ICYMI (by popular demand): Our special edition on Harvard’s PhD admissions cuts breaks down how much the University actually saves with this move (only $89M in a worst-case scenario) and the academic risks that come with it. Read it here.

For months, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) Dean Andrea Baccarelli has called for the school to use this moment of a changing funding landscape to reinvent itself, pivoting toward “rigor, innovation, and impact.” This week’s decision to refocus the FXB Center exclusively on children’s health appears to move in that direction.

Baccarelli said the change will let FXB “accomplish more” by going deeper in one area, a shift he described as consistent with the center’s “foundational values.” But he gave no clear explanation for what prompted the change, what it leaves behind, or why it’s happening now.

That vagueness matters. Whether it was the right decision depends on the reason behind it. If FXB was restructured because HSPH expects its centers to prioritize rigorous scholarship, rather than activism, then it should say so. If, instead, the change was driven by convenience — or by the volume of criticism rather than the merit of the criticism — that would be a failure of institutional stewardship, not just messaging. Right now, Harvard’s near-silence leaves that distinction unclear.

At its best, Harvard engages difficult topics through evidence, rigor, and intellectual pluralism. In recent years, FXB fell short of that standard. Harvard’s official University-wide Report on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias called FXB’s Gaza-related programming “characterized by bias and misinformation,” featuring sweeping claims with little evidence, minimal public health expertise, and no meaningful scholarly counterpoints.

The problem wasn’t that FXB addressed Gaza. Other parts of Harvard demonstrate that the University can grapple seriously with the Middle East. Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Dialogues, for example, has hosted figures with deeply polarizing views, but in a format built around rigorous questioning, contextualization, and engagement across viewpoints. The difference isn’t the subject matter, but the standards governing how it is treated.

There are plenty of reasons Baccarelli’s decision is defensible, but defensibility doesn’t speak for itself. In summer 2024, HSPH launched a “blue-ribbon” review of FXB to assess whether it met Harvard’s standards. If the review informed FXB’s restructuring, Harvard should say how. If it did not, Harvard should explain what did. When a review is publicly announced but its findings are withheld — and Harvard won’t say if or how they informed its decision — the silence invites speculation and even sound decisions lose legitimacy.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has shown another approach. This spring, FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra made clear that moving forward its centers and institutes would be expected to demonstrate how their programming met FAS standards for intellectual diversity and open inquiry.

Shortly after, FAS relieved the Center for Middle Eastern Studies directors of their leadership posts. This dismissal was controversial, but Hoekstra grounded it in articulated standards, formal reports, and a more concrete vision of what Harvard’s centers are for. The explanation did not make the move extremely popular, but it made it principled.

That’s the job of a dean. Explaining decisions may invite backlash rather than defuse it, but that’s what leadership demands in a university committed to academic excellence, especially in difficult times. FXB’s reset appears to be the right call. If it is, Harvard should be willing to say why.

Ask 1636

Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!

 Q: I see references to Teaching Fellows, Teaching Assistants, and Course Assistants at Harvard. What’s the difference between these roles?

All three are instructional support roles that assist faculty in running their courses, most often in large lectures that require discussion sections, labs, or grading support.

  • Teaching Fellows (TFs) are the most common and are Harvard graduate or professional students (often PhDs, but can come from other programs too).

  • Teaching Assistants (TAs) do similar work but are not Harvard students and are much less common.

  • Course Assistants (CAs) are Harvard undergraduates who, under faculty supervision, support courses (often quantitative-based) through grading, office hours, problem sessions, and sometimes running sections.

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.

  • 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

Harvard Tightens Belt With Admin Overhaul, Office Relocations, and Land Sale

  • Amid a more than $350 million structural deficit and uncertainty around future federal funding, Harvard is taking steps to reduce its footprint and cut costs. Three recent moves signal the University’s effort to rein in spending:

    • FAS is planning an administrative workforce overhaul, shifting staff from academic units to centralized offices and likely reducing total headcount. The change is aimed at cutting labor costs and simplifying operations, and comes on top of a hiring freeze that has eliminated hundreds of staff positions.

    • The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is relocating academic units from leased offices in Harvard Square to University-owned buildings to reduce rent costs.

    • Harvard sold its Brighton Mills Retail Plaza property in late October for $39 million, marking the University’s first land sale in Massachusetts in a decade. The Crimson notes that while Harvard “regularly” leases space in the Boston area, permanent sales of University-owned land are “rare.”

  • In recent months, FAS has also frozen staff hiring, capped its FY26 budget, delayed non-essential capital spending, and sharply reduced PhD admissions (read our Special Edition on what the PhD cuts actually save Harvard — hint: less than you’d think).

Claybaugh Talks Grading Reform Amid Surge in Double Concentrations

  • In a new interview with The Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes magazine, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh (PhD ‘01) discussed the College’s push to address grade inflation, her office’s recent report, Re-Centering Academics at Harvard College, and what comes next:

    • She said Harvard is already rigorous, but the rigor is “unevenly distributed.” The aim isn’t to make hard courses harder, but to raise expectations in ones that don’t meet the mark. (See our Big Idea "Not All Harvard As Are Created Equal" for more on this.)

    • Claybaugh is in talks with peers at other elite colleges also grappling with grade inflation, and hopes they will all “move together to solve this problem.” Regardless, she believes Harvard can lead on the issue. (We've made similar arguments here.)

    • She argued Harvard is especially well-positioned to act because it can coordinate across its many professional schools, and will be undertaking holistic reform versus other schools’ one-off fixes. (More on those dynamics in our grade inflation series.)

    • Any formal changes would still need faculty approval. “Deans have only executive power,” she said, noting a vote wouldn’t happen before late this academic year.

