Harvard has spent more than a decade talking about its vision of “One Harvard” — a university where students and faculty can move across schools, programs, and facilities to “take full advantage of all that Harvard has to offer them.” But here’s a very boring but potentially revealing question: do the class schedules actually align across Harvard’s schools?
When they don’t, Harvard is making a choice about interoperability and how that friction affects learning.
In Fall 2018, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), home to Harvard College, voted to end “Harvard Time” (the seven-minute buffer after the hour) and adopt a new schedule with more built-in passing time, in part to make it realistic for students to travel across the Charles as the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) expanded from Cambridge to join HBS in Allston.
That schedule has since become a shared grid for most Harvard schools that teach in Cambridge, including the College, HGSE, HKS, HDS, and GSD. For students who learn across those schools, cross-enrollment is usually a logistics puzzle with a solution.
Harvard Business School (HBS) is an outlier.
HBS runs on the X/Y schedule: X classes meet Monday, Tuesday, and “some” Wednesdays; Y classes meet Thursday, Friday, and “some” Wednesdays. The catch is the “some.” Wednesdays don’t alternate cleanly, and the pattern shifts from week to week.
Here’s what “some Wednesdays” looks like in reality:
HBS 2025-26 Semester 1 Schedule (full academic year schedule here)
Graduate students at other Harvard schools can technically enroll in many HBS electives, but the erratic Wednesday pattern can make it hard to layer an HBS course on top of anything with fixed weekly timing — a lab, a teaching section, a studio, an extracurricular.
The same issue even appears among the small cohort of Harvard College students that are allowed to take HBS classes. While College students generally can’t take HBS courses, the 10-15 students selected each year for the Undergraduate Technology Innovation Fellows Program — explicitly designed to bridge FAS, SEAS, and HBS — can take up to two HBS MBA electives. But the schedule can make that opportunity hard to use in practice.
One argument for HBS’s status quo is that cross-registration is often one-directional (into HBS) — a ‘trade imbalance,’ in HBS language. Another is that students who are determined to enroll can make big sacrifices to try to make it work, such as by forgoing courses at their home school that don’t fit the HBS schedule, or by waking up extra early.
HBS’s case method may also benefit from back-to-back days of instruction, which its X/Y cadence allows by allowing related cases to run back-to-back while themes are still fresh. At the same time, the HBS curriculum is structured so there’s one case per class, meaning each session is designed to stand on its own.
Even if HBS’s schedule may be pedagogically coherent (and there’s a good argument that it is), HBS is not pedagogically unique. Many other pedagogical approaches, disciplines, and schools also have legitimate reasons to cluster or structure class schedules in particular ways (and the Law School — the inventor of the case method — operates on a schedule more compatible with the FAS one). Yes, cross-enrollment always comes with constraints, but an irregular schedule narrows students’ course choices even further — in a University that aspires to be “One Harvard.”
And the tradeoff to keeping the status quo may be shifting. With SEAS now across the street in Allston, deeper HBS-SEAS tech and entrepreneurship collaboration could be a strategic advantage if HBS wants to keep pace with peers like Stanford, who benefit from a strong engineering school and proximity to Silicon Valley.
Harvard doesn’t necessarily need a single rigid calendar, but “One Harvard” is at least partially an interoperability claim. And with the right adjustment, something as basic as schedule compatibility could become part of its competitive edge academically rather than an afterthought.
Ask 1636
Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!
Q: How are professors reacting to the new faculty-led proposal on grading?
Public faculty reactions thus far reflect broad, if still cautious, support. Molecular and Cellular Biology professor Sean Eddy said he was “reassured by its framing of A grades as markers of ‘extraordinary distinction’ rather than mastery alone.” English professor Martin Puchner (PhD ‘98) thought it could strengthen the long-term value of a Harvard degree. Government professor Steven Levitsky said he disliked what he described as the proposal’s inflexibility, but still preferred it to the status quo. Director of Introductory Mathematics and Senior Preceptor Brendan Kelly wrote that while capping A’s is a “first step,” the College should also “align this change with effective pedagogical practices, deepen our investment in the student experience, and recenter the classroom as a primary instrument of our academic mission.”
