By Irene Shih, Editor-in-Chief, MPP ‘13 In a recent New York Times interview to promote her Broadway show, Sex and the City star and out-actress Cynthia Nixon made the following comments regarding sexual orientation: “I gave a speech recently, an empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve been straight and […]

By Mike Conway, Business Manager, MPP ‘13 Ever wonder how gender roles in India are changing in light of the country’s transition to more commercialized agriculture? Second year MPP Lorin Fries certainly does. Like many MPP2s, Fries spent part of her winter holiday conducting field research for her Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE); crisscrossing India for […]

By Matt Bieber, Feature Writer, MPP / MDiv ‘13 [Note: a podcast version of this interview is available at thewheatandchaff.com/podcast_abramoff/] Jack Abramoff helped break Congress, and now he’s trying to fix it. In the mid-2000’s, Abramoff was earning $20 million a year selling his clients access to the Republican House leadership. He owned restaurants, flew […]

By Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13 Harvard Kennedy School’s 2012-13 budget is due to the University on March 2, and Associate Dean for Finance, Lara Metcalf, and her team at the Office of Financial Services have been working nights and weekends to ensure the accuracy of every last line. Much of January has been […]

By Nick Wilson I’m not sure why I originally decided to see Boston Ballet’s new production of The Nutcracker at the Boston Opera House. It’s never been a favorite of mine, but perhaps I wanted to be there opening night to experience the unveiling of the much buzzed about new costumes and sets. Lately, I’ve […]

This summer, HKS students are traveling to all corners of the world to work on policymaking, advise nonprofits and conduct research. The ‘Summer Snapshots’ is a portrait of these experiences in which students — in their own words — share their stories, musings and reflections.  To see all the Snapshots, follow this link. Alexandra Raphel is interning […]

By Ben Beachy and Jason Rowe Since the Occupy movement entered the gates of Harvard Yard, too much discussion has focused on the gates themselves, not the responsibility of those of us who study behind them. One of the gates—Dexter Gate—bears the following inscription: “Enter to grow in wisdom.  Depart to better serve thy country […]

By Sujoyini Mandal, Opinions Columnist, MPP ‘13 Will security assurance counter North Korea’s increasingly aggressive stance on nuclear weapons? This was the essential question at two recent Belfer Center events with guest speakers Dr. John Park from the United States Institute for Peace and Professor Sung-Yoon Lee from Tufts University. What is the current concern? […]

By Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13 In fiscal year 2011, HKS collected $37.3 million in revenue from investment income, the annual return on our $1 billion endowment. About half went to core operations such as faculty chairs, financial aid, events, maintenance, staff, etc.; the other half went to funding the IOP and research centers. […]

By Sophie Brion, MPP ‘12 In a recent class, our discussion turned to the ubiquitous topic of immigration. As per the Kennedy School usual, the comments were informed and thoughtful. My classmates eruditely discussed negative perceptions of immigrants. They pondered what role race plays in U.S. immigration policy and parsed the practical demands of running […]

By Brian Hull, MPP2 Recently, an email was sent out by KSSG that contained an image depicting a certain female Black student as “Muffy,” the monkey character from the cartoon Arthur. This, understandably, led to a school-wide conversation on diversity attended by well over one hundred students. While I do not wish to discuss the […]

By Alex Pak, HBS Class of 2013 As much as I am a fan of both social movements and camping, what is occurring on our campus under the guise of Occupy Harvard disturbs me. My perception of Occupy Harvard is that it is less of a social movement than a proxy war being waged by […]