  • Separately, The Crimson reported this week that the number of students pursuing double concentrations has nearly doubled since 2022-23. Many students cited pressure to stand out in the job market, with grade inflation and “subsequent grade compression” leaving them “with not much way to distinguish themselves by grades.”

Harvard Provost John Manning Exits Columbia Presidential Search

  • Columbia University has extended its presidential search after top contenders, including Harvard Provost and law professor John Manning (AB ‘82, JD ‘85), withdrew from consideration. The school is searching for its fourth president in 16 months after multiple leadership departures and campus unrest following Hamas’s October 7 attack.

  • According to Bloomberg, Manning exited the process after initial conversations. Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier also declined to proceed. Columbia has not made any offers and says the extended timeline is “unrelated to a specific candidate.”

  • Manning’s decision comes as Harvard faces its own future leadership transition. President Alan Garber’s term ends in 2027, with a formal search expected to launch in 2026. Garber is widely supported in the Harvard community, receiving a 74% approval rating among FAS faculty in The Crimson’s spring survey.

DOJ Eliminates Disparate Impact Rule, Narrowing Path for Outcome‑Based Civil Rights Claims

  • The Justice Department finalized a rule eliminating the use of “disparate impact” liability from its Title VI civil rights regulations, narrowing the legal basis for challenging policies that produce unequal outcomes for different groups. The move follows an April executive order directing agencies to remove disparate-impact liability where possible.

  • The disparate-impact concept, added to DOJ regulations in 1973, allowed plaintiffs to use statistical evidence of unequal outcomes — even absent proof of intentional discrimination — to show potential civil rights violations under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  • Under the new rule, colleges and universities that receive federal funding can no longer be held liable simply because a policy results in unequal outcomes across racial, color, or national origin groups. Plaintiffs must now prove intentional discrimination to bring a successful Title VI claim.

More News

More News at Harvard

  • Harvard Gazette: “Science needs contrarians, and contrarians need support”

  • The Crimson: “More Harvard Undergrads Are Reporting Disabilities, Bringing Rate in Line With National Average”

  • Harvard Gazette: “‘Our students are seeking not just to coexist, but to understand’”

  • Boston Globe: “In Massachusetts visit, Trump’s NIH chief defends move to prioritize funding research in places like Iowa, Nebraska”

  • The Crimson: “‘For the Reinvention of Man’: How a Conservative Debating Society at Harvard Pushed Women From Its Ranks’”

  • PBS: “PBS and WETA Announce Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History With Henry Louis Gates Jr.” — feat. University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

  • Boston Globe: “Larry Summers’ wife — a powerful Harvard professor — tapped Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen to boost her poetry project”

  • The Crimson: “Dean of Students Office Will Not Intervene in HUA Survey Controversy, Dunne Says”

  • Harvard Gazette: “Division of Continuing Education fetes 50 years of expanding opportunity”

  • Washington Post: “I was a red state governor. What I saw at Harvard surprised me.” — op-ed by former Indiana Governor and Harvard IOP fellow Eric Holcomb

  • Persuasion: “What Jill Lepore Knows About Harvard” — by Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America

  • The Crimson: “Trump’s Cuts Are Coming for Our Classrooms. Here’s How To Respond.” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board

  • The Crimson: “To The Editor: I’m A Conservative Woman at Harvard. I Couldn’t Be More Empowered.” — letter to the editor by Kaitlyn Hou (AB ‘27)

  • The Harbus: “Not So Partisan But Still Controversial” — op-ed by Valerie Chen (MS/MBA ‘26)

  • Slow Boring: “American higher education is adrift” — by Matthew Yglesias (AB ‘03)

  • Very Serious: “Elite Colleges Should Try Harder to Stay Elite — by Josh Barro (AB ‘05)

More News Beyond Harvard

  • New York Times: “College Students Flock to a New Major: A.I.”

  • Times of Israel: “‘A very bad year’: Despite Gaza truce, academic boycotts pile on, threatening Israel’s future”

  • The Editors: “Dartmouth Advertises for Jews While Columbia Task Force Pushes Hiring Zionist Professors” — by Ira Stoll (AB ‘94)

  • Jewish Insider: “UC Berkeley reaches settlement with Israeli dance professor in discrimination lawsuit”

  • ACE: “Education Department Releases Proposed Rules for Pell Grants Under One Big Beautiful Bill”

  • The Tech: “MIT to close multiple libraries in budget rebalancing”

  • House Committee on Education & Workforce: “Walberg Presses MIT about Recent Antisemitism on Campus”

  • Cornell Daily Sun: “Student Assembly Passes Resolutions to Divest From Fossil Fuels, Condemn Cornell Settlement, Raise Student Activity Fee”

  • Higher Ed Dive: “Education Department adds ‘lower earnings’ warning to FAFSA”

  • Boston Globe: “White House flags DEI-themed college essays as potentially unlawful”

  • American Association of Colleges and Universities: “The Agility Imperative: How Employers View Preparation for an Uncertain Future”

  • Wall Street Journal: “Science Funding Goes Beyond the Universities” — op-ed by Caleb Watney, founder of the Institute for Progress

  • Wall Street Journal: “Pro-Hamas Students Aren’t the Source of Campus Antisemitism” — op-ed by UC Santa Cruz professor emeritus John Ellis and AMCHA Initiative executive director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin

  • Columbia Spectator: “On the abuse of faculty immunity” — op-ed by Columbia senior Elisha Baker

  • City Journal: “The Political Causes of Higher Education’s Decline” — op-ed by Professor of Political Science at Cal State Long Beach Kevin Wallsten

  • AEI: “The Unexpected Benefits of Teaching American Conservatism” — by Tufts political science professor Eitan Hersh