As students have weighed in, Psychology professor Steven Pinker (PhD ‘79) also responded to a number of their comments on the proposal, including one that said, “It misses the point of college, which is to network, go out there, have fun.” Pinker replied: “Silly me! I thought the point was to learn stuff.”
Events
Virtual & Cambridge, MA — February 18 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. ET: Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is hosting a conversation between Harvard Government professor Michael Sandel and HGSE Dean Nonie Lesaux to discuss meritocracy, education, and democracy — themes in Sandel’s new book The Tyranny of Merit and Democracy’s Discontent. Register here.
Cambridge, MA — February 25 from 6:00-8:30 p.m. ET: Meet Harvard Kennedy School dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Prior to Weinstein’s talk, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and HKS Professor Meghan O’Sullivan will be discussing nuclear policy. Register here.
Virtual — March 3 from 1:00-2:00 pm PT: The Harvard Club of Southern California is hosting Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow (chair) Penny Pritzker (AB ’81) for a fireside chat. Register here.
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FYIs
DOJ Sues Harvard To Compel SFFA-Related Admissions Records
On February 13, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Harvard in Massachusetts District Court, alleging the University has not 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.
DOJ says it opened a Title VI compliance review in April 2025 of Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Law School admissions and has sought documents “necessary to evaluate Harvard’s compliance.” However, DOJ alleges Harvard hasn’t produced sufficient information, like applicant-level admissions data, for it to determine whether the University is following SFFA when admitting students.
The suit is solely to compel document production and does not allege new discriminatory conduct, seek damages, or seek revocation of federal funding.
During SFFA, Harvard’s expert witness predicted based on simulations that if race were eliminated from the admissions process, “the share of African-American students in the admitted class would drop from 14% to 6%” and “Hispanic or Other students would fall from 14% to 9%.”
In its first accepted class since SFFA, its admissions changes were less significant than Harvard had simulated. For the Class of 2028, Black student enrollment dropped from 18% to 14%, Hispanic enrollment rose from 14% to 16%, and Asian American enrollment remained steady at 37%. In the Class of 2029, Black enrollment dropped to 11.5%, Hispanic enrollment fell to 11%, and Asian American representation rose to 41%.
Education Department Updates University Foreign Funding Dashboard Through 2025; Harvard Ranked 4th in 2025 and 1st Overall
The Department of Education (ED) updated its Section 117 foreign-funding dashboard to include universities’ 2025 disclosures, after the dashboard launched earlier this year with reported foreign gifts and contract disclosures through 2024.
While the portal’s dashboard presents foreign funding in aggregate (covering 1986 through December 16, 2025), ED notes that in the 2025, Harvard disclosed over $324 million in foreign gifts and contracts — coming fourth behind Carnegie Mellon (almost $1 billion), MIT (almost $1 billion), and Stanford (over $775 million).
The dashboard lists Harvard as the school having disclosed the overall most foreign funds since 1986 ($4.2 billion), with its top three donors being China ($607 million), Switzerland ($581 million), and England ($534 million).
It also says that since 1986, Harvard reported the most funding from “countries of concern” (as defined by federal statute), totaling over $610 million.
Harvard and BioMed X Launch Pilot To Match Faculty With Pharma Scientists for Sponsored Research
BioMed X will match pharmaceutical partners’ research interests with capabilities in Harvard labs; partners will review tailored project proposals and, where appropriate, hold one-to-one scientific discussions with faculty. Any projects selected to advance would proceed through OTD’s sponsored-research agreement process.
Harvard and BioMed X describe the pilot as “time-limited” and say they will assess it using metrics including alignment of research interests, industry engagement, number of scientific discussions held, and execution of sponsored research agreements. If matching is successful, they intend to establish a long-term collaboration.
Fourth Circuit Ends Lower-Court Block on Anti-DEI Grant and Contract Executive Orders
The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated a district judge’s order that had blocked key parts of two executive orders targeting DEI in federal grants and contracts. The appellate court had already put the district court’s block on hold while it considered the appeal; this ruling keeps the provisions unblocked as the case returns to district court.
