Can you imagine former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg eating dinner with students in Annenberg? Probably not. But it also shouldn’t feel like a ridiculous idea.

At its best, Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics (IOP) does something rare: it brings people with real, recent political experience — from both parties — into direct contact with undergrads. This was the vision of the IOP that director Setti Warren, who passed away in November, was working toward.

This week, the IOP moved in that direction, naming McCarthy and Buttigieg as Spring 2026 visiting fellows. It also announced this semester’s six resident fellows — including Chris Liddell, former deputy chief of staff in the first Trump administration, and Rohit Chopra, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Biden — who will spend the semester on campus leading a series of off-the-record study groups and working closely with undergraduate liaisons who help plan the sessions.

That’s a promising slate for one of the IOP’s oldest programs. But if the main point is to foster engagement with viewpoint diversity across the College, Harvard will need to meet students where they are, rather than counting on them to all come to the IOP. Otherwise, it risks becoming what IOP fellowships can drift into a familiar pattern: a high-profile bipartisan lineup that looks great on paper, reaches students who already devote much of their time to the IOP, and functions primarily as a PR counterpoint to the fact that there are only five Republican professors in the Faculty of Arts & Sciences.

There are many possible reasons why a student might not show up to programs like these — from avoiding disagreement to not caring about viewpoint diversity — but the practical constraint is often simpler: most undergraduates are overscheduled (even if they aren’t going to class).

One solution: get the fellows out of the IOP and into everyday campus life.

A starting point could be occasional meals in Annenberg Hall as a low-friction way for first-years to actually bump into them. Annenberg is the center of first-year dining at Harvard College and one of the few places on campus where first-years reliably mix across interests and backgrounds, three times a day.

Put an IOP Fellow at an Annenberg table a few times a month and you lower the barrier to engagement from “apply and commit to be a study group liaison” to just “sit down and ask a question.”

The fellows seem likely to appreciate it too (and not just because it’s a perk that Annenberg looks like Hogwarts). Dining hall conversations aren’t as filtered by post-grad aspirations. Eating alongside first-years whose primary interests lie in science, art, business, or medicine would expose fellows to perspectives they’re less likely to encounter in existing IOP programming.

None of this requires turning Annenberg into a stage or diluting the IOP’s existing programming. It’s just an acknowledgement of how everyday life at Harvard actually works: community forms around where students already are.

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 Q: How do you decide which events are featured in the 1636 Forum Weekly Briefing?

We feature events that help the 1636 Forum community better understand our focus on Harvard’s core priorities, especially governance and institutional leadership, academics and curriculum, and the campus climate for open inquiry. (For example: this week we featured events on the popular Harvard College introductory course Computer Science 50 and on the business of running HBS.) This also means we generally don’t include events like startup pitch competitions or new admit social mixers.

Events

  • 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.

  • San Francisco, California — January 28 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. ET: Join fellow Harvard College Social Studies concentration alumni in the Bay Area for talks from host of Bloomberg’s The Circuit Emily Chang (AB ‘02), Mayor of San Jose (AB ‘05) Matt Mahan, and 1636 Forum founder Sam Lessin (AB ‘05). Note: must be a Social Studies alum. Register here.

  • San Francisco, California — February 10 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. ET: HBS and the HBS Association of Northern California are hosting a reception for recent alumni (MBA ‘16-26) with members of HBS senior leadership. Register here.

  • Virtual & Boston, MA — February 12 from 6:45-7:45 p.m. ET: Angela Crispi, Executive Dean for Administration and Senior Lecturer at HBS, will present “The Business of Harvard Business School” a behind-the-scenes look for alumni at how HBS is navigating change in higher education, technology, and its own campus footprint. Register here.

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FYIs

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Criticizes Harvard’s Interview Policy as Discriminatory

  • In December, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) sent a letter to President Alan Garber (AB ’76, PhD ’82) calling Harvard College’s new alumni interview policy “unlawful and discriminatory.”

  • In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the Supreme Court ruled that race may not be used as a plus factor in admissions decisions but affirmed that students may share how race has shaped their life. The LDF argues Harvard’s updated policy goes beyond what the Court required and could violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

  • Introduced in fall 2025, Harvard’s updated interviewer guidance instructs interviewers not to reference applicants’ race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin in written interview summaries. Harvard’s prior policy instructed interviewers not to consider those attributes when evaluating candidates, but they could still describe them in their write-ups.

  • Now, training materials direct interviewers to avoid labeling identity traits and instead include specific, concrete experiences applicants shared to illustrate personal background and context, such as commuting more than 90 minutes to school, lacking access to college counseling, or speaking a second language at home.

