In 2002, 58.6% of Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) master’s graduates1 started their post-HKS careers in government or international governmental organizations like The World Bank. Today, that share has fallen to 34.0%, while the share entering the private sector has risen from 21.3% to 38.0%.
The dramatic shift creates a challenge for HKS 2036, the school’s new 10-year vision announced last week: how should a school built around public service evaluate success when its graduates are increasingly entering the private sector?
It may be tempting to view this trend as temporary and attribute much of that change to the current administration in Washington. In April, The Crimson reported that some students and faculty believe the traditional pathway from HKS into the federal government had narrowed under the current administration.
But the sector shift in HKS’s own data long predates the current political moment. The decline spans every presidential administration represented in HKS’s data — both Republican and Democratic:
While this administration-by-administration breakdown is a U.S.-centric snapshot of a school with an international student body, it underscores that the movement toward private-sector jobs isn’t unique to recent federal government dynamics.
Whether this pattern is alarming or unsurprising depends on how HKS defines success. In February 2025, long before the release of HKS 2036, Dean Jeremy Weinstein emailed students reaffirming that “public service is at the core of who we are and what we do.” HKS 2036 explicitly embraces a “broad definition of public leadership,” including in the private sector and civil society, because “the conditions in which people live are not shaped by government alone.”
If an HKS graduate leaves Cambridge to be a policy advisor for a foreign government, many would see that as a quintessential Kennedy School outcome. What about a graduate who joins Google? HKS 2036 suggests that can count too: the report says an HKS graduate can distinguish themselves by bringing their education to “the president’s cabinet, leading a technology company, or driving social innovation.”
So is HKS trying to maximize the number of graduates entering public-sector jobs, or to train graduates to serve the public interest wherever they work?
Many of HKS 2036’s aspirations focus on who gets to pursue an HKS education in the first place. The report calls for expanded financial aid and reducing barriers tied to geography, professional obligations, caregiving responsibilities, and visa status.
But HKS’s employment data point to another question for the school’s strategy: where graduates go once they have received an HKS education, and why.
If the shift in the data reflects employer demand, compensation differentials, or something else, financial aid alone may not change first-job outcomes.
HKS 2036 makes the case for a broader conception of public leadership. But broadening the definition of success still requires defining it. If public-sector placement isn’t a key measure, then understanding how HKS evaluates its outcomes — and what is driving graduates’ career choices — becomes more important, not less.
1 Master in Public Policy (MPP), Master in Public Administration (MPA), Master in Public Administration / International Development (MPA/ID), Mid-Career MPA (MC/MPA)
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Q: Is the graduate student strike still going on?
No, the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers (HGSU-UAW) strike ended on June 1, 2026, after more than 81% of participating union members voted over the prior weekend to end the walkout. After roughly six weeks of striking — including through Commencement — the strike ended without a new contract, after Harvard “indicated in a way that they haven’t before that they’re willing to move on some of our key issues.” Bargaining is expected to continue, with negotiating sessions scheduled for June 9 and June 23.
Events
Virtual — June 9 from 8-9 p.m. ET: Join Harvard Hillel for a Zoom panel, “One Year After the Report: Progress and the Road Ahead.” One year after Harvard’s Antisemitism Task Force Report, panelists will discuss campus developments, Hillel’s response to antisemitism, and the year ahead — moderated by Executive Director Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, and featuring Harvard Hillel student president Miriam Goldberger and vice president Charlotte Newman; Rabbi Elisha Gechter; and 1636 Forum co-founder Allison Wu. Register here.
San Francisco, CA — June 10 from 6:00-8:30 pm PT: Meet HKS Dean Jeremy Weinstein at this HKS on the Road series event. Register here.
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FYIs
Science Center To Be Renamed Zimmer Hall After $100 Million Gift
Harvard’s Science Center will be renamed Zimmer Hall in recognition of a $100 million gift from the Zimmer Family Foundation in 2018. The new name honors Alan Zimmer, the late father of Stuart Zimmer (AB ’91), who was a neuroradiologist and helped advance the use of CT and MRI imaging in the United States.
President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82) said the gift has “strengthened Harvard’s ability to advance deeper scientific understanding and innovative scholarship.” Since the Zimmer Family Foundation’s gift, Harvard has renovated parts of the building, including upgrades to lecture halls, roughly 20,000 square feet of new classrooms, labs, and office space, and redeveloped teaching labs with glass walls meant to make lab work more visible to passersby.
