The Undergraduate Council voted to endorse a pair of statements during its Sunday night meeting â one supporting a petition to grant tenure to Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy Cornel R. West â74, and another to condemn statements made by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer.
The first piece of legislation demands the University âreopen pathways for Professor Westâs tenure and further commit to advancing racial justice in substantive ways.â
West recently threatened to leave Harvard for the second time after he said the University dismissed his request to be considered for tenure. He held Harvardâs highest faculty rank, University Professor, before leaving Harvard in 2002 following a high-profile spat with then-University president Lawrence H. âLarryâ Summers. West returned as a Professor of the Practice in 2017, a position that lacks tenure.
Despite their unusual introduction to classmates this fall, Harvard freshmen will face the process of blocking â choosing students with whom they will share an upperclassman House â this spring, administrators explained at a virtual panel Wednesday.
Senior Assistant Dean of Residential Life and First-Year Students Nekesa C. Straker, Director of Housing Carina A. Myteveli, and other College administrators discussed the housing application process for rising sophomores at the panel.
Straker â who was joined by Assistant Director of Housing Brian M. Boughton and several peer advising fellows â opened the panel by acknowledging studentsâ anxieties about applying for housing given the atypical fall semester. In addition to the social distancing regulations on-campus freshmen navigated in the fall, Harvard College announced on Dec. 1 that it would prioritize housing for upperclassmen in the spring, reducing in-person socializing opportunities for freshmen.