Editorials
Common Spaces, Rare Rewards
What’s more, we often lose sight of the fact that much of the land surrounding Harvard is owned not by the University but by the City of Cambridge. What takes place on that land—along with the land that Harvard does own—affects Cantabrigians just as much as it does Harvardians.
Apocalypse Later?
No matter its source, the goal of preventing a dictator from using chemical weapons on his own people is a just one.
Bring Transparency to the State House
Under the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House, a rancorous band of Republican legislators has stalled all proceedings in the House of Representatives.
Improve General Education
The Program in General Education is failing to achieve its aims because the courses being offered fall far short of their potential.
HBS Means Business
Harvard Business School may not be an investment bank, but it has never been a stranger to the deep, amorphous, and stubborn biases that operate in the worlds of business and finance.
Rethinking Reforestation
While the process of specialization has allowed regrowth of trees largely by eliminating large tracts of agricultural land, there is little reason to think that our environmental gains come only at losses for more agricultural parts of the country.
Reassessing Rape Response
Insofar as it can do so sensitively, Harvard should encourage victims to move forward with their cases and press criminal charges.
Stormy Summers
Part of the responsibility of Fed chairman is to keep the markets calm, and we have doubts that the colorful Summers can maintain the staid and sober disposition necessary for the position.
Benefits for Allston
We ask Harvard to truly consider the effects of its development on the Allston community and work to follow the intent, not just the letter, of its obligation to the Allston community.
Blurred Red Lines
America’s military might will remain credible to the world no matter what one dictator thinks of it.
Enforce (and Change) the Law
Hungry undergraduates seeking to satisfy their sweet tooth at Insomnia Cookies on Mt. Auburn Street during the wee hours of Sunday, August 18 must have encountered a very different scene from the one they anticipated
An Unfinished Investigation
The institutional failure to protect privacy exposed in the Keating report highlights the urgency of understanding how and why University officials conducted these searches in the manner they did, so that such a situation can be prevented from ever happening again.
Let EdX Grow
The potential for online education remains relatively unexplored, so platforms like edX require, at minimum, an incubator period in which to expand, change, make progress, and make mistakes that eventually lead to advancement and refinement.
Madness for Everyone
Harvard’s men’s basketball ascendancy, from 66 straight years without NCAA appearances to a ranked, national competitor and producer of NBA talent, is proof of athletics’ potential on an unlikely campus.
Smart Charity
Harvard serves as a vital conduit between research funding—public or private—and the solutions to make our world better.
A Call for Honesty
We are pleased to see that Hammonds is vacating her position, and we hope that this move will aid the Harvard community in beginning the process of reestablishing trust among students, faculty, and administrators.
The Drone Wars
We welcome President Obama’s announcement that the operations of the CIA’s morally hazardous drone program will be transferred to the Pentagon and that there will be tougher standards for when drone strikes can be authorized, with targeted killings being scaled back.
Close the Gap
Even when women deserve respect, subtle issues of perception—even in the absence of outright discrimination—mean that they are less likely to get it.
A Small Step Forward
The recent adoption of new examination policies comes as welcome news in the midst of this academic year’s own finals period.
A Promising Campaign
As Harvard determines the priorities for the campaign, administrators should give students and faculty a stake in the planning, prioritizing, and fundraising.
Flippant Ferguson
Ferguson has since apologized for his statements, calling them “stupid and tactless,” an apt summary of his thoughtless and hurtful remarks. Not only was suggesting that Keynes’ promotion of counter-cyclical spending is tantamount to a lack of empathy for future generations an extreme simplification of Keynes’ philosophy, but it is obvious that sexual orientation or childlessness is not indicative of one’s investment in the future.
An Unfortunate Shutdown
Harvard’s ability to participate in a number of scientific endeavors will be crippled by the closure of the NEPRC: An example of this is the federal BRAIN Initiative.
Collins Uncloseted
And last week, when Jason Collins came out as the first openly gay player in the NBA, professional sports have once again shown the potential to have a positive impact on American cultural values.
Divided Dartmouth
Dartmouth’s faculty, staff, and students need to be able to go about their daily lives and be accepting at the same time.
From Hope to Hashtags
We see Clinton’s move to Twitter as a step toward bringing down walls between ordinary people and decision-makers.