Federal Government Drops Challenge to Court Ruling on Race-Based Program Ban

  • The Department of Education (ED) has dropped its appeal in a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers and other educator groups challenging ED’s attempt to pull federal funding from K-12 schools and colleges with “race‑based” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. The move ends a yearlong legal battle over ED’s guidance that would have required institutions to eliminate race-based preferencing policies or risk losing federal funding.

  • A federal judge in Maryland ruled in August that ED’s guidance violated procedural rules and the First Amendment, finding that the department failed to follow required rulemaking steps and that its broad funding threats could chill constitutionally protected expression.

  • While ED dropped this case, other DEI-related federal enforcement efforts remain active, including Justice Department guidance warning that certain DEI practices may violate civil rights law, and ongoing Title VI investigations into universities.

  • This year, Harvard has renamed its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (OEDIB) as the Office for Community and Campus Life, and the office has shifted focus to fostering constructive dialogue, cross-cultural engagement, and support for first-generation and low-income students. OEDIB’s shift follows internal critiques at Harvard, including from its Antisemitism Task Force report which cited the office’s failure to support students or address bias complaints.

Student Governments From HLS and Other Top Law Schools Urge ABA To Curb Early Recruiting

  • Student governments from 18 top law schools, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, and Columbia, have asked the American Bar Association (ABA) to review the increasingly accelerated timeline for Big Law recruitment.

  • In a joint letter, students said firms now recruit 1Ls as early as October — before grades or professional interests are formed — which they argue undermines a rigorous legal education, student well-being, and career exploration. They also expressed concern that compressed recruiting disadvantages first-generation and underrepresented students and limits opportunities in public interest law.

  • The ABA said it plans to follow up with the student representatives.

More News

More News at Harvard

  • Harvard Magazine: “Harvard Board of Overseers Candidates Describe Priorities”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Spent Nearly $1 Million on Federal Lobbying in 2025, Including $230,000 in Q4”

  • JNS: “Harvard Med School to host series on ‘genocide’ in Palestine”

  • The Crimson: “Judge Rejects Nationwide Relief in AAUP, MESA Lawsuit Over Noncitizen Speech, Issues Narrower Protections”

More News Beyond Harvard

  • New York Times: “What Seniors Are Writing About in Their College Admissions Essays” — referencing Harvard College’s admissions question on viewpoint diversity

  • The Tech (MIT): “Court partially dismisses lawsuit alleging MIT of tolerating antisemitism”

  • Wall Street Journal: “Even MBAs From Top Business Schools Are Struggling to Get Hired” — feat. HBS

  • New York Times: “Columbia University’s Strained Peace: Fewer Protests and Sealed Gates”

  • Cornell Daily Sun: “Cornell’s Medical School Applications Dip Amid National Decline, But Lead Ivy League”

  • Cornell Daily Sun: “Federal Judge Rules Financial Aid Lawsuit Against Cornell Must Proceed”

  • Stanford Daily: “Faculty Senate reverses ban on student speakers at commencement, rejects new authorship policy”

  • Stanford Daily: “Levin addresses funding cuts, international students at ‘State of Stanford’ event”

  • The Hoya (Georgetown): “Ph.D. Programs in Flux as GU Directs Admissions Reductions”

  • Wall Street Journal: “Economists Are Studying the Slowing Job Market—and Feeling It Themselves”

  • Daily Pennsylvanian: “Penn Faculty Senate approves revisions to research misconduct policy”

  • UNC: “SCiLL receives $10M grant to strengthen civic education”

  • Higher Ed Dive: “Congress moves to reject Trump plan to slash Education Department funding”

  • New York Times: “The Lie That Elite Colleges, and a Nation, Wanted to Believe” — book review by Kevin Carey at the New America think tank, feat. Harvard College

  • KQED: “Trump’s College Admissions Data Collection Strains School Administrators”

  • eJewishPhilanthropy: “Former professor brings chemistry ‘renaissance’ to Brandeis with $18M endowment”

  • The Renovator: “What Higher Ed Owes to Veterans” — by Eric Hartman, Director, Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education

  • Free the Inquiry (Heterodox Academy): “Americans Overwhelmingly Agree On What Universities Should Focus On” — by Jake Klein

  • Expression (Substack of FIRE): “Which academic majors are the least politically tolerant?” — by Chapin Lenthall-Cleary, co-founder and co-editor of the Penn Heretic

  • Wall Street Journal: “American Studies Can’t Stand Its Subject: Eighty percent of articles in the field’s leading journal were negative, while not one was positive” — by Richard Kahlenberg (AB ‘85, JD ‘89) and Lief Lin of the Progressive Policy Institute