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Scenes from Commencement
Jim Harrison Seniors are led to Baccalaureate by class marshals (from left) Daniel Droller, of Eliot House and Pelham, New York; first marshal Gerard Hammond, of Cabot House and Brooklyn; Avik Chatterjee, of Adams House and Cary, North Carolina; and Nick …
Issue: July-August 2002
Language Wars
Lest you take these English words for granted, consider this: when the United States was founded, only 40 percent of the people living within its boundaries spoke English as their first language. Widener Library's shelves hold testaments to our …
Issue: March-April 2002
“From Neither Here Nor There”
The penultimate chapter of sociologist Roberto Gonzales’s book Lives in Limbo —the chapter he calls the most painful and gripping to read, the one that would be its climax, if the book were a work of fiction—opens with a story about two factory workers on …
Issue: July-August 2020
Reconfiguring Radcliffe
The institutional transformation of Radcliffe into an center for advanced study will be followed by physical changes, as the institute reclaims long-leased buildings for its own use during the next few years. A planning study undertaken by architects …
Issue: January-February 2003
“Twenty Questions” with William Deresiewicz
On Monday night, a chattering crowd packed Paine Hall to watch William Deresiewicz, author of the controversial new book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, address his complaints about the Ivy League. …
School for Scholars
In what must have been Harvard's highest-level continuing-education course on higher education, presidents of seven universities in the People's Republic of China came to Cambridge to learn about the research university, American style, on October 29 and …
Fixing Medieval Wine
Every year, French wholesalers airlift cases of Beaujolais Nouveau worldwide so that wine shops can start selling bottles to the public on the third Thursday in November. In the unlikely event that the contents have not traveled well, a customer merely …
Seriously Goofy
When Karen Chee ’17 was a child, her parents proved definitively that TV was bad for her. During a Jeopardy broadcast, Chee’s mother had her count how many times producers cut to different shots. Each change, her mother said, sapped one’s ability to …
Issue: July-August 2020
Callimachus
Theon, a would-be critic: Callimachus! It’s not often we run into you outside the Library. Have you come to see the victory procession of our benefactor, King Ptolemy? We all enjoyed that Hymn to Zeus you wrote about him. “Who should we sing but the …
Issue: July-August 2020
Harvard’s Slave Connections
Although it has not been a secret, Harvard’s past connections to slavery are hardly well known. The student-inspired Harvard and Slavery Project , dating to 2007, sought to examine those connections. During four semesters of inquiry, according to Bell …
Beyond Wages in the Workplace
The terms of employment Harvard offers its lowest-paid and part-time workers would change significantly if the recommendations of a faculty and administrative committee are adopted. The recommendations, issued May 4, include educating entry-level workers …
Two Buildings, Many Obstacles
Two Buildings, Many Obstacles Permit hurdles remained as this magazine went to press, but the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' (FAS) long-delayed effort to cluster the government department and 11 regional studies centers in neighboring buildings is at an …
My Zero-Minute Commute to Zoom University
During my first semester of college, I slept roughly 150 feet from my 10:30 a.m. humanities lecture. Drunk on my newfound freedom, I wanted to set my alarm as late as possible. At first, since I was used to driving to high school, I went for a …
Reworking the Workplace
American labor law is broken, argues a report released in late January by Clean Slate for Worker Power , a project of Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. This is not just an academic problem, the report argues: in an era of flat wages and …
Issue: March-April 2020
Sexual Harassment Survivors Condemn Harvard's Investigation Process
On Monday evening , four women who have accused former Harvard government professor Jorge Domínguez of sexual misconduct spoke out about their experiences and criticized Harvard’s response to complaints like theirs. Calling the University’s response …