Editorials
We Don’t Need a Survey To Know Harvard Has a Sexual Violence Problem
These putatively positive results are hardly cause for celebration.
Once Again, Harvard is Trying to Ruin Our Fun.
Harvard-Yale is the one day a year that social hierarchies break down and parties abound. The DSO cannot take that away from us.
Harvard’s Financial Report Shows It Can Afford Independence
When Harvard refuses to cower before donors, we signal to other universities across the country that conceding our integrity is too costly, no matter the price.
California Banned Legacy Admissions. Massachusetts Must Follow.
For most Americans, the case has long been closed on legacy admissions. Time for our representatives to act like it.
Harvard Has To Stop Pushing Out Its Best Teachers
When the best and brightest of the best and brightest come to Harvard, we shouldn’t let them walk away on a technicality.
Dissent: Time's up for Time Caps
Every single person on the Editorial Board benefits from the labor of academic workers. It’s a shame the Board refuses to reciprocate.
President Garber, Follow Your Own Policy
Five months ago, Harvard announced that the University and its leaders would refrain from weighing in on public controversies. Did anyone bother to tell University President Alan M. Garber ’76?
The Pro-Palestine Coalition Must Not Excuse a Massacre
The pro-Palestine coalition must find a way to engage over these issues with compassion. We all must.
Dissent: The Editorial Board is Scared to Say The Obvious
As we mourn, we continue to believe that maintaining the sanctity of all life — including all Jews and Palestinians — is not just a possibility but a moral duty. We only wish that our peers would too.
The Harvard That TikTok Doesn’t See, According to Our Editors
Want to know what Harvard is really like? Hear from our editors.
Dissent: Classroom Comments Can’t Be Anonymous
Those who support the Chatham House Rule ignore the reality that the discussion of ideas must happen with the real world in view.
Harvard’s Open Inquiry Report Gets the Free Speech Problem Right
The report injects a needed dose of common sense and serious academic insight into the often-interminable discourse about discourse on college campuses. Now, the onus is on the University — and all of us — to put its proposals into practice.
Dissent: On General Education, the Editorial Board Can’t Have It Both Ways
If GenEds are to end, let them be abolished outright. And if Gen Eds are to remain, let’s at least commit to taking them seriously — starting with a letter grade.
Harvard’s Gen Ed System Needs a Reboot
By redefining our approach to General Education and embracing flexible grading, we can transform Harvard into a landscape where curiosity thrives. The future of our intellectual community depends on it.
Cycling Deaths Are a Crisis. Cambridge and Mass. Should Act Like It.
There’s an epidemic of cycling fatalities in Cambridge taking away our neighbors, our friends, and members of our Harvard community.
Once Again, Harvard Threatened Protesters. Once Again, They Were Wrong.
The University’s current policies — and their seemingly subjective enforcement — are a step beyond inane. They are reactionary and targeted.
Harvard Must Not Botch the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
It would be an embarrassment — and a grave disrespect to the victims of Harvard's history of slavery — to rush through, slapdash, a sloppy product for good PR.
As Lawmakers Slam the Door on the Unhoused, Harvard and Cambridge Must Act
As state leaders ‘respond’ to the housing crisis by slamming the door on unhoused families, Harvard and Cambridge must act with urgency.
Intellectual Vitality Really Is Vital. Here’s How To Do It Right.
The University should commit to a definition of intellectual vitality without partisan baggage — and interventions capable of making real change.
Dissent: Intellectual Vitality for Me, but Not for Thee
If Harvard is actually serious about intellectual vitality, it must solve the root of the problem first: the school’s political makeup.
Campus Theft Calls for Better Solutions
Creating a safe campus is a shared responsibility. Everyone — HUPD, the administration, and students — must work together to foster a community where security and freedom coexist. Until then, the financial and social burdens of theft will continue to weigh our campus down.
Harvard Needs To Tell the Truth About Its Admissions Practices
It’s the Supreme Court that put our College’s diversity at risk, but the responsibility to respond lies with Harvard. It can begin by telling the truth.
Nobody Pays Attention in Class at Harvard. It’s Time to Change That.
Harvard’s inattention problem is nothing less than a crisis. Thankfully the University need look no further for a solution than its own backyard.
The Instagram Idealism of Rakesh Khurana
A look back at Rakesh Khurana’s 10 years at the head of Harvard College reveals an idealism that was as uncommon and laudable as it was, at times, incomplete.