Commentary

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

A collage showing Harvard president Alan M. Garber greeting new students on campus, shaking hands, gathered students and families in the Yard, and orientation setup

Harvard President Alan Garber Helps First-Years Move In

As a potential settlement with the Trump administration looms, Garber gets students settled. 

by Olivia Farrar

A new Harvard graduate contemplates second-guessing and seeking one's passion

On second-guessing and seeking one’s passion

by Noah B. Pisner

President Drew Faust on the importance of libraries

A letter from President Faust

Harvard vies with Stanford

A letter from the editor: the Harvard-Stanford competition grows more intense.

Letters on social science, diversity, harpsichords, divestment, hemlocks,…more

Social science, diversity, harpsichords, divestment, hemlocks, and more

Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Brownsville, Texas. The CPB provided media tours that day of two locations in Brownsville and Nogales, Arizona, that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since last October 1.

A Harvard human-rights expert on Central American child immigrants

A human-rights expert on Central American child immigrants

by Jacqueline Bhabha

Scenes of Harvard Yard on a mid-July morning

An undergraduate's summer at Harvard

Thoughts on a summer in Cambridge

by Francesca Annic...

Letters on humanities hubris, hoop humor, undergraduate prolixity and more

Humanities hubris, hoop humor, undergraduate prolixity

Drew Faust

President Drew Faust on making Harvard more inclusive and more safe

A letter from President Faust

Introducing Harvard Magazine’s guide to Cambridge, Boston, and beyond

A letter from the editor

As dean of Harvard College at the turn of the twentieth century, LeBaron Russell Briggs (a member of the College class of 1875) believed that the “unwritten and unspoken purpose” of the College was “not so much intellectual as moral; and her strongest hope is to stamp her graduates with an abiding character.”

Thoughts on the new honor code at Harvard

The College’s new honor code prompts historical—and student—reflections on moral education.

by Suzanne Smith