On March 5, 2014, Harvard announced that Michael Bloomberg M.B.A. ’66, the former three-term mayor of New York City, will serve as the principal speaker at this year’s Commencement. The following two weeks saw a flurry of activity on social media and campus-wide publications fueled by voices against the choice, especially in light of Bloomberg’s … Read more
The college application process is a labyrinth of forms, letters, and essays: a puzzle just as complicated as a Rubik’s Cube. Now, imagine seeing everyone around you receiving personalized instructions on how to solve the puzzle, except you. This was the experience of three recent college applicants. They were all undocumented immigrants at the time.For many … Read more
On December 14, members of the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to endorse a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The boycott resolution, which passed with two-thirds of the 1,200 participating members voting in favor, forbids the ASA from engaging in institutional collaborations with Israeli universities or the Israeli government, although it has no legislative authority … Read more
Forget the prepared opening and closing statements: here are the paraphrased answers that each Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate gave tonight to questions posed by the JFK Jr. Forum audience. This is your “digest” version of the candidate roundtable. Candidates are named in the order they sat on stage, also the order of the picture below: … Read more
Upon a $150 million donation to Harvard College by Kenneth Griffin – unprecedented in the institution’s history – some members of the Harvard community and the national media exclaimed in awe, while others let out cries of frustration. What are the ethics of donating to Harvard, which has the largest university endowment in the world? More generally, … Read more
On January 28, 2014, the Academic Integrity Committee released its first draft of the recently proposed Honor Code. Plagiarism and academic honesty have been ever-escalating issues on campus since the Government 1310 cheating scandal in spring of 2012. Does this merit a new honor code for Harvard? And if so, in the manner that the … Read more
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” These words account for less than 0.1 percent of the Constitution’s overall text; yet, if a recent Crimson Staff Op-ed is to be believed, there is nothing more to our founding charter than those 10 words. According to the Crimson, the Constitution’s free speech protections are … Read more
Last year, students claimed the University was not providing enough support for mental health in a stressful, challenging environment. In the wake of Monday’s bomb threats, mental health services at Harvard have again been questioned as insufficient. And yet many attempts have been made to improve the availability and accessibility of resources on campus. Student … Read more
“If you like it, keep it. If you don’t, leave.” These words of coercion oft used to intimidate powerless employees by employers are very familiar to Delmy Lemus, a housekeeper at the DoubleTree Hotel in Allston, which Harvard bought back in 2005. According to Lemus, her employers threaten her and her coworkers with these words … Read more
HPR contributors weigh in on the consequences of Monday’s events.