This summer, as part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ restructuring, Harvard College consolidated its Writing Center into the school’s Academic Resource Center (ARC), ending the center as a standalone unit and laying off its director in the process.
The choice became a flashpoint over whether Harvard still values writing at a moment when students increasingly outsource parts or all of the writing process to AI. Critics argued that consolidating the administrative unit sent the wrong message. The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), however, said students will continue to receive one-to-one writing tutoring in its new home.
The debate over the Writing Center’s administrative structure risks missing the forest for the trees. While the center is one input into writing education, where it sits on the org chart itself tells us relatively little about how well Harvard is teaching students to write. What do students actually learn to do?
AI is making that harder to define and measure. A 2024 survey commissioned by the Harvard Undergraduate Association found that of the 88% of respondents who used generative AI, over half used it for writing assignments; in April 2026, Deming said he expected the total share of students using AI weekly to be even higher.
Traditionally, long-form research papers have often done multiple jobs at once: they’re a way for faculty to assess what students have learned, and also a way for students to learn themselves. A paper, for example, can demonstrate students’ command of course material, research skills, and ability to develop and communicate ideas clearly, while the process of producing it can deepen their thinking.
AI complicates both functions. A strong final paper no longer shows as definitively which parts of the intellectual work a student did themselves, and using AI throughout the process may also change what the student learns from doing the work.
More controlled assessments, such as in-person essays, are one alternative. They may give faculty clearer evidence of what students can do on their own and how well they understand course material. But they may also lose some of the depth, sustained thought, creativity, and precision of language that longer-form, less time-restricted work enables.
The question of how to preserve what writing is meant to teach and demonstrate is already surfacing at the College. Last week, College Dean David Deming wrote to the student body that the College is aiming to issue advisory guidelines on AI use by the end of this academic year. He also floated the idea (as his own view, not official policy) that writing and project-based courses might consider moving toward “AI acceptance, or even encouragement,” and potentially pair longer-form assessments with presentations or oral defenses. Several humanities faculty immediately pushed back, emphasizing the thinking and skill-building that happen through writing itself.
There’s unlikely to be one answer across Harvard. Writing serves different purposes for different departments, courses, and assignments. As Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh put it this summer, “the teaching of writing is the teaching of thinking . . . there is nothing more crucial to a liberal arts education.” To adapt, Harvard will have to get clearer about what each assignment is supposed to teach or demonstrate — and as AI changes things, how to tell whether students have actually learned it.
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Q: What are Harvard’s Catalyst Professors?
Harvard’s Catalyst Professors are faculty members who are allowed to work part-time in industry while continuing to teach, mentor, and conduct research at Harvard. Created by the Office of the Provost in 2024, the role is meant to make it easier for distinguished faculty to pursue outside opportunities while remaining at the University.
Harvard currently has three Catalyst Professors: co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Douglas Melton, who also works at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; computer science professor Boaz Barak, who works at OpenAI; and applied math and applied physics professor Michael Brenner, who works at Google Research.
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Events
Chicago, IL — September 16 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. CT: The Harvard Club of Chicago is hosting FAS government professor Eric Beerbohm, who is Faculty Director of the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and FAS Senior Adviser on Civil Discourse, to discuss the state of civil discourse at Harvard and in higher ed. Register here.
Cambridge, MA — September 18 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. ET: Meet Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. The event will follow HKS’s annual Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture in International Political Economy, this year featuring Nicholas Kristof (AB ‘82). Register here.
Virtual — September 22 from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. ET: The Harvard Alumni Association is hosting President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82) for an off-the-record conversation about the University’s priorities, progress on campus, and Garber’s vision for Harvard’s future. Register here.
Virtual & Cambridge, MA — September 22 at 6:00 p.m. ET: Harvard Kennedy School is hosting a debate on the role of diversity in higher education and American life as part of its Debate, Debrief, and Dessert series. Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) professor and former NAACP president Cornell Brooks will debate Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, with Washington Post reporter Laura Meckler moderating. HKS professor Julia Minson (AB ‘99) will then facilitate a debrief of how the session unfolded. Register here.
