HARVARD ELECTIONS: For Board of Overseers elections, we recommend: Salvo Arena, Nisha Kumar Behringer, Trey Grayson, Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, and Philip Harrison. For Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) Elected Director elections, we recommend: Mia Esther Alpert, James P. “Jimmy” Biblarz, Allison Charney Epstein, Medha Gargeya, David Lefer, and Jakob Haesler.
Last month, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) wrote a letter to Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) leaders objecting to how Harvard has characterized the impact of the new federal endowment tax on FAS finances.
FAS has projected the tax will reduce its annual endowment distribution by roughly $100 million and signaled administrative layoffs or cutting operational costs may lie ahead. HUCTW argued the tax shouldn’t be treated as a fixed annual “hole,” arguing Harvard could reduce the tax burden in a given year without making those kinds of tradeoffs.
According to The Crimson, HUCTW’s letter argues that the tax is triggered only when Harvard realizes capital gains (profits from selling investments) and emphasizes that the University has “substantial discretion” over when to sell its assets. By delaying asset sales, offsetting gains by selling losing investments, or relying more on dividends and interest, it argues Harvard could materially reduce its annual tax hit.
That captures part of how the tax works, but not the whole picture. More importantly, focusing too narrowly on minimizing the tax could make it harder to achieve HUCTW’s underlying goal of avoiding cuts.
The goal shouldn’t be to minimize the tax. The goal should be to maximize how much money the endowment ultimately generates for Harvard after taxes — because that’s what funds financial aid, research, teaching, and salaries, including the staff positions HUCTW represents.
Both the prior 1.4% endowment tax, and the 8% tax going into effect this July, are based on Net Investment Income (NII), not capital gains. Unlike capital gains alone, NII includes dividends and interest as well as net realized gains. So even if Harvard delayed some asset sales, it would still owe taxes on dividends, interest, and gains it ultimately realizes.
Nor can Harvard avoid the burden by simply not realizing gains. Harvard generally spends ~5% of the endowment annually to fund operations with actual cash, and the endowment’s annual distribution is the University’s largest revenue source. In Fiscal Year 2025, it provided $2.5 billion, or nearly 40% of Harvard’s operating budget.
Harvard does have some discretion over when it realizes gains. The University has said Harvard Management Company (HMC), which manages the University’s endowment, is already managing the impact of the new tax, and it has every incentive to manage the endowment as tax-efficiently as possible.
Critics have argued for years that HMC has underperformed peer institutions and left money on the table, as Bloomberg and The Crimson have reported. But if the concern is that Harvard’s endowment is not generating strong enough returns, that ultimately strengthens the case for improving investment performance, not for prioritizing tax minimization over after-tax returns.
Paying less in taxes is only a win if Harvard still ends up with more money overall. In many cases, trying too hard to avoid taxes can leave the University with less. It can be worse to delay profitable transactions, hold investments longer than makes sense, or shift money into lower-return strategies simply because they generate less taxable income.
In those cases, either the University ends up with less money to spend today (lower current distributions), or it compensates by over-drawing on the endowment and shrinking the base of invested assets that can keep compounding. Over time, that means less support for the entire University, including the staff positions HUCTW represents.
For a university that aims to endure indefinitely, the strongest protection against future cuts is an endowment that continues growing and generating as much support for Harvard as possible.
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FYIs
FAS Plans To Increase PhD Admissions Next Cycle, Partially Reversing Cuts
At a Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) faculty meeting this week, FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra said FAS plans to increase PhD admissions for the next cycle, partially reversing the roughly 50% admissions cuts imposed in this academic year’s cycle. FAS has not yet said how large the increase will be.
Hoekstra also said FAS is now nearly two-thirds of the way to its $100 million target for endowed PhD fellowships and remains on track to meet it by the end of the academic year. The push began after FAS reported $50 million raised toward that goal in February, with a lead gift from Alfred Lin (AB ’94) and Rebecca Lin (AB ’94) that matches contributions toward the $100 million target.
The original PhD reductions announced in fall 2025 included cuts of up to 75% in the Sciences, ~60% in Arts & Humanities, and 50-70% in the Social Sciences, amid FAS’s ~$350 million longstanding structural deficit, Harvard’s expected $350+ million annual endowment tax bill, and broader uncertainty tied to future federal funding.
