Points of View
Don’t be Afraid to Take Risks
Before you determine your next challenge, remember that some of life’s greatest adventures and most enriching experiences will come from things you have yet to realize are even possible.
A Few Good Men of Harvard
In short, you see people who are so busy trying to save the world that they forget to take care of it.
The Next Financial Crisis
Thus far, consumers and non-energy-related businesses have not felt much of a credit pinch. Yet, analysts warn that, in spite of the strong position of the banks, a powerful credit crunch is inevitable.
Burka in the French and American Minds
In brief, the French and American republican traditions are both children of the Enlightenment but they are not alike.
And Sow The Seeds of Tyranny
Like all parting shots, the message can be neatly summed up with a one-sentence lesson I learned in third grade: Agree to disagree.
A New Era of Big Citizenship
Now, as you prepare to head out into the real world to create extraordinary lives, I hope you will continue to nurture that spirit of service in assuming what former President Harry S. Truman called the “highest office” in the land: that of citizen.
Greetings from the Ad Board
In focusing on “low-hanging fruit” like The Crimson’s innocuous semesterly celebration, Deans David R. Friedrich and Suzy M. Nelson of the Office of Student Life squander time and money regulating celebratory, fun events highly unlikely to create any liability for the College.
The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Lamont
The library and the community it sustains emerge in response to the central anxiety of Harvard life: the failure to measure up. Under Lamont’s 24-hour fluorescent lighting, no one need bear this ponderous burden alone.
Lifting the ROTC Ban
Commencement and the coming weeks are a fitting time to join with President Obama, to speak and act to end the ban on ROTC, and to affirm the message to all students and to our country that Harvard will always stand with our military in serving the nation.
The Democratic Imagination
Participatory democracy offers us a solution that goes beyond the traditional dichotomy.
The Tip of the Iceberg
The responses of jurists to the government’s proposed legislation make it very clear: The “burka ban” does not uphold the principles of French republican law—it overtly violates them.
Herr Widener
On the days when the work upon my back has weighed like the world upon Atlas, the façade of Widener Library, looming closer with each step, has often seemed to be opening its palatial, ravenous jaws to swallow me whole for untold hours.
The Importance of Educating Girls
Today, 18 years after Summers’ speech, the question is no longer whether girls’ education in the developing world is an economically valuable cause, but rather how to best affect change within this sector.
Razing Arizona
Perhaps the governor and superintendent don’t quite realize just how much damage their actions will cause; if these two pieces of legislation become a reality, they will have truly razed Arizona.
Empathy, Obama, and Adam Smith
My hope is that, when they attain positions of power, they remember what Smith had to teach them, not only about economics, but also about empathy.
MIT Behind Harvard in Access to Medicines
Contributing patents to the GlaxoSmithKline patent pool is the least a university can do.
Undergraduate Research in the Sciences at Harvard
Indeed, as one of the foremost research institutions in the world, Harvard must meet the challenge of ensuring that all undergraduates at Harvard, and especially those in the sciences, have the opportunity to engage in research as part of their education.
The Roof, The Roof Is On Fire
Harvard, loosen up, so that your students can do the same. Get rid of GPA incentives, the Core or Gen Ed, and make it easier for students to use their imaginations for things besides financial models.
Harvard Will Get Better Once the Seniors are Gone
Over these Commencement days no doubt professors, family, and friends, all weak of heart, will congratulate you on a job well done. Not I.
The More Things Change
It may often have left me feeling like nothing beyond a more invasive tourist, but studying elsewhere taught me to take that tourist’s eye to my own surroundings in a way that no stack of books on deconstructing social norms can compel.
Feet Pointed Upward
Maybe the value of having conversations is obvious even to freshmen, but it can’t be fully appreciated until the end of senior year, when one has grown as much as one can in this place.