Continuations

I just nominated five candidates for the next election of the Harvard Board of Overseers as part of an effort organized by Harvard Forward. The school has made the process comically complicated by requiring that each nomination be submitted in a separate signed PDF (admittedly this could be explained by incompetence rather than malice but is not a good look in either case). A crucial goal is to have Harvard take a leadership role in fighting the climate crisis. If you are a Harvard grad and w...

Thirty one years ago, in 1987, I landed at Boston Logan Airport with an F1 student visa to attend Harvard. I was full of excitement and not the least bit concerned about getting into the country. I had been here twice before, once staying with a family in Rochester, Minnesota for a school year (1983/84) and once in the summer of 1986 to tour schools all across the US. Each time entering the country had been a complete non event (other than long waiting lines). This past Friday, a 17 year old ...

For a couple of years now I have been complaining to folks in the Harvard administration that the school is woefully behind when it comes to embracing the Internet. So I was thrilled to see the announcement of the edX initiative with MIT yesterday. The two combined with a $60 million commitment will make a formidable force in higher education on the Internet. For people everywhere who want to learn there is an exciting competition starting between some formidable institutions with Coursera (P...