Less than a month later, the initial plan was scaled back to a roughly 50% cut across divisions. 1636 Forum previously estimated that even the 50% cut scenario would likely save FAS only ~$10-$20 million per year through Fiscal Year 2033 (under a worst-case assumption of no new federal research funding) — modest savings relative to a ~$350 million annual structural deficit.
DOJ Adds Education Department Investigation to Lawsuit Over Applicant-Level Admissions Data
This week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amended complaint in its admissions-records lawsuit against Harvard, adding allegations tied to a parallel Department of Education (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Title VI compliance review seeking anonymized, applicant-level admissions data from the University.
The lawsuit remains solely an effort to compel document production in these investigations — it does not allege new discriminatory conduct or attempt to revoke federal funding.
DOJ’s original February filing focused on its April 2025 compliance reviews of admissions at Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Law School.
The amended complaint adds OCR’s May 2025 review of undergraduate admissions, which requested applicant-level data back to January 1, 2016. Following Harvard’s alleged non-compliance with the request, the investigation escalated with a Denial of Access letter (September 2025), an Impending Enforcement Action letter (March 2026), and an OCR referral to the DOJ (April 2026).
FAS Faculty Voting Next Week on Three-Part Proposal To Curb Harvard College’s Grade Inflation
Between May 12 and May 19, FAS faculty will vote by email on a faculty subcommittee-led proposal to address grade inflation at Harvard College.
In April 2026, FAS faculty agreed to vote on the proposal’s major components separately and to push the vote from April to May to allow more discussion.
The three components faculty will be voting on are:
The 20% + 4 cap per course on flat A grades
The Average Percentile Rank (APR) system used for internal awards
The Satisfactory+ / Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory grading system for courses that opt out of the cap
If adopted, an implementation committee would work through final details next academic year, and the proposal would take effect in Fall 2027. After three years of implementation, the policy would then be up for review.
At the May FAS faculty meeting, faculty unanimously approved Harvard College to join the Shared Course Initiative (SCI) starting Fall 2026. SCI is an existing collaboration between Yale, Columbia, and Cornell that lets students take less-commonly taught language courses offered by peer institutions through live, classroom-based teleconferencing.
Under a two-year pilot, Harvard students will be able to enroll virtually in language courses offered at Columbia when those languages aren’t taught at Harvard; in return, Harvard will offer at least one language course not taught at Columbia. Students will still gather in classrooms on their home campus to teleconference into the other campus as a group.
According to The Crimson, languages Harvard “may” contribute to the SCI are Uyghur and Chaghatay.
FAS leaders said the pilot isn’t designed to replace existing Harvard language offerings, but framed it as a way to sustain breadth in language instruction as smaller language courses often draw single-digit enrollment and can be costly to maintain or expand offerings.
The SCI pilot is budgeted at ~$86,000 over two years, compared with Harvard’s language offerings costing FAS ~$440,000 in fall 2024 alone.
Harvard College To Enforce Thesis Requirement for Joint Concentrators
Harvard College’s Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) will begin fully enforcing its existing senior thesis requirement for joint concentrators starting next academic year, after prior handbook language that joint concentrations “ordinarily” culminate in a thesis led some students to treat the requirement as optional.
Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh said the thesis requirement was set by faculty, not the OUE, but that it is her office’s “responsibility to make sure that all departments are following [the requirement] equally.”
The Crimson reported that uneven enforcement was particularly pronounced in Physics, where some joint concentrators said they were caught off guard by the shift.
Harvard College also offers a double concentration option, which it introduced in 2022. Unlike a joint concentration, a double concentration doesn’t require an interdisciplinary thesis, but it requires students to complete the full set of requirements for both concentrations, so they have less room for electives.