FYIs
Treasury, IRS Propose Ending Tax-Exempt Status for Private Schools and Universities Found to Racially Discriminate
This week, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed regulations that would deny federal tax-exempt status to any private school or university “if it adopts, maintains, or enforces a policy or practice that discriminates on the basis of race, color, or national or ethnic origin.” The proposal cites the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling, which barred race-based admissions.
The rule would apply to admissions, scholarships and financial aid, athletics, and other school-administered programs. Besides academic achievement, schools could still consider race-neutral factors such as family income, geography, first-generation status, hardship, and military-family status.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (ED) are currently investigating admissions practices at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Medical School over alleged continued racial discrimination following SFFA. The DOJ sued Harvard in February 2026 to compel the University to produce admissions data and other records it sought as part of its investigation, alleging that Harvard had failed to provide the requested materials. ED’s investigation was later folded into the lawsuit. Neither agency has yet concluded that Harvard violated the law.
The regulations are only proposed. If finalized as written, the new rules would apply to taxable years beginning after May 31, 2027.
Annual FAS Faculty Survey Shows Declining Satisfaction With Leadership, Opposition To Budget and PhD Cuts
The Crimson has published this past spring’s results from its annual Faculty of Arts and Sciences survey, which was distributed to FAS faculty from April 29 to May 22, 2026. Results include:
On Harvard leadership and governance:
31% of responding faculty said they were satisfied with Dean Hopi Hoekstra’s leadership, down from 57% last year
Satisfaction with President Alan Garber (AB ‘76, PhD ‘82) also declined, from 74% last year to roughly 56% this year
78% of responding faculty agreed the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, lacks transparency in its decision-making
On budget cuts and restructuring:
54% of responding faculty were dissatisfied with FAS’s efforts to centralize staff positions (the survey was conducted before the restructuring was implemented this summer)
75% opposed FAS’s 25% cut to non-tenure-track faculty budgets
81% opposed FAS’s decision last fall to roughly halve PhD admissions across two admissions cycles
The Crimson notes that the survey wasn’t weighted for selection bias and that the Arts & Humanities division was overrepresented, while School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty were underrepresented.
The Harvard International Office (HIO) will no longer authorize Curricular Practical Training (CPT) for F-1 visa students (international students studying at Harvard on student visas) unless an internship or other work experience is formally required to complete their degree. CPT allows F-1 students to work in off-campus internships or jobs connected to their academic program.
The shift follows new guidance (not a formal change to regulations) from the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), which said CPT should be limited to work experiences required for degree completion.
The change eliminates CPT eligibility at Harvard College, Law School, Medical School, Graduate School of Design, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Harvard will continue authorizing CPT for programs with required internships, including some at Harvard Business School, Kennedy School, Divinity School, Graduate School of Education, and School of Public Health.
Harvard Professor Roland Fryer, Bill Ackman Launch $1 Million Prize for Academic Courage
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer and Bill Ackman (AB ’88, MBA ’92) announced they are launching the Carob Trust Prize for Academic Courage. The prize will award $1 million each to as many as five social scientists annually who “have demonstrated intellectual independence, published findings that were attacked rather than answered, and been validated by the evidence—despite the professional cost.”
Fryer and Ackman wrote that they designed the prize to be “structurally resistant to capture from either direction,” with a selection committee spanning the ideological spectrum. Members include Harvard University Professor and economics Nobel laureate Eric Maskin (AB ‘72, PhD ‘76), Johns Hopkins sociologist Stefanie DeLuca, and Brown University economist Glenn Loury.
The award was born partially out of Fryer’s own experiences in research and as a mentor. Fryer cited a 2016 empirical study he conducted that found police weren’t more likely to shoot Black Americans than white Americans after accounting for relevant circumstances. He wrote that colleagues warned him not to publish the study and that, after he did, he required armed protection for more than a month. He also noted that “hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students” had come to him “not to discuss what they had found but to ask whether they were allowed to say it.”
