Please nominate Harris L Hartz
as a candidate for the Harvard
Board of Overseers
Deadline: January 31, 2024, 5:00 PM Eastern time
To qualify, a candidate will need 3238 signatures from people
with a Harvard degree.
Deadline: January 31, 2024, 5:00 PM Eastern time
To qualify, a candidate will need 3238 signatures from people with a Harvard degree.
Statement of Candidacy:
As a student, I loved Harvard College and Harvard Law School. My experience at Harvard was that excellence was pursued and valued; no topic was off limits; and, even though I was not in the campus mainstream, there was no reason to fear speaking my mind.
As a student, I loved Harvard College and Harvard Law School. My experience at Harvard was that excellence was pursued and valued; no topic was off limits; and, even though I was not in the campus mainstream, there was no reason to fear speaking my mind.
Too many people now see Harvard as the symbol of arrogance, intolerance, ignorance, and fear in higher education. Something has gone very wrong. The responsibility must lie with the leadership.
Too many people now see Harvard as the symbol of arrogance, intolerance, ignorance, and fear in higher education. Something has gone very wrong. The responsibility must lie with the leadership.
The Harvard Alumni Association controls the selection of the "official" slate of candidates for the Board of Overseers. It is fitting and proper for the Board to be composed of people who love Harvard. But it needs to be more than a booster club. The Board must ask tough questions, yet there is little evidence that it has been fulfilling that function in recent times. I've seen too many boards and commissions where complacency reigns, where membership is seen as a badge of honor rather than a call to duty, and where every incentive is to conform to the prevailing groupthink. It can be, perhaps has been, disastrous for Harvard to have such leadership.
The Harvard Alumni Association controls the selection of the "official" slate of candidates for the Board of Overseers. It is fitting and proper for the Board to be composed of people who love Harvard. But it needs to be more than a booster club. The Board must ask tough questions, yet there is little evidence that it has been fulfilling that function in recent times. I've seen too many boards and commissions where complacency reigns, where membership is seen as a badge of honor rather than a call to duty, and where every incentive is to conform to the prevailing groupthink. It can be, perhaps has been, disastrous for Harvard to have such leadership.
I think a better model is the culture in which I've been submerged for the last 35 years (except for a two-year interlude working for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters)—that of a state or federal appeals-court judge. We are always civil to one another, but we do not go along to get along on any matter of importance, our challenges to each other’s thinking are candid, and our debates are intense without descending to the ad hominem. Perhaps most importantly, the heart of the job is to ask tough questions on the way to seeking answers. I hope I've gotten good at that.
I think a better model is the culture in which I've been submerged for the last 35 years (except for a two-year interlude working for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters)—that of a state or federal appeals-court judge. We are always civil to one another, but we do not go along to get along on any matter of importance, our challenges to each other’s thinking are candid, and our debates are intense without descending to the ad hominem. Perhaps most importantly, the heart of the job is to ask tough questions on the way to seeking answers. I hope I've gotten good at that.
My reason for seeking a place on the Board is to be a skeptical contrarian, willing to politely question the assumptions that can lead Harvard along a dangerous path and to encourage other Board members to do the same. Every organization needs such voices.
My reason for seeking a place on the Board is to be a skeptical contrarian, willing to politely question the assumptions that can lead Harvard along a dangerous path and to encourage other Board members to do the same. Every organization needs such voices.
Harvey Silverglate https://www.harveysilverglate.com
Sam Lessin https://samforoverseer.com