The Scoop
Federal Funding and the Question of Academic Freedom
After many organizations decried the First Amendment violations in the letter, last month, the Department of Education voted to renew funding for the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies for the 2019-2020 academic year. Still, members of Harvard’s CMES are worried the letter will affect its own Middle East Studies programming under the Trump administration.
The Two Arthur Sacklers
Though the museum he funded on Quincy Street, the “miracle” that affirmed Harvard’s commitment to fine arts education, was erected to honor Arthur Sackler’s patronage of the arts during his lifetime, it has become to many a symbol of the forceful pharmaceutical advertising now implicated in thousands of overdose deaths.
Resounding New Traditions
In 2008, the Lowell Bells that had sounded across campus since 1930 were swapped out for a nearly identical pair. The exchange was a monumental undertaking, yet few at Harvard noticed it, and even fewer knew the truth behind the swap’s impetus and funding.
Eyes and Ears in Cambridge
While ShotSpotter is used nationally — in cities as large as New York and Chicago, but also as small as Somerville and Revere — its efficacy is still in question.