More News
More News at Harvard
The Crimson: “Federal Judge Casts Doubt on Government’s National Security Case for Four-Year Student Visa Limit”
The Crimson: “Garber Touts AI For Research as Harvard Embraces Classroom Use”
The Crimson: “Deming Tells Class of 2030 AI Will Bring About a New Age for American Universities”
The Crimson: “CS50 Recompiles Amid Malan Sabbatical, New Grading Cap”
The Crimson: “Harvard College to ‘Experiment With’ Phone Pouches for Tech-Free Hangouts”
The Crimson: “Four Months In, HUA Presidents Berg and Zhao Temper Campaign Ambitions”
The Crimson: “Harvard Student Groups Must Coordinate with College on External Donations Under New Policy”
FAS Current: “Harvard Awarded $37M National Science Foundation Grant for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing” — feat. FAS physics professor Norman Yao (AB ‘09, PhD ‘14) and SEAS applied physics and electrical engineering professor Evelyn Hu
Poets & Quants: “At Harvard Business School, ‘We Forge The Best Tool There Is, The One On Top Of Your Neck’” — feat. HBS professor Mitchell Weiss (AB ‘99, MBA ‘04)
HLS Library Institutional Data Initiative: “Making 1.47 Million Historical Newspaper Pages Available as High-Quality, Granular Data”
The Crimson: “It’s Not Just the Phones. Harvard Has a Lecture Problem.” — op-ed by Sabrina Ottaway (AB ‘29)
The Crimson: “Machines Can’t Decide What’s Human” — op-ed by Tara Malhotra (AB ‘29)
The Crimson: “The Problem With American Politics Doesn't Start at Harvard” — op-ed by Henry Haidar (AB ‘28)
The Crimson: “We’re Harvard WGS Alumni. Our Field Has Never Mattered More.” — op-ed by Duke gender, sexuality, and feminist studies professor Jennifer Nash (AB ’01, JD ‘04, PhD ‘09) and Brown history professor Emily Owens (AB ’09, PhD ‘15)
More News Beyond Harvard
Financial Times: “Business Schools Face Demand for Higher, ‘Human’ Skills”
Yale Daily News: “First-Years Attend Panel on Protests and Yale's Place in Democracy”
Columbia Daily Spectator: “Columbia Has Seen a Recent Push for Pluralistic Discourse. Mnookin Comes With a Playbook.”
Washington Free Beacon: “Inside Cal Berkeley Law Review’s Admissions Team, Where ‘Diverse Life Experience’ Matters More Than ‘Editing Abilities’”
Princeton University: “Princeton Strengthens Its Support for AI and Data Science Scholarship Through Data and Intelligent Systems Initiative”
The New York Review of Books: “The Dartmouth Exception”
Inside Higher Ed: “Ohio State to Pay Feds $2.1M Over Researchers’ China Ties”
Jewish Insider: “Brandeis Center Presses Education Department Over Repeated Delay in Foreign Funding Reports”
Wall Street Journal: “Ernst & Young Is Giving $100 Million in Bonuses to Staff for ‘Human’ Skills”
Stanford Law School: “The Rise of Legal Engineering”
Science: “The Alleged Dimethylmercury Incident”
Colby News: “Colby Launches Graduate School Partnerships with University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education”
Wall Street Journal: “Why Syracuse Can't Attract the Students It Needs to Pay the Bills”
Bloomberg Government: “House Democrats Plot Reining In Education Department Dismantling”
Bloomberg: “More Parents Pay Full Cost of College to Give Their Kids a Financial Leg Up”
Harvard Business School AI Institute: “The Case-Method Test for AI”
STAT News: “House Votes to Temporarily Block Trump Plan to Politicize Federal Grants”
STAT News: “NIH Proposal to Cap Research Grants Draws Mixed Reception, Agency Says”
The Free Press: “Is College Still Worth It?”
Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Humanities Can’t Ignore AI” — by American Academy of Arts & Sciences Arts, Humanities and Culture director David Townsend
Hoover Institution: “Reclaiming Liberal Education in America” — by Hoover fellow and former Harvard professor Peter Berkowitz
Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Future of Plagiarism” — by Princeton history professor David Bell
New York Times: “This Is the Biggest Obstacle to New Cancer Cures” — op-ed by Works in Progress biotechnology editor Ruxandra Teslo
Eternally Radical Idea: “Higher Ed Doesn’t Have a Perception Problem” — by Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Polling and Analytics Manager Nate Honeycutt