracy and human freedom.
Senator Chris Van Hollen: Class of 2025, If Not You, Who?
Today, we face many challenges: economic inequality, climate chaos, brutal conflicts and wars, technological disruption, and a polarizing, poisonous political climate. And you, our next generation of leaders, have a say in how we respond to those challenges. You have a voice — but only if you use it.
To the Class of 2025: Congratulations on a Life Lived in Four Years
In college you have played, consciously or otherwise, at the fullness of life. As you confront the end of this span of your lives, you have the blessing of reflecting on and growing from what you did and who you were, and thereby the opportunity to begin your adult lives wiser and stronger.
Fight Fiercely for Harvard Values
Experienced voices are calling this a moment of existential crisis for Harvard and for American higher education. But for the Class of 2025 this crisis is also an opportunity: to fight fiercely for the values that Harvard has instilled in you, as it did in me when I matriculated here in the Class of 1964.
Harvard Defended You. Now It’s Your Turn.
University leadership would be unable to contest governmental tyranny without the wherewithal supplied by admirers, allies, and alumni — people like you who have been tremendously benefitted by the knowledge and know-how that Harvard bequeaths to the world. Do what you can to assist in this trying moment.