Editorials
Trump Can’t Order Away Ideas
With one brash red herring after another, the Trump administration is using the platform of the federal government to wage a culture war. It won’t win.
It’s Our Turn To Save Harvard’s Speech Culture
Rather than backlash from professors or the University itself, social consequences appear to be the root of students’ self-censorship. If students are the problem, they must also be the solution.
Harvard Must Resist Trump’s War on Transgender Students
But despite Harvard’s ongoing public posture of preemptive compliance, Trump’s attacks show no signs of abating. Harvard can’t expect to win every political battle. But the surest way to lose is by surrendering in advance.
Extracurriculars Have Supplanted Academics at Harvard. Here’s How To Fix It.
What Harvard truly needs is well-purposed rigor — one designed to increase learning rather than merely enhance its difficulty. That starts with students taking greater personal responsibility, faculty stepping up to the plate, and a community-wide reckoning with Harvard’s pre-professional culture.
Who Better To Defend Harvard’s Academic Mission Than Its Faculty?
The University president — in their unique position as a member of the faculty and the Corporation — has a role to play in mediating between the two. Regular attendance at FAS meetings would be a worthwhile first step towards bridging the gap between our highest governing board and our largest faculty.
Harvard’s Settlements Threaten Free Speech
The adoption of the IHRA definition and the updates to the NDAB FAQ page signal that the external pressure of a lawsuit is enough to force Harvard to step away from its purported commitment to the free exchange of ideas.
Dissent: Why Is Protecting Jewish Students Up For Debate?
Regardless of the Board’s concerns, these policies affirm a simple principle: Jewish students' identities deserve the same protections as any other — and that’s not up for debate.
International Students Are Under Threat. Harvard Must Be Ready.
Of course, the University should comport its behavior with the law. But when faced with a choice between preemptive compliance and actions better suited to defending students, Harvard should err on the side of the latter.
Harvard, Get Used to the Chaos
Trump’s bold new order thankfully didn’t come to pass, but it signifies a new American era — one where the heart of higher education is threatened. It’s time Harvard steps up.
Massachusetts, Make Our Hours Happier
Repealing the Massachusetts happy hour ban could breathe new life into Boston and Harvard Square alike. Boston is a vibrant, young city teeming. It deserves a social scene to match.
Guest Speakers Improve Campus Discourse. Here’s How to Invite Them.
After a year of calling for more discourse, Masoud’s speaker series offers a dose of optimism and inspiration. But until University culture changes, initiatives like these will remain few and far between.
Harvard Is a School. We Need To Go to Class.
It’s significantly in its classrooms that Harvard trains the future leaders of America. Let’s make sure we show up to them.
Harvard-Yale Weekend Was Good. Here’s How to Make It Great.
If we hope to avoid repeats of the Royale ripoff, the College administration must ease on-campus social restrictions. Only then can our student organizations take the reins of campus social life and make Harvard-Yale fun.
Turkeys and Gratitude: What Our Editors Are Thankful For
In the spirit of gratitude, we asked our editors to reflect on what they feel thankful for at Harvard.
Faculty Governance Must Not Die in Committee
So let’s call the faculty council what it is. It’s a good, albeit slightly flawed implementation of faculty governance — not the faculty senate’s replacement.
Harvard Must Act to Save Jewish Studies
At a time when studying Judaism has never been more crucial, the University must act decisively to find highly qualified individuals to fill the vacancies — the future of Harvard’s Jewish studies program depends on it.
Dissent: Medical Humanities Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts
Harvard has a responsibility to prepare its pre-med students for the complex interactions they will be called to manage. Pure humanities courses just won’t cut it.
What Does Interdisciplinarity Even Mean Anymore?
Look no further than our University’s foray into the medical humanities — an emerging field that applies humanistic insights to the study of health and wellbeing — as an indication that the interdisciplinary hype has gone too far.
Harvard’s Feeder School Addiction
Until Harvard puts in more effort to find diamonds in the rough, legions of feeder school resumes — hand-edited by highly-paid admissions counselors — will continue to fill our classes.
Harvard’s Conservatives Have to Stop Hiding
There’s no reason to sequester conversations about Plato and the good life to an ideologically homogeneous — some might say, ideologically extreme — group named after a founding father.
Garber Is Right: The Ad Board Is the Problem.
As it turns out, a 325 page report can illuminate a lot about administrative dysfunction.
Whether Study-Ins Are Protests Doesn’t Matter. Whether They’re Disruptive Does.
Harvard has faced a host of genuinely difficult questions about how to navigate protest this past year. Responding to students and faculty silently studying in the library isn’t one of them.
Trump Is Coming for Higher Ed. Harvard Must Fight Back.
With Trump’s reascension to the presidency, higher education is staring down the barrel of a gun, and — despite its new institutional voice policies — our University cannot remain silent.
Fear, Tears, Rage, Reckoning: The Editors, on 4 More Years of Donald Trump
Yesterday, former President Donald Trump became future President Donald Trump, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Today, our editors react.
If Harvard’s Endowment is Ethically Invested, It Should Show Us the Receipts
It’s time to pull back the curtain on the endowment.