Columns
History 10 and the Fear of Facts
Harvard’s History Department should make History 10 a modern world history survey course that includes map quizzes, sit-down exams, in-class essays, and (gasp) even some date memorization.
This Indigenous People’s Day, Look to HKS as a Model
Harvard, both deliberately and not, has consistently marginalized indigenous communities. If Harvard is to live up to its founding mission, it must offer more resources supporting those that it spent centuries harming.
Trainings Can’t Stop Religious Bigotry. Here’s What Can.
If Harvard wants to teach students to identify religious bigotry and respond with empathy, it must integrate religious literacy — an understanding of diverse faith traditions and their histories — into its required curriculum.
Harvard Square Needs More Local Businesses
Or if you really can’t live without your Pumpkin Spice Latte, there’s always the other Starbucks just around the corner.
Harvard Cannot Be Neutral On Hate
Affiliates are right to fear University censorship of student publications, and to instead encourage students to respond to the hate peddled by the Salient as they see fit. But University administrators have a role to play in shepherding dialogue in a positive direction.
Want to File a Discrimination Complaint? Good Luck.
If the College is not going to pursue an investigation into the Salient’s vile speech — even when they are aware it occurred — without a complaint being filed, the University needs to substantially revise its procedure for filing those complaints.
Since When Does Trump Care About Grades?
If the Trump administration swaps maximalist hostage-taking for more subtle and fundamentally reasonable asks, it may be appropriate to reconsider Harvard’s stance. If the Oval Office has changed course and opted for a project of durable institutional reform, that would be a nice change of pace. For now, though, those are pretty big ifs.
Harvard, Have Some Dignity.
So when you are inevitably cut from a club, don’t allow that to crush you. Don’t allow yourself to spiral into feeling inadequate or othered by a random group of students. You can have more dignity than that.
Speak on Principle, Not for What It Gets You
There is no venue for speech nor any set of policies that can make words come out of our mouths.
Harvard Is a Liberal Arts School. Our Courses Don’t Reflect That.
In order to fulfill its stated mission as a liberal arts school, Harvard must reform course requirements so students engage meaningfully with disciplines outside their concentration.
All Harvard Students Should Study Abroad
In focusing on what they might lose by not being in Cambridge, students discount what they will gain by living in a foreign country. Why learn about Italian Renaissance art on this side of the pond when you can see it yourself?
Make Everything as Efficient as the Flu Shot
The flu shot didn’t just help protect us from illness, it reminded us what this institution is capable of when it wants to be effective. I hope Harvard can learn to make simplicity the rule, not the exception.
The Unexpected Gift of Being Quadded
Quadded or not, don’t wait for proximity to define your relationships. Reach out to the people who make you feel good and watch as your days become more fulfilling. Make the effort and take the time to be truly intentional about how you spend your precious moments at this school.
Decline in Protest Spells Trouble for Harvard
The University has committed itself to “Intellectual Vitality” to promote challenging conversations on campus. But to be vital means to be lively and active — Harvard cannot fully dedicate itself to such an ideal while stifling the voices of students most active for the causes they care about.
Harvard’s Commitment to Free Speech is Half-Baked
We must commit ourselves to hearing different viewpoints, no matter how detestable we find them to be.
