Commentary

In-depth perspectives and critical analysis from faculty, editors, and readers on public affairs, higher education, and Harvard’s evolving mission.

A smiling elderly man in glasses sits comfortably in a striped armchair.

Jack Reardon and Walter Cabot, Remembered

Plus, veteran higher education leader Thomas Ehrlich reflects on university curricula for his 70th reunion

by Primus VI

Harvard in Allston: new possibilities?

Time to rethink the campus-development agenda?

Colorful composite drawing of the author, dressed in cap and gown, at home in Cambridge, with scenes of blossoming trees and a yellow moving truck visible through the window.

What I Learned From a Forced Return to Slowness

The pandemic sent a Harvard senior back to his hometown—just as the flowers started blooming.

by Drew Pendergrass

Photographs of the new student writing fellows Che Applewhaite and Mean Venkataramanan

Harvard Magazine’s 2020-2021 Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows

The 2020-2021 Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows

Photograph of students in caps and gowns graduating from college

Excerpt from “Higher Education,” by Derek Bok

Derek Bok on curriculum reform

Illustration about meritocracy: one mother penguin and chick wear college mortarboards, while another mother penguin and her chick don’t.

Michael Sandel’s “The Tyranny of Merit” reviewed by Spencer Lenfield

Michael Sandel makes the case against meritocracy.

by Spencer Lee Lenfield

Photograph of John C. Calhoun statue in Charleston in midair being lifted up by a crane

Calhoun-Fall

The rise and fall of Charleston’s John C. Calhoun statue, a monument to white supremacy 

by Peter H. Wood

Letters from our readers

Health care, St. Louis, pioneering astronomer

Photograph of Lawrence S. Bacow

The View from Mass Hall

President Bacow on Harvard’s history of confronting—and helping conquer—pandemics

by Lawrence S. Bacow

Harvard’s COVID-19 lessons, and new challenges

What Harvard has already learned from the pandemic—and strategic challenges to come

image of a girl in a dark space looking upward as her flashlight illuminates a verdant space ahead

The Undergraduate faces life without handrails

The Undergraduate faces up to a postgraduate life without handrails.

by Julie Chung