Harvard Shouldn’t Do Activism
Lorenzo Z. Ruiz ’27 argues that “Harvard doesn’t know what it wants to be.”
“Over the last century, the University has adopted an increasingly public stature, coming to conceive of itself as an institution with a unique national purpose. Vexingly, though, it has failed to decide precisely what that purpose is. Are we a school or a brand or a research lab? Are we political or apolitical? Are we a venue for debate or instruction? Do we exist for students or society?”
What does Ruiz propose?
“We must harken to an archetype Harvard pioneered in the 20th century. We must remember the middle way of the modern university, which charts a course between scholasticism and activism, granting students and faculty the freedom to learn, share, debate, refine, and eventually mobilize their ideas beyond the university. Let this be Harvard’s purpose…”
“If Harvard’s purpose is to steward the academic project, its sole social responsibility is to advocate, in the most aggressive and expansive terms, with every brick and book and billion of its being, that project and that project alone. Nothing further.”
