Columns
The Conveyor Belt To Corporate Law
So, to all students interested in using law to change the world: Don’t let yourself get swept up in the corporate current. Recognize the structural forces you will need to constantly resist. Otherwise, you’ll probably wake up in 20 years at a large law firm, whether or not that’s what you really wanted.
You Just Can’t Get Lost
In the labyrinth, as in our academic and personal journeys, the winding path itself holds as much significance as the endpoint. Every twist and turn, every moment of introspection, adds depth to our experience. The labyrinth has one path that always leads to the center.
SENIOR SALE: Clearing Closet and Conscience
For the sake of our environment and culture, we should undoubtedly think more about fulfilling our community needs before haphazardly throwing used goods up for sale. But at their best, senior sales hold a glimmer of hope for building a more sustainable culture on our campus.
Wikipedia: A Model for Better Discourse on Campus
When it comes to civil discourse, Wikipedia (ironically) doesn’t have all the answers, but its approach to debate outshines much of what we often see here at Harvard. As we look for ways to foster open dialogue on campus, we should take cues from the Free Encyclopedia.
It’s Deeper Than Hot Breakfast
We must push back against this repeated cycle of austerity by challenging the value system of our institution. That means organizing and building coalitions with each other around issues that mutually affect us — including when it comes to hot breakfast.
We Built the Harvard Bubble. It’s Time to Pop It.
It’s long past time for us to pop the Harvard bubble. By establishing relationships with the local communities we’ve ignored for far too long, we can begin to deconstruct the ivory tower we’ve built, brick by brick.
We Feel the Heat
Where is the acknowledgment that we’re in an emergency? The solution isn’t as simple as installing more air conditioning units or more solar panels. Addressing the climate crisis long-term will require transforming our buildings, our consumption, and our approach to energy.
Seven Sisters and the Old Boys’ Club
Though Radcliffe continues to do important work, perhaps it is time to revisit the role it can play in the undergraduate experience. Calling for its revitalization as a resource for undergraduates is only the beginning of my attempt to understand how women continue to carve out a place for themselves at this storied old boys’ club.
SCOTUS Says Black People Can Go To War, But Not To Class
By stating that military academies stand to benefit from race-conscious affirmative action, the Court appears to blatantly admit that diversity is both beneficial and necessary in those spaces. Then, regardless of the opinion’s ambiguous language, this footnote implies something far more sinister.
Courting Complicity: Harvard’s Tolerance of Anti-Queerness
For Harvard to meet its obligations to inclusivity, it can no longer simply default to platitudes. It must instead leverage its stature to highlight the adverse educational impacts of anti-trans discrimination and affirm those impacted — or else tolerate an educational status quo rapidly descending into anti-queerness.
Turning the Light on Protestantism and Harvard’s Hypocrisy
Harvard’s past as an exclusive, elite institution is oftentimes talked about in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. We must add religion as a facet of the conversation. Religion at Harvard goes far beyond the visible spires and facades — it rests, invisible, inside, waiting for us to turn on the lights.
You Need to Leaf Lamont
Dudley Garden isn't just a place; it's a reminder. No matter how towering the pile of problem sets, how crucial that upcoming interview, or how intense those club comps, there's always a moment to be found for pure, unadulterated joy. And sometimes, that joy is as simple as sitting in a quiet garden, letting the world fade away.
Harvard’s AI Guidance: A Lesson in Binary Thinking
In an era where ChatGPT will soon be as common as calculators, Harvard's stance on AI in the classroom should be more than a binary decision — it should be an open dialogue that empowers students to navigate the AI landscape with wisdom and creativity.
Announcing The Crimson Editorial Board’s Fall 2023 Columnists
The Editorial Board is pleased to announce its columnists for the upcoming Fall semester. Opinion columnists will publish on a bi-weekly basis, each focusing on a theme of their choice.
The Trouble With Writing — At the College and Beyond
Through this column, I wanted to peel back that tour-esque veneer and reveal the intangible culture of each postgraduate school at Harvard. Yet when I sat down to write each piece, I couldn’t help but feel lost. Somehow, my quotes, pictures, and notes had the audacity to remain meaningless and unconnected, instead of autonomously organizing themselves into some easily digestible narrative that I could then transpose onto my document.
The Political Tendency of the Parachurch
I challenge HCFA and other parachurches on Harvard’s campus and beyond, as well as individuals who do not identify as Christian, to hold these seemingly diametric narratives at the same time: Personal fulfillment and vital religious community can come from within parachurch organizations, and we can recognize and rectify the political and sociological consequences of their development.
Identity Is Forever Fluid
Viewing other individual or cultural identities purely through the lens of one’s own is a recipe for epistemic disaster. Recognize that differences in how someone else views the nature or fluidity of a particular identity, though potentially unfamiliar to you, are nevertheless authentic and do not represent a license for mockery, derision, or mischaracterization.
Summer-Camp Sadness: Meditations on Friend-Making
We want to be seen and to see others. We inevitably go through summer-camp phases to figure out how we fit into each others’ lives, if at all. Sometimes, we slip through the cracks and find ourselves alone, but as long as we put our genuine energy into the world, I believe we’ll cross paths with the right people.
Read a Book! Write a Rhyme!
Rhymes are often thought to be what only kids enjoy, but sometimes simple, silly stuff can bring the greatest joy! And so it is my hope for us that maybe over time, we’ll learn to find the joy in life. We’ll learn to find the rhyme.
An Ode to the Kirkland Basement
This column has been about considering the unseen, about looking at what usually goes overlooked in front of us and defending it when others don’t see it. When the Kirkland House basement is eventually remodeled, preserving small imperfections such as the textured walls and upside-down map is crucial for recapturing the quirky, cozy atmosphere it has today, and maintaining artifacts like the murals and library is essential for continuing our connection to the past.
Who Cares About Aesthetics?
Don’t worry too much about how your unique aesthetic tastes in art, music, clothing, or anything else are perceived by friends and family. If we are to discard any remaining notions about the dualism of body and mind and accept the preponderance of empirical evidence that the latter arises in some fashion from the former, then we must logically conclude that sensations such as aesthetic pleasure possess a fundamentally biological basis.
Realize Your Impact: Stop Stalling, Start Swinging
When you think of society as some type of swarm consciousness — a group of billions of individual actors motivated by their own incentives — it’s easy to take a fatalistic view. Whether it’s in scope, size, or speed of impact, we tend to underestimate the role an individual (again, read: “you”) can play. We shouldn’t.
Taking the Ivory Out of the Ivory Tower
Higher education appears to be locked in a vicious cycle: Students of color have less access to support and mentorship, leading to less faculty diversity, which in turn makes it harder for students from underrepresented communities to envision themselves in faculty positions. Underrepresented students should be supported at every step on the path to professorship.
What Harvard College Can Learn From Longwood
If the College wants to fulfill its mission of providing an intellectually transformative experience beyond narrow professional learning, it cannot be afraid to completely reform its curriculum á la HMS. The “cornerstone” of the Harvard College curriculum (as the General Education program is officially presented) must truly encourage students to think critically and engage with the material.
A Message To Evangelical Christians
What I realize now, and what I’d encourage evangelical Christians everywhere to realize, is that a narrative does not need to be complete and tied with a bow to be told. It does not need to come to a conclusion regarding the acceptance of Jesus to be a worthy narrative of faith. Your testimony is not a cover letter. It does not need to be created with the purpose of being shared. It’s one thing for personal testimonies to be encouraged in Christian culture. It is another for them to be constructed with the sole purpose of being shared, rather than catharsis or healing or personal reflection.