As 2025 draws to a close, we wanted to share a quick year-end recap of five issues that best capture the year at Harvard and themes that will carry into 2026.
This year, 1636 Forum sent Weekly Briefings all 52 weeks of the year to cut through the noise, add missing context, and offer a clear perspective on what developments mean for Harvard’s mission, governance, and credibility. We also published 14 Special Editions when a moment demanded deeper analysis.
Across our editions, our goal hasn’t been to be first to the headline — we typically don’t break news — but to be genuinely useful: a newsletter by alumni, for alumni, grounded in rigor, research, and nuance.
That approach is resonating with a growing audience. This year, our readership surpassed 25,000 Harvard alumni, faculty, and administrators, and our work was cited by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and more.
Below are five of our top newsletters from 2025. For each, we’ve added “what carries into 2026,” the thread that will keep shaping Harvard’s academic direction, financial sustainability, and ability to rebuild trust. If you have a quiet moment over the holidays, we recommend catching up on any you’ve missed.
Harvard College grade inflation (Big Idea Series): Over three editions, we analyzed the College’s pronounced grade inflation as a collective action problem driven by misaligned incentives, and argued Harvard is uniquely positioned to lead credible reform. (Weeks later, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh echoed many of our core arguments.)
Harvard's through-line into 2026: Focusing on academic excellence. In October, the Office of Undergraduate Education released a full report on the problem (which we summarized here) and College administrative leadership are calling this a priority. The open question for 2026: will Harvard turn diagnosis into a real roadmap and will early cultural shifts stick?
FXB Center Reset (Big Idea): Harvard School of Public Health may have made the right call in refocusing the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights on children’s health, but it undercut the move by failing to clearly explain the rationale and standards behind it.
Harvard's through-line into 2026: Explaining difficult decisions, clearly. As Harvard makes more consequential changes in 2026 — whether driven by funding constraints, mission realignment, or both — leaders will need to explain the “why” plainly and specifically enough for decisions to be judged on their merits.
Harvard v. HHS Ruling (Special Edition): We broke down Judge Allison Burroughs’s ruling in Harvard v. Health and Human Services, which restored the University’s frozen federal funding and found the government’s actions unlawful on core constitutional and statutory grounds.
Harvard's through-line into 2026: Federal funding uncertainty. Most of Harvard’s frozen funding has been reinstated, but last week the government appealed the ruling and the case is moving to the First Circuit. Either way, Harvard faces open questions about the extent of future federal research support.
Modeling PhD Admissions Cuts (Special Edition): A favorite among our Harvard faculty and staff readers, we modeled Harvard’s major PhD admissions cuts and estimated limited financial upside — alongside real academic risks to research capacity, undergraduate teaching, and the academic pipeline. Harvard’s steep cuts relative to peers suggests the decision wasn’t driven by near-term savings alone.
Harvard's through-line into 2026: Hard financial tradeoffs. As Harvard navigates federal funding uncertainty and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ long-standing structural deficit, its challenge will be making data-driven cuts that strengthen financial sustainability without hollowing out the University’s academic core.
Antisemitism and Islamophobia Task Force Reports (Special Edition): We distilled more than 500 pages of reports from Harvard’s Presidential Task Forces on Antisemitism and Islamophobia into the most consequential findings and recommendations.
Harvard's through-line into 2026: Implementation and accountability. Harvard pledged school-level action plans and follow-through, but many promised details still aren’t public. When updates do come, they’re often high-level and offer few indicators of impact or what’s working. To rebuild confidence, Harvard will need to pair narrative updates with metrics-based evidence of change, not just a catalogue of steps taken.
We’ll be tracking these threads closely in 2026. If there’s another issue you want us to unpack, reply and tell us what you hope to see (or not see) from Harvard.
Thank you for being part of the 1636 Forum community this year. Here’s to a more transparent, academically focused, and outcomes-driven year ahead.
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Events
Virtual — January 14 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. PT: The Harvard Club of Seattle is hosting a conversation with Sarah Karmon, Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Harvard Alumni Association, who will provide an update on current issues, challenges, and successes at Harvard. Register here.
Toronto, Canada — January 22 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. ET: Harvard Business School (HBS) and the HBS Club of Toronto are hosting an alumni gathering with Executive Dean for Administration Angela Crispi (MBA ‘90) and Executive Director of the MBA and Doctoral Programs and External Relations Jana Kierstead. Register here.
Virtual — January 26 from 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET: As part of Harvard’s Speakers Bureau Spotlight Series, hear from Computer Science professor of practice David Malan (AB ‘99, PhD ‘07) on how one of Harvard’s largest courses, Computer Science 50, has incorporated and is being impacted by AI. Register here.
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FYIs
New Correspondence Sheds Light on Harvard Settlement Negotiations With White House, Dispute Over $200 Million Cash Fine
This week, The New York Times reported on private correspondence between Harvard President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82) and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, sharing details of the University’s ongoing settlement talks with the White House.
In her December 20 letter to Garber, McMahon described Harvard’s proposal as $300 million for workforce and trade school programs plus a separate $200 million fine paid in cash to the government. She said White House lawyers had “returned edits” to clarify that Harvard would adopt specific antisemitism policies and ensure equal opportunities for Jewish students.
Garber replied that Harvard was prepared to invest $500 million in workforce development — with no cash fine component — and said a settlement would depend on agreement over other terms (unspecified in the article).
The next day, the government sent revised terms that the NYT described as “alarming” to Harvard officials, who believed the administration was abruptly adding new demands “that appeared to encroach on their independence.” Harvard privately replied, promising a fuller response after further review.
The Crimson Details Messages Behind Salient’s Suspension
The Crimson published an article detailing internal messages and draft articles that led to the suspension of The Harvard Salient, including materials shared by members.
