Harvard University was a Social sciences and society good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones Date Process Result September 1, 2010 Good article nominee Not listed August 27, 2011 Good article nominee Not listed
	Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on March 13, 2004, September 8, 2004, and March 13, 2005.
Current status: Former good article nominee

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In the photograph of the John Harvard statue, the rainbow garland seems inconsistent with Wikipedia's guideline of NPOV. The rainbow motif has a political meaning in contemporary American society, but the Harvard article is not inherently political in this or other ways. A similar photo of the statue without the garland would be preferable. (Does this photo represent vandalism?) Pac Veten (talk) 21:30, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Given the lack of community objection, I substituted a neutral photo this evening. Unfortunately another user reverted my change, with a relatively strongly-worded comment, to the effect that NPOV was not even relevant to this photo. For the reasons explained above, a photo that doesn't include recreational decoration IS more neutral than one including temporary (if playful) ornamentation. For what it's worth, the replacement photo is almost identical to the original in size, coloring, and perspective. And similarly sourced from Wikimedia Commons . . . Could I please request assistance with this issue? Pac Veten (talk) 00:22, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know that I personally feel that the picture needed to be changed, but I wonder if @EEng would be willing to comment on their view of the picture as they reverted the change made by @Pac Veten? I would suggest the image not be changed again while it is under discussion here. For clarity, the two images are included here.

John Harvard Statue image with 'Rainbow Garland'

John Harvard Statue image without 'Rainbow Garland'

Jiltedsquirrel 🌰 ^{(talk || contribs)} 02:16, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

• For God's sake, will you bunch stop prattling on about NPOV, which has nothing to do with it? That photo's been there since at least 2009 [1], and the reason it's remained is that the little garland is close to invisible. I've probably put 100 hours into editing this article over the last 20 years, and I never noticed it, and I'm sure no one else did either until now. If you'd just said, "Hey there's a garland around his neck, so here's a different photo", and just boldly made the change instead of talking ostentatiously in your edit summary about "NPOV" -- which gave no discernible clue to what the problem actually was -- all this wasted verbiage could have been avoided. I've installed the lead image from John Harvard statue. EEng 04:01, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  Great solution—thanks for looking into this. Pac Veten (talk) 04:47, 16 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Harvard gave a $65,000 fellowship to one of its students after a video proved that he had assaulted a Jewish student. He was prosecuted in court and made a plea deal, and then the school awarded him the fellowship.

This is a very unusual way for a college to respond to a violent hate crime. I think it should be included in the article.

https://freebeacon.com/campus/harvard-law-review-awards-65k-fellowship-to-student-charged-in-assault-of-israeli-classmate-report/

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/harvard-grad-students-ordered-to-attend-anger-management-after-assault-at-pro-palestinian-protest/3699287/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX88ZGfdKl4

R5Y93mdf (talk) 03:09, 25 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The article says "including 2,400 professors, lecturers, and instructors." But there are over 12,000 just in the medical school. I don't know what the right number is. I just know 2,400 is too low (and was too low in 2009). DCLawwyer (talk) 19:53, 4 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The cited doesn't count medical school "affiliates" toward the total number of faculty members. I don't know what the difference is between a med school "affiliate" and a faculty member proper, but that's where the discrepancy you're noting comes from. AJD (talk) 20:26, 4 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(It does include some 300 med school faculty members, distinct from "affiliates".) AJD (talk) 20:28, 4 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There's no "difference is between a med school 'affiliate' and a faculty member proper" in the people, there's a difference in who owns the facility they teach/research in. The Harvard Medical School web page says:

Faculty

Total faculty: 12,361

Tenured and tenure-track faculty on HMS campus in 11 preclinical departments (that is, in the medical school, not in the teaching hospitals): 191

Voting faculty on campus and at affiliates: 6,859

Full-time faculty on campus and at affiliates 10,604

The Harvard Medical School web site clarifies that "affiliates" refers to the facility, not the faculty. Harvard is a little odd in ownership of the facilities. At most university medical schools, the teaching hospital is owned by the university. Harvard is different -- the teaching hospitals all are under ownership separate from the university.

But the professors and instructors have the same Harvard appointments as faculty of the other colleges. They go through the same promotion review as the other colleges. Endowed chairs are paid out of the same pots as endowed chairs in other colleges. They hold joint appointments with other colleges. They use Harvard letterhead. They vote in the same elections. They get the same Harvard Club privileges as faculty of other colleges. For Joseph E. Murray, the affiliations are listed "Harvard Medical School" first, "Brigham & Women's Hospital" second. Business cards have the Harvard Medical School logo, not the respective hospital. The graduates of residency and fellowships get Harvard credentials that are equivalent to graduates of any other post-degree medical training at any other medical school.

HMS faculty are "professors, lecturers, and instructors" the same as any other college. 2,400 is an under-count.

DCLawwyer (talk) 11:58, 9 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Endowment: I noticed the endowment amount is not updated. It should be updated to $56.9 billion as of June 30, 2025. Include the year. source: https://finance.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum12671/files/2025-10/fy25-financial-report.pdf and

Rankings: the rankings where THE is concerned are conflated. Harvard isn't #1 in recent editions. Harvard is listed as 5th in WUR 2026. This should updated for accuracy. I suggest to add: In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026, Harvard is ranked 5th. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/harvard-university and https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking In fact it has not been #1 since at least 2016. Stark798 (talk) 20:36, 28 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]