Happy People at Harvard?

h-bomber
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:19:47 +0000

Those surveys were from 2005, before I even got to the school. Since then, several pretty major steps have been taken to address the ‘happiness problem.’ Interestingly, the survey was reported on in the Crimson under a front page called “Should We All Have Gone to Yale?” By my sophomore year (2007), a new issue came out called “Why We’re Happier Here At Harvard.”

All in all, there’s been a new emphasis placed on undergraduates and undergraduate life here at the college. It’s not just a few specific things (I’ll be the first to admit that I think the ‘fun czar’ is a pretty worthless position), but more of an overall administrative attitude. Common gripes of years past like overcrowded housing, a complete lack of transparency in disciplinary proceedings (Ad-board), no 24 hour library, weird/bad calendar, lack of campus-wide events, etc, have been or are being addressed.

The housing survey resulted in Harvard realizing that the student body was outgrowing the facilities, and spurred a hard cap on admissions until the Allston campus’s new residential houses are built. By the time you guys come through the school, the housing will be back to the levels it was designed for (aka, after I graduate) . The Ad-board is being reformed, the calendar has been reformed (for those of you that didn’t know, exams will be moved to pre-christmas for all years after 2008-2009), we now have spring concerts, fall bbqs, campus-wide stein clubs, Lamont has been changed to 24 hours (silly to brag about, but it was ridiculous that we didn’t have a place to study past midnight), and in general the administration is much more focused on students and student concerns.