On the surface, one might argue, it looks like the business world is headed in a decidedly socially conscious direction. Coffee giant Starbucks supports fair prices for its coffee growers. Wal-Mart, the department store dynasty, has instituted a number of measures to lighten its environmental footprint. Companies everywhere tout their eco-friendly products and packaging, and public awareness and support for such trends continue to grow.
The Office of the Provost makes funds available to faculty for University projects that promise to alter and improve teaching and learning through the use of technology. The Provost’s Instructional Technology Fund is made up of two funds: the Innovation Fund and the Content Fund. The Innovation Fund is for large-scale projects that propose to introduce a novel approach to teaching and learning using information technology. The Content Fund is aimed toward creating online content for educational purposes.
There’s a desire for change, especially among the young, “a spirit sweeping across this country and indeed across the world,” said David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS) and director of its Center for Public Leadership. Gergen’s remarks at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum opened a panel discussion Monday (March 3) on social entrepreneurship and the power of what he called “unreasonable people.”
A majority of consumers want to do the right thing. That is, in numerous studies, consumers say that they are willing to pay more for products produced under good working conditions, rather than those that come from sweatshops. But what consumers say and what they actually do when they pull out their wallets at the cash register is not as clear.
As reports of the subprime mortgage meltdown continue, an exhibition on view through March 16 in Gund Hall Gallery highlights a real estate crisis of an altogether different sort. A third of the world’s city dwellers — 1 billion people — live in shantytowns.
Victor Cha, director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council from 2004 to 2007 and a former Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard, returned to campus last week (Feb. 14) to talk about the surprisingly forceful “soft power” of sport in the realm of international relations and diplomacy.
The election that put Felipe Calderón Hinojosa into office as the president of Mexico was a real squeaker — the closest vote in the modern history of his country. It took a couple of months for the federal electoral tribunal to certify him as the winner. Even then his chief opponent wouldn’t concede. An hour before Calderón’s swearing in, leftist opposition lawmakers were throwing punches and even chairs in the legislative chamber, in an attempt to block his inauguration. The whole brawl was carried live on television across Mexico. But that was then. This is now.
If Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was politically wounded by his department’s response to Hurricane Katrina, he showed no sign of it during his forceful lecture Feb. 6 at the Kennedy School of Government.
The Brazilian ambassador to the United States, Antonio Patriota, will visit Harvard on Feb. 13 to participate in the University’s new and dynamic Brazil Studies Program’s spring 2008 calendar of events. The ambassador will speak about relations between Brazil and the United States and the new role of Brazil in the global economy and in Latin America, as well as the foreign policy of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Patriota will visit the Center for Government and International Studies (1730 Cambridge St., Room S050) from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
A new Harvard program intended to address the needs of nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders will debut in Greece March 25 through 29 at the Athens Information Technology institute (AIT). The “Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations” executive education program is designed for NGO leaders in Southeastern and Eastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East who are committed to improving the performance of their organizations.
In its earliest years, the opening of business courses to women was dubbed a “daring experiment” by one Harvard faculty member. It turned out to be a successful experiment as well, one that slowly evolved into the mainstream at Harvard Business School (HBS).
“You guys are going to rule the world, mark my words,” Janet Hanson told a captivated audience in the Harvard Business School’s Burden Auditorium. “I’m so bullish on your generation, it’s not funny.”
The Vietnam War cost the United States just over 58,000 dead — less than 5 percent of the 1.4 million Vietnamese, French, and other military personnel killed in Indochina combat going back to 1950.
On the eve of Super Tuesday, Harvard students gathered to discuss politics — French politics, that is — with the first woman in French history to run as a major presidential candidate.
Late in January, a delegation from Chile visited Harvard to discuss “Un Buen Comienzo” (“A Good Start”), an early childhood education program undertaken in 2006 by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), with the Chilean Ministries of Education and Health and other local institutions that impart preschool education. The pilot project and its evaluation, sponsored by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Centro de Estudios Educar, the World Bank, and Unicef, grew out of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet’s stated commitment to make early childhood a priority in her administration.
A new national poll by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Kennedy School of Government finds that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama remain the top choices for president among likely 18- to 24-year-old voters of both parties. Harris Interactive conducted the online survey of 2,526 U.S. citizens for the IOP between Oct. 28 and Nov. 9.
The group was diverse, talented, and cross-cultural: cabinet ministers, high-powered CEOs, and influential journalists sitting side by side addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the globe. A mini-United Nations.
Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev called for a renewed commitment to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons Tuesday (Dec. 4), saying the current generation of world leaders cannot coast on disarmament treaties of the past.
Man’s practical understanding of God, said one religious scholar speaking at Harvard, is “like a goldfish trying to understand a computer. … It will always be beyond us.”
Desmond Tutu was a high school teacher in Johannesburg before he entered the ministry, and all these years later he is still very much the pedagogue. “Good afternoon,” he said…
In the remote and mountainous Baltistan region of Pakistan, the beverage of choice is paiyu cha, a mixture of green tea, salt, baking soda, goat’s milk, and a rancid yak butter called mar.
Would the Buddha be an effective arbiter in a complicated and contentious land trust dispute or a messy divorce? For many experts, the answer is a resounding yes.
Sharp wit, high energy, and laughter were tempered by serious undertones and a message for law students considering a future in journalism last week (Nov. 8) at the Harvard Law School (HLS).
The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.
“Interpreting the Islamic Tradition in the Contemporary World” was the title of the gathering, the first annual Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Conference.
As part of Harvard Business School’s International Week, an annual event to highlight the cultural diversity at the School, Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, delivered the keynote address at the Spangler Auditorium on Oct. 25.
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