Columns
Harvard’s Plan to Freeze Custodian Wages is Cruelly Hypocritical
Harvard’s solving its financial challenges on the backs of low-wage, likely largely minority custodial workers would be wrong in any case. But when one considers how Harvard’s diversity bureaucracy has exploded in recent years, their treatment looks cruelly hypocritical.
Harvard’s Fall Calendar Is Failing Students
A chaotic calendar produces shallow understanding, rushed work, and an academic culture driven by survival instead of curiosity.
The Need for a Harvard Sandwich Guy
For a campus that prides itself on innovation, we’ve failed to innovate where it matters most: meeting people's basic everyday needs. Harvard needs a student-run service economy — not startups chasing VC funding, but rather small, informal businesses run by students, for students.
Public Opinion Won't Save Harvard From Trump
What will kill us is having half the country’s political establishment treat eliminating Harvard as a defining political mission — especially since the public won’t be coming to the rescue any time soon.
When Harvard Cuts from the Bottom to Protect the Top
The image of a working class fighting for basic support from the richest university in the world bears an eerie resemblance to a century-old scandal: Harvard is more than willing to sacrifice the most vulnerable members of its community, trading the livelihoods of its workforce for its own bottom line.
Has Harvard Ever Been Independent?
There may not be an enlightened path for Harvard to take the money it needs without any strings attached, but in an era of such profound change for the University, we can’t dismiss the real issue of academic independence.
I Was In the HUA. The Election Commission Is Breaking the Rules.
Democracy depends on accountability and transparency. It’s the minimum standard for legitimacy. As long as the Election Commission withholds the survey results, the student body is right to withhold its trust.
The Professor and the Pedophile
Summers should choose the most straightforward path and resign. Should he refuse to, though, the University must cut ties with its former president to the greatest extent possible.
The Case Against Taking Five Classes
A fifth class wrecks any chance at work-life balance, feeds Harvard’s toxic culture of optimization, and, with grading likely about to get tougher, might even hurt your GPA.
What Harvard Can Learn from the Senate’s Mistake
As Harvard continues its negotiations with the Trump administration over federal control of University governance, it should learn from Senate Democrats’ mistakes and avoid a similar, unnecessary capitulation.
Harvard Students Hate Capitalism — Until Recruiting Season
While this negative outlook is not necessarily true, it is certainly counterproductive. If you genuinely believe that something is unjust, actively work to change it instead of giving up and accepting your corporate fate.
Harvard Is Training Us for a World That No Longer Exists
At the end of the day, Harvard doesn’t need to end its liberal arts focus — it just needs to modernize the process. Harvard exists to train future leaders. Let’s make sure we equip them with the skills they need to lead well.
A Lesson in Teaching Feminism from MIT
When it comes to Women and Gender Studies, the University should take a lesson from MIT and regularly offer a survey of feminist theory.
Harvard Must Buck Ideological Conformity
Our incredible student body consists of passionate young people eager to advocate for the issues they care about. But our campus culture should make space for those who are still formulating their views on important topics.
When Extracurriculars Become Full-Time Jobs
A common defence of grade inflation is that it protects student welfare. That might be true, but at Harvard, concerns over wellbeing should be directed elsewhere: pre-professional clubs that demand grueling hours from students.
Recentering Academics Demands a Revolution
As students seek an avenue to respond to the turmoil before them, Harvard’s curriculum must adapt – or risk becoming obsolete altogether.
By Ignoring Race, Alumni Interviews Erase Reality
This policy may satisfy Trump, but it betrays Harvard’s own principles. The College cannot claim to value diversity while systematically erasing the identities that make its community diverse in the first place.
In Defense of the New Housing Day
The importance of Housing Day isn’t the exact day of the week on which it falls, but the fact that it happens in the first place. Instead of lamenting the loss of a random Thursday before spring break, students should welcome the change.
I Didn’t Deserve To Be Admitted To Harvard
Can Harvard’s admissions office actually determine who deserves an acceptance letter? Probably not.
Who’s Going To Do Claybaugh’s Dirty Work?
Instituting grade deflation requires a whole lot of manpower that we don’t have.
The Cost of Classroom Kindness
Professors should also be encouraged to critique boldly, constructively, and honestly. Harvard attracts students not because we fear difficulty, but because we seek it. If this University believes in our potential, it must trust us enough to demand more than comfort. Let discomfort return to the classroom.
Changing Grades Won’t Fix the Humanities — Here’s What Will
The humanities are serious disciplines — it’s time for academic programming at Harvard to treat them as such.
What Grades Can’t Measure
A Harvard education isn’t defined by the hours spent in Lamont. It’s defined by how we learn to balance ambition with curiosity. Administrators can change the grading curve, but the real learning happens when students decide what matters to them.
Ethicist, Should I Let Go of My Zionist Friends?
At the end of the day, a friendship built across disagreement does not demand that you hide or abandon your beliefs. Sustaining conversations across ideological and moral divides might require that you strengthen your convictions.