The K-School Gets a New Name
Posted on December 11th, 2007 in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
The Crimson reports that the John F. Kennedy School of Government is changing its name to the Harvard Kennedy School (it’s like two icons for the price of one!). It also has a new slogan: “Ask what you can do.”
Schools have slogans?
I wonder what the biz school slogan would be? “Ka-ching!”
Or the college slogan: “Why stop now?”
I tease. But it’s true that the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard is a mouthful, and if a slogan helps the school define and market itself, well, so be it. The K-School has some of the most idealistic people at Harvard and a sense of community that’s unusual for the university, and it’s hard not to wish it well.
9 Responses
12/11/2023 12:01 pm
Or the Div School: “Nearer to God than thee.”
But this renaming seems dumb and unnecessary. The name may be cumbersome but no one’s confused by it.At the very least the name should be Harvard Kennedy School of Government. All the other schools have a subject (public health, business, law, education) in their proper name.
12/11/2023 1:14 pm
You didn’t read the article very carefully, Richard. It’s not changing its official name at all — it’s just “rebranding.” Can’t tell if that makes it more or less stupid, though. Maybe more stupid but less pernicious?
12/11/2023 1:20 pm
It’s not changing its official name but its “rebranding”?
Okay, now I’m confused. What the hell does that mean?
And I plead guilty to a quick skim of the article, yesâit was around 6:30 AM, and I had to prep for a business meeting in Tribeca.
12/11/2023 1:48 pm
A handy rule of thumb we can all live by: whoever uses words like ‘branding,’ let alone ‘rebranding,’ and isn’t referring to ranch animals, is a moron you can do very well without, as your consultant or management guru.
12/11/2023 8:26 pm
Here is a new name for another school “Everyone gets in”
12/11/2023 9:36 pm
For a fee admission guaranteed. Graduation inevitable.
Class attendance optional.
Timely completion of assignments not necessary.
12/12/2023 1:35 am
A previous “rebranding” wound up causing the street name on which the KSG is located to be changed to its current JFK Street, leaving Cambridge as one of the few towns in eastern Mass. without a Boylston St.
I don’t know if readers of this blog know the story. There was a city councillor named Alfred Vellucci who liked to poke at Harvard (although he never did anything serious), like “threatening” to pave Harvard Yard for a parking lot, or turn the Lampoon Castle into a public WC. But he did blow up when he heard a rumor that the KSG was rebranding to reduce Kennedy and increase Harvard. He said, more or less, “I’m not going to let those s.o.b’s get rid of John Kennedy’s name”, so he push through the Council an ordinance changing the name of the street. Or, as the Crimson reported, he said “I’m going to slap Harvard around until it hurts them.”
Quite a hoot, I thought at the time (fall, 1981), although I miss the name Boylston.
12/12/2023 2:38 am
Vellucci (and Cambridge) would’ve been better served if he’d focused his energies on that Lampoon project.
12/12/2023 11:20 am
Best public loo is in the Holyoke center with those amazing hand dryers . . . no need for another.