The watchword is innovation
This is the third of four reports echoing key themes of The Harvard Campaign, examining what the University is accomplishing in those areas. Innovation? That was not always one of Harvard’s goals. When it opened in the 17th century, New England’s first college was an institution for educating ministers and lawyers, offering a sound classical curriculum, with facility in Latin required for entering freshmen. In recent decades, “Harvard” and “innovation” have melded to such a degree that those two words might well be spelled the same. Pressing for the new to solve the old has entered the fabric of the curriculum, from Harvard’s strong humanities and the arts (where digital frontiers are being breached) to its probing sciences, whether pure, applied, or social. “Harvard is about possibilities,” said President Drew Faust in her remarks Sept. 10 opening the academic year. “Here, it’s possible to change how our successors will think about learning...