Re: Followup

---- Original Message -----

From: "hgasst"
To:
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 3:41 PM
Subject: followup


I have finally read your lengthy blog entry of 4/22/05, about the plagiarism charges at the Law School and how they were handled. For some of the reasons that you stated, I am uncomfortable with the disposition of these charges.

In the past months I have given a great deal of thought to the operation of Harvard, a university with which I have been happily and proudly associated for nearly 45 years. I used to feel comfortable with the 'hush hush' ways in which decisions are made and communicated at the
University--like a benign dictatorship (and I dont mean to push the analogy), when it works well, this can make life easy for everyone concerned.

But after recent events, I feel differently. When scholars at Harvard (and other places) study institutions, they almost always call for greater transparency. I now believe that greater transparency is needed at Harvard-- particularly with respect to the operation of the very secretive Corporation, and how the ad hoc panels to which you refer are chosen and how they 'report out.' While I feel that your blog often overstates matters, many of the points that you make are important and deserve wide circulation among those who care about Harvard (as I very much do) and other influential institutions of higher education.

You have my permission to cite this comment, so long as you include the
comment in its entirety.

With best wishes, HG

Howard Gardner
Hobbs Professor of Education and Cognition
Harvard Graduate School of Education
14 Appian Way
Larsen Hall 201
Cambridge, MA 02138

Voice: 617-496-4929
Fax: 617-496-4855
www.howardgardner.com
e-mail: howard@pz.harvard.edu

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