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Applicants: Improving Harvard’s Speech Culture is Worth the Hassle

The number "2030" with a graduation cap on the three.

“Describe a time when you strongly disagreed with someone about an idea or issue. How did you communicate or engage with this person? What did you learn from this experience?” This is the most recently updated supplemental essay for applicants to Harvard College. With Harvard’s Restrictive Early Action deadline less than a month away, applicants…

Harvard’s Commitment to Free Speech is Half-Baked

Harvard Medical School entrance sign on a stone wall.

Harvard preaches free speech, but fails to live up to these ideals. Two weeks ago, The Crimson reported that Harvard Medical School administrators nixed a potential speaker for their 2024 Class Day due to concerns over her pro-Palestine posts on social media. In their justification, the Medical School cited a desire to avoid the perception…

At Morning Prayers, Harvard’s Former Chief Diversity Officer Urges Students to Embrace Pluralism

Students sitting in front of the steps of Memorial Church

Harvard’s chief Community and Campus Life officer Sherri A. Charleston, who led the University’s diversity office before it was renamed in April, said at a Memorial Church service on Thursday that her overhauled office was committed to elevating pluralism and going beyond “diversity in numbers.” Read more in the Crimson…

Harvard Democrats and Republicans Face Off at Annual Visitas Debate

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More than 500 students and prospective Harvard admits packed Science Center Hall B to watch the Harvard College Democrats and the Harvard Republican Club exchange blows over economics, immigration, and higher education during this year’s annual Visitas debate on Sunday night. Read more in The Harvard Crimson…

“Crises of Masculinity” with Iris Rachimimov

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On Monday, April 21st, members of Harvard College and the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies gathered in the historic Plimpton Room of the Barker Center to listen to a special guest lecture by Professor Iris Rachimimov, a specialist in Israeli LGBTQ+ history at Tel Aviv University, about the history of the transgender movement in Israel….

A Conversation with Robert Doar and Professor Jack Goldsmith

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Exactly eleven weeks after the inauguration of President Trump, Intellectual Vitality and the Institute of Politics’ Conservative Coalition partnered to bring Robert Doar – president of famed conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute – to Harvard for a conversation about the state of civil discourse in the country. Doar was joined by the Learned Hand…

Civil discourse that exceeds 150 characters

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Social media exerts a powerful influence on college campuses. Has the technology helped broker new connections across ideological difference? Or has it simply siphoned students into conversations with those who share their views? Read more in The Harvard Gazette…