More News
More News at Harvard
The Atlantic: “The Perverse Tyranny of a Perfect Transcript” — by psychology professor and member of the FAS Subcommittee on Grading Joshua Greene (AB ’97)
The Crimson: “Roughly 200 Harvard Law Students Sign Letters Backing Graduate Student Strike”
FAS Current: “Five Harvard faculty named Harvard College Professors” — feat. Harvard professors Daniel Carpenter (government), Jeff Lichtman (molecular and cellular biology), Hannah Marcus (history of science), Samantha Matherne (philosophy), and Ariel Procaccia (computer science)
Chronicle of Higher Education: “Harvard’s ‘Annoying Socratic Gadfly’ Takes a Victory Lap” — feat. Government professor Harvey Mansfield (AB ’53, PhD ’61)
The Crimson: “Mitt Romney To Address HBS Class Day, Receive Alumni Achievement Award” — feat. former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (MBA ‘74, JD ‘75)
Harvard Gazette: “Catalyst Professorship fosters collaboration with the private sector”
Harvard Business School: “Sal Khan on retooling workforce development and redesigning college” — podcast feat. Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan (MBA ‘03)
Harvard Magazine: “Harvard Alumni and Faculty Win Six Pulitzer Prizes”
Harvard Independent: “Looking Ahead: What the Newly Elected HUA Co-Presidents Have in Store for Harvard Undergraduates”
The Crimson: “Harvard Canvas Site Goes Down After University Listed in Instructure Breach”
The Crimson: “When the Proposal Keeps Changing, It's Clear It Doesn't Make the Grade” — op-ed by HBS professor Scott Kominers (AB ‘09, PhD ‘11)
Harvard Salient: “Yes, There are Conservatives at Harvard's Institute of Politics Now, Too” — op-ed by Justin Dunning (AB ‘28)
Harvard Salient: “The Harvard Crimson's Radical Trojan Horse” — op-ed by Jason Morganbesser (AB ‘27)
The Harbus (HBS): “The Woke Glass Ceiling” — op-ed by Michelle Yu (MBA ‘26)
The Crimson: “Harvard’s Hollow Motto” — op-ed by Victoria Konopka ’28
The Crimson: “The False Promise of AI Efficiency” — op-ed by Tara Malhotra (AB ’29)
Harvard Salient: “Calculated Ease: How STEM Grade Inflation Distorts Harvard's Mission” — op-ed by Jason Morganbesser (AB ‘27)
More News Beyond Harvard
Expression (FIRE Substack): “Campus deplatforming attempts surpass 100 for the year and it’s only May 7”
Dartmouth President’s LinkedIn: “When AI makes answers cheap, what must universities teach?” — article on Dartmouth president Sian Beilock’s LinkedIn by Dartmouth provost Santiago Schnell
Daily Pennsylvanian: “Penn students form coalition voicing concerns on open expression guidelines”
Education Next: “New Caps on Federal Student Lending Could Impact Schools of Education” — by American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Preston Cooper
Brown Daily Herald: “Faculty vote to establish co-chair model for faculty meetings”
Columbia Spectator: “Columbia’s review of the University Senate lays out road map to remodel a ‘static’ body”
Jewish Insider: “University of Michigan apologizes for faculty leader’s anti-Israel commencement speech”
Stanford Report: “Stanford merges AI and data science efforts under single institute”
Stanford Report: “Institute to focus on leadership in increasingly complex world” — feat. launch of new Stanford Leadership Institute
New York Times: “Cornell Is Investigating Confrontation Between President and Students”
New York Times: “Did D.E.I. Go Too Far?”
Washington Examiner: “Bipartisan group introduces bill axing grants to US universities funded by foreign adversaries” — feat. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (JD ‘04), Elise Stefanik (AB ‘06), and Rick Scott
Columbia Daily Spectator: “Senate review appendix letter confirms trustees as ultimate governing authority”
Daily Princetonian: “Grade inflation is making you miserable” — by Yale Law School professor Sarath Sanga and Princeton economics and public affairs professor Owen Zidar
AEI: “When the Guild Shows Its Hand: The AAUP and AFT Just Told Us What They Think Academic Freedom Is For.” — by Samuel Abrams (PhD ‘10) and American Council of Trustees and Alumni fellow Steve McGuire
Compact Magazine: “Medicine Without Merit” — by incoming Penn surgery resident Forrest Bohler
Wall Street Journal: “Rise of the Faculty Brats” — by Samuel Abrams (PhD ‘10)
Maish Yarmush’s Substack: “The Privilege and Discipline of Research: A Letter to New Undergraduate Scientists” — by Maish Yarmush, Founding Director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery