Columns
Harvard, Pay Your PILOTs
If Harvard is serious about defending its nonprofit status from political threats, it must make good on its commitments to serve the public — especially Boston residents. It should start by paying its fair share of PILOTs in the only form that can provide truly essential services to community members: cash.
It’s Time for Harvard To Go Global
Now is the time for Harvard to do all the things that Harvard does so well. Our innovation and resolve must be a shining light to the rest of the world of higher education at its best. Opening an international campus could help us do just that.
Harvard, Clean Up Your Mess
If Harvard wants to continue as one of the most prestigious institutions, we have to ensure our campus is the best that it can be. In order to see our campus improve, we must all play our part in keeping it clean.
No, Harvard’s Endowment Cannot Withstand Trump
The headline number this week was $2.2 billion, but Trump is laying the groundwork for policies that could cost the University more in the future. And despite its large endowment, Harvard will face tremendous financial pain.
Peer Teaching Is Key to Our Education. I’m Glad Harvard’s Protecting It.
In moments of institutional uncertainty, it’s precisely this kind of peer-driven, community-centered support that keeps our University thriving. In these unprecedented times, let’s make sure we preserve it.
Harvard’s Defense of Academia Is Missing Half the Story
The thing we’ve failed to reckon with is that — though scientific research will bear the brunt of Trump’s attacks because it benefits so much from federal funding — it’s not his real target.
From the Notes of Alan M. Garber
7:08 - We sold my office supplies (to economize) so I am sitting on the floor writing this on a banana peel with a toothpick. It will be legible later; I saw this on Facebook.
When They Go Low, We Go DEI
Unless Harvard is willing to say that it does not care, it must act to support DEI. But until our University makes its support public and concrete, we shouldn’t assume it does.
Harvard, Help Me Eat During Ramadan
By providing refund checks for those observing Ramadan or offering earlier breakfast times, Harvard can ensure Muslim students can observe Ramadan without undue financial burden.
Do Not Applaud Harvard for Doing the Bare Minimum
Do not mistake Garber’s scramble to retain a semblance of liberalism as a stand — let alone fight — against the Trump administration. No number of strongly worded statements nor invocations of “independence” or “constitutional rights” will allow Harvard to claw its way out of the hole it has dug itself into for over a year now.
Harvard Finally Stood up to Trump. Our Organizing Is the Reason Why.
Principled student expression can strengthen, rather than undermine, Harvard’s commitment to academic and moral leadership — but only if the University works with us. In moments like this one, we join generations of students testing the boundaries of what a university can be. It is time to join that legacy.
Paul Toner Must Resign
Day after day, we are witnessing a persistent cycle of abuses of the rule of law and the deterioration of leadership standards on the national level. It seems that this time around, members of Congress in both parties are less willing to put up a fight.
Putting Academics First Starts With All of Us
We should give academics the weight they deserve in our Harvard experience, not treat them as something we fit in between club meetings. We can still lead, advocate, and pursue our passions while making sure that academic excellence remains the foundation upon which our future success is built.
We Need a Paradigm Shift in Our Approach to Street Safety
These crashes are not tragic anomalies, but indicators that something preventable failed — and crucially, can be fixed. Through measurable and outcome-based transformations, we can reshape the streets themselves and create mobility justice.
Harvard — Hands Off California’s Water
In paying lip service to the climate while siphoning scarce water from the earth, our University has demonstrated its commitment to profit. It’s time to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability instead — the future of Cuyama Valley’s residents and water hangs in the balance.