One order directs agencies to terminate “equity-related” grants or contracts “to the maximum extent allowed by law.” The other requires federal funding recipients to certify that they do not “operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws” and also directs the attorney general to prepare a report recommending steps to curb DEI practices.
The court said the challenge was unlikely to succeed on the orders’ text alone, signaling that future disputes would likely turn on how agencies apply the orders in specific cases rather than blanket challenges.
More News
More News at Harvard
Harvard Gazette: “Funding innovative approaches to belonging”
The Crimson: “Harvard Students Turn to Entrepreneurship As University Moves to Keep Pace”
Harvard Gazette: “Of different faiths, but connected by belief”
The Crimson: “As Harvard Tightens Grading Standards, Varsity Team GPAs Decline”
Washington Free Beacon: “She Was Dismissed From a Leadership Post at Harvard. Now She's a Candidate for Columbia's Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies.”
The Crimson: “Harvard Graduate Student Workers Propose Wage Increases in Contract Talks”
The Crimson: “Harvard College Moving Toward Launch of New “Energy, Climate, and Environment” Concentration”
Noah Feldman’s Substack: “Grades Aren't Fair” — by University Professor Noah Feldman (AB ‘92)
The Crimson: “In Defense of Gen Eds” — op-ed by Olivia Nelson (AB ’29)
The Crimson: “Writing Can’t Be Learned by Watching” — op-ed by Isabel C. Hogben (AB ’29)
The Crimson: “Harvard’s Career Machine Is Killing Its Mission” — op-ed by Victoria Dolan (AB ’28)
The Crimson: “Accessibility Isn’t the Problem. Exam Design Is.” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board
The Crimson: “The Coddling of the Harvard Mind” — op-ed by Amelia Barnum (AB ‘28) and Benjamin Isaac (AB ‘28)
The Crimson: “Re-Center Rigor, Not the Curve” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board
The Crimson: “Dissent: Grade Inflation Won’t Fix Itself” — by Crimson Editorial Board members Amelia Barnum (AB ‘28), Benjamin Isaac (AB ‘27), Catherine Previn (AB ‘27)
The Crimson: “Harvard Can Afford Stability. It Just Chooses Not To.” — op-ed by Luke O’Brien (AB ‘27)
More News Beyond Harvard
The Atlantic: “The Multibillion-Dollar Foundation That Controls the Humanities”
Ben Reinhardt: “Unbundling the University” — extended essay by Speculative Technologies founder Ben Reinhardt
STAT News: “Tenuous biomedical funding has put first-year Ph.D. students in a bind”
Higher Ed Dive: “Down 9.2%: Colleges see drop in new gifts to endowments”
Irish Rover (Notre Dame): “Grade Inflation at Notre Dame”
Yale Daily News: “Yale’s new antisemitism scholar wants to move on from definition debate”
Jewish Insider: “Columbia University to expand and refocus Middle East studies instruction on Israel”
The Tech (MIT): “TFUAP proposal poses vision for future of undergraduate education at MIT”
STAT News: “Scientists worry finalizing ‘Schedule F’ rule will further politicize NIH grant decisions”
Yale Daily News: “Chinese language program sees highest enrollment in a decade”
New York Times: “A.I. Companies Are Eating Higher Education” — op-ed by Columbia University vice dean for AI Matthew Connelly
Stanford Daily: “The critical necessity of viewpoint diversity” — op-ed by former Dean of Stanford Law School and emeritus professor of law Paul Brest (LLB ’65), in response to op-ed “‘Viewpoint diversity’ isn’t about viewpoint diversity” by Jessica Riskin (AB ‘88), Stanford history professor and co-president of Stanford’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
Wall Street Journal: “DEI Is a Threat to Americans’ Health” — op-ed by Penn Med professor and Do No Harm Chairman Stanley Goldfarb
Washington Post: “U.S. universities have lost sight of their core task” — op-ed by James Murray Jr., former rector of the boards of the University of Virginia and William & Mary, and Meredith Woo, former dean of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia
Wall Street Journal: “Elite Colleges Need More Vets in Their Ranks” — op-ed by Novi Zhukovsky
The Free Press: “Why I Let Anti-Israel Protesters Interrupt My Talk” — op-ed by Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur