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6 days ago | theeditors.com | Ira Stoll

Harvard’s recent graduation ceremonies included an honorary degree awarded to a boycott-Israel advocate.

1 week ago | theeditors.com | Ira Stoll

How big is the “one big beautiful bill” passed by the House of Representatives this month? It seems like a question of fact, or simple arithmetic, but it turns out there is a wide range of estimates. The worst-case scenario is that over ten years it will add roughly $5 trillion to the federal debt, which is already at about $36 trillion. The best case scenario is that it will yield surpluses that reduce the debt by as much as $2 trillion. So the estimates differ by $7 trillion.

1 week ago | theeditors.com | Ira Stoll

Harvard, which is in a fight with the Trump administration that could lose it billions of dollars of federal funding, its tax exempt status, and its ability to enroll international students, today awarded an honorary degree to a retired University of California, Berkeley professor with a decades-long history of extreme anti-Israel activism. Among the six honorary degree recipients Harvard honored in its May 29 ceremony was Elaine H. Kim.

1 week ago | theeditors.com | Ira Stoll

Wesleyan University in Connecticut has put up online the May 25, 2025, commencement remarks of its president, Michael S. Roth. The excerpt Roth posted on X highlights this passage:Freedom of expression is vital for educational institutions—as are diversity, inclusion, and equity. That’s why the recent attacks on DEI are so misguided. Of course, we should practice anti-discrimination, but that won’t be enough to create the heterogeneity out of which a robust education grows.

1 week ago | theeditors.com | Ira Stoll

Back in 2018 when Richard Pipes died I mentioned an interview he gave in which he explained why he left the Reagan administration. “Harvard only gives you two years leave of absence, so when my two years were up, I returned," Pipes said. That was the 1980s, when Harvard, apparently, still believed in holding professors to a primary commitment to academic life at Harvard—to scholarship. The standards have apparently changed, to judge by recent developments.