Message to the Community

Dear Members of the Harvard Community: We are deeply grateful to law enforcement officials from Boston, Cambridge, and Watertown and from across the state and nation for their apprehension last evening of the surviving suspect in the marathon bombing. Yesterday was a harrowing day in a week of tragedy, suffering, and uncertainty—as well as courage…

Welcome, Class of 2017

Dear Members (I Hope) of the Harvard Class of 2017: I had hoped to spend a part of my Saturday with many of you, deploying all the wit and charm I could muster to persuade you to make Harvard your home for the next four years.  I had hoped to regale you with a few…

The newest revolution in higher ed

This op-ed originally appeared in The Boston Globe on March 3, 2013.  By Drew Faust and L. Rafael Reif  In 1837, the Massachusetts Board of Education devoted part of its first annual report to praising a recent classroom innovation called the blackboard. This “invaluable and indispensible” innovation enabled the “rapid and vivid communication of knowledge.” It…

Announcing HGSE Dean Search

Dear Colleagues and Friends, As you know, Kathy McCartney will be concluding her service as dean of the Graduate School of Education at the end of the spring term, having been named to become president of Smith College next July. Kathy has led the Ed School with extraordinary energy and effectiveness since 2005. It will…