Editorials
Walking and Rolling Towards A Safe and Sustainable Square
A car-free Harvard Square may feel like a fever dream today, but the spread of micro-mobility options can move us one step closer to a better city for all.
A Better Student Government Is on the Board
If the HUA aims to actually represent the student body, it needs to figure out how to raise response rates on its referenda to a number of voters that isn’t comparable to the word count of a staff editorial.
Street Signs of Change
We hope this project will serve to encourage Cambridge residents to contend with their self-identity, community, and history writ large. We believe these signs hold the power to start all too-infrequent discussions about America’s founding injustice of settler colonialism.
Trans Athletes Have a Place at Harvard
Amid this noxious climate of rhetoric, we reaffirm our support for trans students and athletes on campus. As members of our community, they deserve to feel safe to express themselves to the fullest; their identities should not be shamefully ridiculed or exploited for votes.
Winter is Coming. So is the Course Registration Deadline.
Despite the benefits of early course registration to teaching teams, we take issue with the current implementation. We think that a course registration period over winter break is a more favorable timeline.
Putting in the Work, In and Out of Academia
To loosely quote one of the union’s chants: “Woo-hoo, HUWU! You did it!” HUWU’s organizational labor has paved a path for better student labor at our University — joining this year in national union wins.
For Athlete Admissions, Something’s Got to Give
Athlete recruitment should be consistent with the College’s values of diversity and opportunity. While athletes’ talents are valuable, so are other extracurriculars. The immense boost given to recruited athletes by virtue of a coach’s preference letter should be minimized and their accomplishments should be weighed just like those of their fellow students.
Editorial Snippets: Spooky Season
Now that the occasion has passed — yet exams and dreary weather seem to be sticking around — we asked our Board to reflect on the peculiar (and sometimes existential) sentiments that have characterized this season.
Launch Grants Need More Fuel
Money is money, and launch grants are $2,000 in unrestricted cash. But where propelling low-income students at the College into the heights of postgraduate success is concerned, we’ve yet to see liftoff.
Artificial Intelligence in Consultants’ Clothing
The artificial intelligence revolution isn’t just altering the coursework of Harvard undergraduates anymore; it is also infiltrating their future workplaces.
Make The Diversity Statement Optional
It does not surprise us to hear lawmakers are curtailing how academics can be evaluated on the basis of their commitment to diversity, and we have our own critiques of these statements too. But we must not let politics interfere with academics’ ability to express themselves and their devotion to diversity if they so choose.
A Gold Star for Goldin, but None Yet for Economics
Goldin’s Nobel Prize in economics is a stellar achievement not only for her, but also for a generation of female economists beginning their academic journeys. It’s the perfect moment for Harvard to follow Goldin’s lead and champion diversifying Economics for the rest of academia.
Dissent: The Cost of Easy A’s
These days, it feels like there’s a new grading system in place at Harvard. Although not officially declared, Harvard’s grade inflation models a shadow pass-fail system — students consider an A or A- as passing and regard a B+ or below as failing.
The Inflated Fixation on Grade Inflation
We’re not swayed by the fearmongering about grade inflation or draconian proposals for deflation. Until we can unlearn certain beliefs about grades, or perhaps restructure grading as a deliberate function of competency, not comparison, we find it hard to condemn such a trend.
Dissent: When Everyone Gets an ‘A,’ What Does an ‘A’ Mean?
We agree that there theoretically exists a world where half of every class gets A’s, but grades still reliably represent competency; this is the ideal world that the Editorial Board argues from. We’d love to live in this world. But the fact is that we don’t.
Keep Our Small Departments
By merging multiple humanities concentrations, the committee’s proposal overlooks small humanities departments rather than supporting them. It is also a dangerous first step that could lead to further mergers and abolition of academic departments altogether.
Dissent: Departmental Restructuring Won’t Save — or Kill — the Humanities
Convinced that the longevity of Harvard humanities must take precedence over the longevity of its present departmental form, we hope the FAS does not allow questions of structure to elide more fundamental questions of substance.
Retaliation for Protest Is an Indignation
We remain steadfast in our support of labor and unionization. For contracted and directly employed workers, at Harvard and beyond, both past and present: No corporation should curtail its workers’ rights to protest for what they are owed.
Dissent: Nix the Alumni Interview
If the College would like to keep the interview component, then it should provide professional interviews to all applicants. If the College cannot guarantee equal treatment for all applicants, then it should not offer interviews at all.
To the Future Class of 2028: Be Yourself — All of Yourself
Be loud. Be proud. Be unabashedly open. Share your story, your life experiences, your sense of self. Say exactly what you would if you’d never heard of the new guidelines. Leave the legal logistics of what can and cannot make it into your final evaluation to the admissions office.
The Million Dollar Question
There’s a simple solution to this problem: Harvard should make the Student Activities Fee mandatory and covered by financial aid.
For the Sake of Knowledge, Pay Your Graduate Students
Burgeoning young researchers at GSAS nurture new seeds of scientific discovery, contributing to Harvard’s primary product of academic output. But GSAS can only advance the collective frontier of knowledge if prospective graduate students, from all kinds of backgrounds, know they can live here.
We Will Buy Harvard Medical School
Now that the Medical School’s prestigious brand has hit the market, The Harvard Crimson Newspaper Medical School (HCNMS) is both the future of news and the future of medicine.
Dissent: Don’t Donate to Harvard, Reprise
The Editorial Board's satire is well-taken, but the Board missed a chance to investigate mega-donations to Harvard. Our verdict is quite simple: They should never occur.
Eight No-Nonsense Tips for a Healthy Campus
After three years of shifting variables and complex policies regarding Covid-19, we’ve tried to keep our advice simple with eight brief, no-nonsense tips.