A welcome from John Harvard

John Harvard has a new look today. In honor of Rafael Reif’s inauguration as the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the iconic statue seated in Harvard Yard was decked out with an MIT cap, scarf, and pennant. In the past, the statue has been the target of pranksters from the institute up the road. But the regalia adorning the University’s namesake this afternoon symbolizes the increasingly close relationship between Harvard and MIT. In recent years, the two institutions have collaborated on everything from sharing library resources to pushing the boundaries of interdisciplinary research at the Broad Institute. More recently, Harvard and MIT joined forces to expand the frontiers of online learning through edX, which began offering its first classes this semester.