Shots In The Dark: The Corporation on the Hot Seat

Thursday, April 26, 2024

The Corporation on the Hot Seat

The Crimson reports that Ryan Peterson, the president of Harvard's Undergraduate Council, has made a move that is sending shock waves through the Harvard world: He has asked to meet with the Corporation.

Consternation! Gnashing of teeth! Beating of breasts!

Peterson wants to talk to the governing board about calendar reform. Harvard students want the college to be more like Yale, which holds its undergraduate exams before Christmas, allowing students a little time off. As things stand, Harvard has its exams in January, and basically winds up blowing off the whole month.

Peterson puts the Corporation in an interesting position. It will either have to—gasp!—meet with someone other than its own seven members. Or it will suggest contempt for the reasonable petition of a student leader.

Which way will the Corporation go—in the direction of openness and transparency, or just more elitism and non-accountability?

Peterson's request exposes an interesting dilemma at Harvard right now: With Derek Bok wrapping up his interim presidency and Drew Faust declining to speak her mind, as well as a temporary FAS dean, there's a real power vacuum at the university.....

Is the university without a leader?

¶ 7:11 AM

Comments:

Good observation Richard. In fact there is research that shows that there is a problem with older boys and young adult males in engaging them academically.

It is not to be expected that President Faust knows that research of course, and she probably did the right thing deflecting this question to others who could know more.

Perhaps she was speaking from experience when she talked about the dauting pressure of expectations. It must be terrible for a Harvard President, and more so for the first Woman President. It is to be expected that she will make some faux pas like this one, nothing that topples the recent history of deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance of the leadership.

Relax a little, will you?

# posted by Anonymous : April 26, 2024 8:17 AM

So you're saying that we should lower our critical standards because DF is a woman?

# posted by Richard Bradley : April 26, 2024 8:28 AM

Don't be fooled by this story in the Crimson. The Corporation wants calendar reform, and so does Mass Hall. It is a clever strategy to present this as a demand of the students, to deflect any potential opposition from the faculty.

The Crimson, as you know well, has gradually become better at speaking the party line at Harvard. For an example, see this story three years ago when a couple of schools went up a point in the rankings:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=358646

Have you seen any story in the Crimson about the latest rankings when most schools went down more than a few points?

These students are smart. They may know their school has problems, even severe problems, but they know they won't cash in on their degrees if they air those problems in public.

So Ryan Petersen is exemplifying that smart students learn how things are done and to be done at Harvard. Requesting a meeting with a private meeting with the Corporation and talking this out behind closed doors. This is the way it has been for 400 years and the way it will be in the future.

# posted by Anonymous : April 26, 2024 8:40 AM

It's not true that all undergraduates accept the party line at Harvard. Maybe it is true of the Crimson staff.

For a contrarian example see the magazine Diversity and Distinction:

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~dnd/about.shtml

# posted by Anonymous : April 26, 2024 8:46 AM

Well, the Crimson is the 'official' student newspaper. So it is natural that it should adopt a more institutional stance when discussing these matters.

Diversity issues or other narrow topics of interest to particular constituencies at Harvard, are best addressed in smaller more targetted publications or clubs, not in the official student publication.

# posted by Anonymous : April 26, 2024 8:50 AM

Isn't the Crimson an "independent" student newspaper?

And doesn't Inclusiveness and Diversity as we call it at my university, properly construed, result in implications and benefits for everybody? [Yes implications includes disadvantages that are highlighted by people with an oppositional ideology to the widespread ideology that supports "diversity", narrowly construed.]

# posted by Observer : April 26, 2024 11:12 AM

Is Harvard still continuing to control student independent expression?
The H Bomb has just been disbarred...

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518570

# posted by Anonymous : April 27, 2024 8:03 AM

Why are Harvard students affraid to take a test that wouild show how much they learn? Or is the Corporation not interested in an objective measure of what and how much students truly learn at Harvard?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518555

# posted by Anonymous : April 27, 2024 8:05 AM

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