Editorials
End Cruelty for Cosmetics
A ban on animal testing for cosmetics comports with a basic sense of dignity.
A Win for Us All
Harvard rarely gets the chance to be the plucky underdog, but we certainly found ourselves in that role with our 14-seed team facing off against three-seed New Mexico.
Building a Better Housing Day
Yet it also reflects a failure to create community. Beyond Harvard-Yale—and excepting the recent historic men’s basketball run—Housing Day is one of only times this college, its social life diffuse as it is, comes together in a celebration of school spirit and tradition.
Gender, Prestige, and Something Amiss
We should ask ourselves why traditions of male ascendancy are still related to perceived prestige.
Shaken Trust
The email searches raise issues far beyond questionable email search policies and failed communication. It cuts to the core of what trust and community means at Harvard
Plague on Our House
We strongly encourage Harvard to adopt the preponderance of the evidence standard while revising its policies on sexual assault. Harvard simply owes its students better.
We Stand with Rand
We commend the senator for raising the alarm on this important aspect of civil liberty, and we fault the administration for its intransigence in clarifying its own policies.
Viva Oprah
Her extraordinary story of determination in the face of adversity, her progress in advancing the status of women and members of ethnic minorities, and her role in abating prejudice against LGBTQ Americans all make her more than qualified to speak on life’s challenges, success, and living a meaningful life in front of Harvard’s graduating class.
Keeping Us Apart
Israeli Apartheid Week in its current form prevents exactly this type of conversation. The campaign spreads its message through methods that are combative rather than constructive, alienating Zionist members of both the international community and the Harvard student body.
Allow Altruism
FDA censorship may have made scientific or actuarial sense, but that erstwhile rationale gave way some time ago.
While Washington Slept
All this senseless cutting, purportedly designed to reduce long-term deficits, takes no action to address the two principal strains on the future budget: entitlement spending and the tax code.
Why Not Trains?
It is truly a shame that so many Harvard students are compelled to take their chances with the shoddy engineering of cheap buses rather than ride in the relative luxury afforded by the Amtrak line.
The Gravity of Extracurriculars
Extracurricular life at Harvard is certainly rich, but also intense, time demanding, and not insulated from pre-professional pressures.
Making Obama Do It
Yet the president is not powerless. He has signaled a willingness to use executive orders to advance the environmentalist cause. Now, we have to make him do it.
Warning: Do Not Enroll
We at The Crimson urge anyone who plans on one day scoring political points by maligning Harvard to neither apply, enroll, nor graduate from this fine institution.
Harvard Stands Out, Unfortunately
Before launching into that discussion, the accomplishment behind the $18,277 number deserves some plaudits. A genuine round of applause for a concerted effort by the College and alumni to make a Harvard education affordable and for a recent trend of decline in average net price—15.5 percent over 2007-2009. A round of applause for keeping student debt at a minimum, $88.61 per month versus other Ivy League figures all in the triple digits. And a round of applause for beating Yale.
Harvard Must Do Better
In a show of support for substantive change, more than 150 students rallied in front of Massachusetts Hall on Friday, proclaiming that, “Harvard can do better.”
An Unexploited Union
The University’s endowment exists to allocate funds towards programs—like the investment in EdX or campus renovations—that advance the priorities and educational mission of Harvard most effectively.
Laptops and Luddites
We lament the delinquent behavior that laptops enable, and this situation must be remedied. However, an engaged classroom is not irreconcilable with computers and other electronics, which are valuable educational tools that enhance the educational experience of many students. We must not let this make Luddites of us all.
Out of the Profane Closet
Harvard, like many other secular institutions of higher learning around the country, offers an environment that is perhaps extraordinarily accepting of religious beliefs of all kinds, or lack thereof.
Students Unsatisfied
In order to best learn from this survey, the College should note that two main factors loosely correlate with a concentration’s popularity: the concentration’s size and the category in which it falls within the arts and sciences.
The Right Choice for SEAS
We are excited that SEAS will have the opportunity to grow and innovate in a new space across the river, but it will be a pyrrhic victory if SEAS becomes isolated as a result.
Step Down, Senator Menendez
The former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry has left big shoes to fill. His replacement, Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, does not appear to be up to the task.
Whence Reading Period?
We must heed the words inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi: “Know thyself.”