Garber also said the gift has been “instrumental” in helping Harvard implement recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. The Zimmer Family Foundation’s support will fund kosher dining improvements, including expanded menu variety and kosher dining at Eliot House after its renewal project is complete (expected Fall 2027). Harvard separately expanded kosher dining options at Harvard Hillel, the Quad, and Annenberg in 2024.
New FIRE Study Finds Politically Active Harvard Faculty Are Among Least Ideologically Diverse of 55 Universities
A new study by David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, finds that faculty members at 55 leading universities are much more likely than the average American adult to make campaign contributions, and that faculty contributors can be “fairly described as heavily concentrated on the left.” The report emphasizes that this is “a descriptive claim, not a normative one,” and applies to faculty members who make campaign contributions, not necessarily to all faculty.
At Harvard, Primo’s analysis places the University roughly middle-of-the-pack in the share of faculty linked to campaign contribution records, which the report uses as a measure of politically-active faculty (as do other “several recent analyses”). Harvard is lower on this measure than many other Ivies, including Columbia, Cornell, Yale, Brown, and Penn.
Harvard appears near the less politically diverse end of the distribution when comparing the ideological range of the politically active faculty at each of the 55 universities. Harvard ranks 11th from the bottom on the estimate of ideological diversity among politically active faculty, with Columbia, Brown, Yale, and Dartmouth below it.
The report, published by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), uses campaign contribution data and CFscores, a Stanford-developed measure of political ideology built from a database including more than 850 million itemized contributions to candidates and committees since 1979.
Primo notes one limitation of using campaign contribution data at universities: conservative faculty may be less likely to donate if they fear being publicly identified as conservative. He writes that if this chills conservative giving, it may make faculty “look more liberal than they actually are” — but also “if this is true, it actually strengthens the argument that viewpoint diversity is hamstrung on campus by partisan forces.”
Another limitation is that faculty donors may not be representative of the faculty as a whole. But Primo also notes it is nonetheless important to understand the range of views held by faculty who are, by definition of being donors, politically engaged.
Harvard Moves To Dismiss DOJ & ED Admissions Record Lawsuit
On June 3, Harvard filed a motion to dismiss a government’s lawsuit seeking applicant-level admissions records from Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Law School. Initially filed in February by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and amended in May to add the Department of Education (ED), the suit alleges Harvard hasn’t provided admissions records needed to assess compliance with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard decision barring race-based admissions.
Harvard says DOJ was required to complete three procedural prerequisites before suing, but failed to do so in three ways:
The DOJ didn’t make a good-faith effort to secure voluntary compliance (i.e., try to resolve the document dispute without litigation).
The DOJ didn’t formally determine that “compliance [with appropriate information requests] cannot be secured by voluntary means.”
The DOJ never “advised [Harvard] of the failure to comply” with the information requests and “the action to be taken to effect compliance.”
Harvard makes a parallel argument about ED’s failure to complete similar procedural prerequisites.
Harvard also emphasizes that the government is seeking sensitive, identifiable applicant records (including personal essays and other personal information) even though, as Harvard’s filing points out, the government’s complaint explicitly says that it “does not accuse Harvard of any discriminatory conduct.”
In May, the DOJ found that Yale School of Medicine “continues to intentionally discriminate against applicants based on their race” based on its compliance review of data from 2023-2025. The DOJ now seeks to enter into a voluntary resolution with Yale, noting, “should the Department find that a recipient fails to comply with Title VI, it is authorized to pursue legal action to secure compliance.”
FAS To Eliminate Divisional Administrative Dean Roles in Administrative Restructuring
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) plans to lay off three divisional administrative deans in Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences — and eliminate the roles altogether — as part of FAS’s broader administrative restructuring tied to its longstanding $365 million structural deficit, according to The Crimson.
In April 2026, FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra shared plans for FAS to launch a sweeping administrative overhaul over the summer, following months of work by the FAS Task Force on Workforce Planning to create a clearer, more sustainable model. FAS has shared examples of its current inefficiencies, such as a 67-step process to hire a staff member.
In May 2026, The Crimson reported that FAS could lay off up to 25% of staff this summer as it consolidates departments, centers, and institutes into administrative “clusters” with shared functions like HR and finance.
Internal documents obtained by The Crimson show Harvard paid McKinsey three installments of $83,333 in August, September, and October 2025 for consulting tied to the FAS Task Force on Workforce Planning.
