As part of a commitment to open discourse on campus and off, Harvard will hold a series of events designed to model productive dialogue. “Harvard Dialogues,” which launched Thursday, is part of a broader initiative to address how the campus community can communicate more openly and constructively within classrooms and in the broader world. Read…
Free Speech on Campus
On Tuesday evening, one week after the Congressional hearing that prompted demands for President Claudine Gay’s dismissal and less than 12 hours after Harvard Corporation members released a statement confirming their support for her continued leadership, a group of scholars gathered at the Radcliffe Institute for a long-planned discussion of campus speech that had suddenly…
Harvard College Dean Khurana Stresses Value of Intellectual Vitality, Condemns Doxxings Amid Campus Turmoil
Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana condemned student doxxings and stressed the importance of free idea exchange amid a period of campus turmoil around the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza in a Friday interview with The Crimson. Read more in The Harvard Crimson…
About Those Free Speech Rankings
A few weeks after we started working on this column, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released their yearly college free speech rankings, placing Harvard dead last out of 248 universities. Read more on The Harvard Crimson…
Intellectual Authenticity Is The New Face Of Holistic College Admissions
In recent years, U.S. colleges have seen three watershed moments rock the admissions process. The movement towards test-optionality, the striking down of affirmative action, and the ongoing debates around legacy admissions have all pointed us to a fundamental shift in how universities examine potential new students. How should families adapt to this shift, and what…
Campus Conversations on Speech
On campuses nationwide, free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse have led to numerous incidents in which professors have been “mobbed, cursed, heckled into silence, and sometimes assaulted,” they continued (these events are allegedly mirrored by a less publicly visible silencing of students, who, fearing reprisal, are unwilling to discuss certain topics in class). Read…
Does Harvard Have an Academic Freedom Problem?
In the face of what many characterize as an academic freedom issue at Harvard, professors and students have created their own spaces for exchanging potentially controversial ideas. Nonetheless, they disagree on the stakes. Read more in The Harvard Crimson…
Harvard College Dean Khurana Affirms Importance of Free Idea Exchange
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana reiterated his commitment to free academic exchange in an interview Tuesday. Read more in The Harvard Crimson…
For Two Years, Harvard ‘Intellectual Vitality Committee’ Has Quietly Discussed Campus Culture
A group of Harvard undergraduates, faculty, and alumni have been quietly meeting over the past two years to examine what they see as a lack of free idea exchange at the College. Read more in The Harvard Crimson…
Reflections and Looking Ahead
Dear Harvard College Students, I am writing today to share my heartfelt congratulations to you for reaching the end of the academic year. As we mark the end of the semester, I want to tell you about some conversations that I have had this spring with a group of students and faculty members about the…