Columns
Harvard Can’t Fight Dirty if Its Hands Aren’t Clean
Trump has been itching to embarrass Harvard and defund the country’s oldest university. Harvard must be wise enough to put its house in order. Otherwise, Washington will tear it down.
Harvard Students Don’t Need To Work Harder. Administrators Do.
While the College has needlessly zeroed in on making the academic realm inordinately demanding, it does so at the expense of the other — arguably more important — transformations.
Give the Land Up — Or Shut Up
Any institution indulging in this nonsense should put its money where its mouth is: Either return the land that it occupies to whichever Native American tribe that it stole it from, or spare us the hollow, meaningless acknowledgements.
What Good Is a University Without Students?
Even if Harvard is too invested to stop building new facilities now, it must take a hard look at its priorities and ensure that its educational mission remains intact. Harvard’s future is built on the minds it nurtures — buildings are great, but they need people to fill them.
Harvard Stole Brazilian Land. It’s Time To Make Amends.
Perhaps no country has been affected by Harvard’s land grabs more than Brazil, home to nearly half of the University’s farmland acquisitions. Transparency isn’t enough: Harvard must make reparations to communities impacted by its land grabs.
Harvard Has To Make Up Its Mind About General Education
In either case, the Gen Ed and divisional distribution system needs a change, because, as of now, it occupies an annoying middle ground; too weak to be relevant, too strong to be innocuous.
An Open Letter to Campus Republicans
If Republicans want esteem on campus, you must recognize that words have consequences. Disagreement will make us stronger. But it must be informed, honest, and respectful.
Harvard Could Learn a Thing or Two From Femininity
Your Harvard education can be leveraged beyond your career: in parenting, teaching, volunteering, and relationships. Revaluing traditional feminine values is step one.
Will Mahmoud Khalil Make Harvard Liberals Reconsider Palestine?
If Harvard truly values free speech and justice, those values must be applied universally, not with hesitation but with confidence and conviction.
This Housing Day, Dename Winthrop House
As soon as Winthropians stormed my dorm, I started praying the house would be renamed before I graduated, maybe to DuBois House, Winthrop (Perkins Boynton) House, or even Adams House II.
So You Got Quadded?
To my newest neighbors: Though Riverites will tell you that Quad pride is delusion, Stockholm syndrome, or rationalization, it isn’t. Even though you’ll be pitied and pooh-poohed by those placed into houses admittedly flashier and more recently renovated, stay the course.
Freshmen, Embrace Your New Home
Housing Day is not just about being assigned to a building, it’s about gaining a family. It is a transition from being a new student trying to find your place at Harvard to becoming an integral part of a long-standing tradition.
Dear Harvard Men, Stop Hating Women.
So to all Harvard, but especially all male affiliates, regardless of other identities you may express — hold your peers accountable for gender bias in all of its forms.
All Concentrations Are Created Equal
At Harvard, every student — regardless of how comparatively difficult or easy their concentration may be — has the potential to enact meaningful change. It would serve us well to remember that.
Allston Is All Labs — And That’s a Problem
Roche’s announcement is only the beginning. As Harvard wraps up its ongoing life sciences construction projects, housing market pressures will only increase, and the current housing crisis will worsen.
Harvard Must Pop Its Political Bubble
Yes, our University is a predominantly liberal environment. But that doesn’t mean students should express shock and horror when confronted with conservatism.
Should Harvard Admit More Rich Kids? Actually, No
While admitting the children of donors might have some financial benefits, this blatant preference is unjust and undermines both Harvard’s educational mission and its stated admissions policies.
Harvard Alumni, It’s Time To Let Go.
So here’s my message to alumni: Move on. Obviously, you can be proud that you went here, but that doesn’t mean you have to wear an H sweater everywhere you go.
Faculty Time Caps Hurt Harvard’s Students, Too
Simply put, we, the students, deserve good teachers. By refusing to end time caps, the University won’t let us keep them.
Harvard Isn’t a Trade School. It’s a Liberal Arts Institution.
The alternative — going four years without learning anything beyond what’s good for the trade, emerging employable but not educated — is a cost we can’t be willing to pay.
Harvard Students Must Stand for Their Beliefs
Whether we like it or not, people pay attention to what happens on our campus, and Harvard students can make a tremendous impact if we decide to stand up for the things in which we believe.
Free Speech Is Alive and Well at Harvard. Why Aren’t Media Covering It?
If the media under-reports controversial conservative speech, it risks letting some ideas spread under-the-radar, preventing the full and robust dialogue that occurs only when the conversation is open to all.
Conservative Faculty Need Affirmative Action
Affirmative action for conservatives would achieve what affirmative action was originally meant to do, which was to make Harvard more truly diverse.
I Study Uyghur. Here’s Why You Should Too.
As I learn the words my people are being punished for speaking and recall the histories that are being rewritten and erased, I am reminded that beyond simple words, language is identity, memory, and resistance.
Bring Jury Duty to Harvard
If the College were to permit students to volunteer to be on the Ad Board, it would play an inconceivably treacherous game. My idea is hardly revolutionary: Let Harvard College students accused of wrongdoing go before a jury of their peers — and most importantly, an impartial one at that.