More News
More News at Harvard
Harvard Kennedy School: “HKS alumni show that bipartisanship can be powerful”
Harvard University: “2026 Summer Message from the Dean” — by FAS Arts & Humanities Dean Sean Kelly
The Context Window Podcast: “Ross Douthat on the case for God” feat. Dean of Harvard College David Deming’s new podcast
FIRE: “The Harvard alumni who refuse to abandon their alma mater” — feat. Harvard Alumni for Free Speech
The Boston Globe: “Harvard has a $57 billion endowment. It's still eyeing staff cuts this summer — here's why.”
Washington Free Beacon: “Harvard Divinity School Launches Journal Devoted to 'Queerness,' 'Palestinian Liberation'”
Shaul Magid's Substack: “ASHERAH: A Harvard Divinity School Journal of Jewish Liturgy, Prayer, and Ritual” — by HDS Visiting Professor of Modern Jewish Studies Shaul Magid
Harvard Magazine: “Harvard College Dean Deming Launches Podcast” — feat. The Context Window podcast
The Crimson: “Reflections on Half a Century of Progress” — op-ed by Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker (PhD ‘79)
More News Beyond Harvard
Daily Princetonian: “Princeton University Investment Company walks back divestment from publicly traded oil and gas companies”
Department of Justice: “Justice Department Expands Admissions Investigations into 15 Additional Medical Schools”
New York Times: “New Federal Guidelines Threaten Almost Half of Graduate Arts Programs”
American Astronomical Society: “Breakdown of OMB Proposed Rule: Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance”
The Stanford Review: “Investigation: Stanford Receives Chinese State-linked Donations”
Forbes: “What Dartmouth's $25 Million Gift Signals To Applicants”
The Daily Californian (UC Berkeley): “Failing grades soar as professors see greater AI usage, dwindling math skills in UC Berkeley computer science classes”
Financial Times: “What if remote working, not AI, is to blame for weak junior hiring?”
Free the Inquiry (Heterodox Academy): “Stanford HxA Chapter Launches 'Disagree with a Professor' Event Series”
Columbia University: “Update: New Role for Dr. Katrina Armstrong” — feat. former Columbia interim president and former HMS professor Katrina Armstrong
American Jewish Committee: “AJC CEO Ted Deutch and Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier on Countering Antisemitism”
The Atlantic: “There's Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science”
The Economist: “Do you really want that computer-science degree?”
Stanford Law School: “Law Professors Prefer AI Over Peer Answers”
The Dartmouth: “Dartmouth restructures diversity and equity leadership after senior diversity officer Shontay Delalue's departure”
Columbia Sundial: “What Columbia Activists Are Really Looking For”
Daily Princetonian: “Princeton bars press from recording, photographing faculty meetings”
New York Times: “As A.I. Makes Strides in Mathematics, Mathematicians Urge Caution” — feat. Harvard math professor Melanie Matchett Wood
News from the States: “CT lawmakers rejected 3-year bachelor’s degrees. But the trend isn’t going away”
The Free Press: “The SAT Is Back. But Is There a Better Alternative?”
Constructive Dialogue Institute: “AI on Campus Is a Risk. Just Not in the Way You Think”
Knowledge at Wharton: “How Personalized AI Tutors Can Help Students Learn”
The Hill: “Taylor Swift University: The proliferation of pop culture college courses” — op-ed by Daniel Buck and Garion Frankel feat. Harvard’s Taylor Swift course, English 183ts: Taylor Swift and Her World
Wall Street Journal: “The University of California Needs the SAT Back” — op-ed by professors of mathematics at UC Berkeley Svetlana Jitomirskaya and Zvezdelina Stankova (PhD ‘97)
Inside Higher Ed: “Preparing Grad Students to Defend Academic Freedom” — op-ed by Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, Senior Director of Civic Learning and Free Expression Projects at the Council of Independent Colleges
Chronicle of Higher Ed: “Most Academic Research Should Stop” — by former Yale assistant English professor William Deresiewicz
Guided Civic Revival: “If academics want respect for ‘shared governance’, we need to govern ourselves” — by Brooklyn College English professor Matt Burgess
Kyle Saunders' Substack: “Why Are the Humanities Missing the AI Moment?” — by Colorado State University professor Kyle Saunders
Note: Last week’s FYI on Francesca Gino’s lawsuit against Harvard said that former Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman (AB ‘02, AM ‘02, JD ‘05, PhD ‘07) may file an appeal to overturn a Massachusetts Superior Court judge’s February 2026 ruling granting Harvard summary judgment in his case against the University. Edelman filed a notice of appeal in Massachusetts Superior Court on March 18, 2026.