The documents include group chat messages in which Salient members used racial slurs, made antisemitic comments, and criticized women’s suffrage. According to the board, this behavior reflected a “deeply disturbing” culture and triggered an internal investigation.
According to The Crimson, drafts of a September article echoing Hitler’s Reichstag speech also included Nazi imagery. The author later claimed a non-Harvard affiliate inserted the images and said he was reprimanded by Salient leadership.
The Salient board suspended the magazine in October after reviewing the materials and its draft October magazine issue, but announced the magazine will resume operations in January under new leadership. The October issue will remain unpublished.
Female Enrollment, All Race/Ethnicity Groups Except Multiracial Enrollment Rise at Harvard Law
Female enrollment at HLS rose to 53.5% in the Class of 2028, while male enrollment fell to 45.3%, a gap of 8.2 percentage points, up from 2.5 percentage points in 2023, according to American Bar Association (ABA) data. The gap is consistent with national trends: according to the ABA, women outnumber men at 171 law schools, compared with just 24 where men are the majority.
Across race/ethnicity, enrollment rose in the major categories tracked — white, Hispanic, Asian, Black or African American — rose with declines in two categories: multiracial, (from 8.6% to 5.2%), and “Race Unknown.” The share of students with undisclosed race fell sharply from 17.3% in the Class of 2027 (the first class admitted after the Supreme Court’s ruling ending race-based affirmative action) to 6.2% this year, compared with 2.7% prior to the ruling.
Black enrollment more than doubled in the Class of 2028, rising to 50 students from just 19 last year. Black students now make up 8.6% of the incoming class, up from 3.4% in the Class of 2027. Harvard Black Law Students Association president Bianca Williams-Alonzo (JD ‘26) credited student-led outreach with helping boost enrollment. American Indian student enrollment also increased slightly (2 to 3 students) while Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander declined from (1 to 0).
Dana-Farber Pays $15 Million To Settle NIH Fraud Settlement
The Department of Justice announced last week that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard Medical School affiliate hospital, will pay $15 million to settle allegations it submitted false claims to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) tied to misrepresented research data in federally funded cancer research.
Dana-Farber acknowledged that researchers working under one principal investigator (“Researcher 1”) used funds from six NIH grants to support work that later produced at least 14 publications containing misrepresented or duplicated images and data.
Dana-Farber also acknowledged that four successful NIH grant applications associated with a second principal investigator (“Researcher 2”) cited a faulty article from Researcher 1 without disclosing the article contained misrepresented or duplicated images or data.
STAT News reports Researcher 1 is Harvard Medical School (HMS) Professor Kenneth Anderson and Researcher 2 is HMS professor Ruben Carrasco. The settlement doesn’t name individuals or include any admissions of intentional fraud. It’s unclear whether Harvard will conduct any separate review of the professors or other involved researchers.
This isn’t the only high-profile research integrity case tied to Harvard this year. In May 2025, Harvard Business School revoked Professor Francesca Gino’s tenure over research misconduct.
More News
More News at Harvard
The Atlantic: “The Entry-Level Hiring Process Is Breaking Down: Grade inflation and the rise of AI are making it impossible for employers to evaluate recent graduates” — feat. Harvard Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh (PhD ‘01)
Harvard Gazette: “Building interfaith community”
Harvard Gazette: “New institute to strengthen fundamental physics research, collaboration”
Boston Globe: “How Harvard became Trump’s perfect target”
Boston Globe: “A year inside the MAGA war on Harvard”
Harvard Magazine: “At Harvard, AI Meets ‘Post-Neoliberalism’”
Harvard School of Dental Medicine: “Remembering Bruce Donoff, a visionary leader who bridged dentistry and medicine at Harvard”
Psychology Today: “Intellectual Diversity, Flourishing and the Pursuit of Truth” — by School of Public Health professor Tyler VanderWeele (PhD ‘06)
Sociologica: “Theda Skocpol in Conversation with Edwin Amenta on Sociology,Political Science, Higher Education, and U.S. Politics” — by Harvard government and sociology professor Theda Skocpol (PhD ‘75) and UC Irvine professor Edwin Amenta
More News Beyond Harvard
Brown Daily Herald: “Department of Education to investigate Brown security following mass shooting”
Brown Daily Herald: “Paxson announces Brown police chief on leave, new security initiatives following mass shooting”
Bloomberg: “Yale, Penn Prepare Student-Loan Options as Trump Caps Grad Debt”
New York Times: “University of Virginia’s Board Names a New President”
Boston Globe: “Brown University shooting brings renewed attention to the push and pull of campus security measures”
The Chronicle (Duke): “Duke shows what not to do when feds come knocking”
The Stanford Daily: “Debates about genocide dominate pretrial motion for pro-Palestine Stanford protesters”
Washington Square News (NYU): “NYU expands hazing violation reporting under new federal law”
New York Times: “Student Loan Borrowers in Default Could See Wages Garnished in Early 2026”
New York Times: “What Happened When My Yale Students Gave Up Their Phones for Four Weeks” — by Yale Summer Session Instructor Colleen Kinder
Deseret News: “What ‘civic dialogue’ programs leave out” — op-ed by Heterodox Academy President John Tomasi
Psychology Today: “The Hidden Costs of Anti-Bias Education” — by Harvard psychology associate Pamela Paresky
James Hatch’s Substack: “Academia = Asset” — by Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs lecturer James Hatch
The Free Press: “Brown University Deserved Better” — by Brown alum and Free Press staff writer Jillian Lederman
Note: Beginning January 5, Jeita Deng will assume the role of Harvard College Dean for Administration and Finance, a role we highlighted in the last Weekly Briefing, “Five Open Jobs at Harvard You’re Not Watching (But Should Be).”