Author Profile

Harry Lewis

Harry R. Lewis was dean of Harvard College from 1995 to 2003. He is the author of Excellence without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education, published in 2005, and coauthor of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Revolution. Lewis has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard. He became the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard in 1981 and in 2003 was named Harvard College Professor. During the Vietnam War, Lewis served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service and also worked at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He is the author of five books and numerous articles on computer science. He received the Pope Center’s Caldwell Award for Academic Leadership in October 2007.

Articles by Harry Lewis

Derek Bok’s Higher Expectations – Our Colleges Should Accomplish More

Jun 30, 2021 · Harry Lewis · Comments Off

Former Harvard president Derek Bok has long lamented that our institutions of higher education largely underperform in their missions. He has now written another book making that argument. His Higher Expectations is a coolly rational analysis of what needs to be done to improve American undergraduate education. He uses as his frame a study by … Continue reading “Derek Bok’s Higher Expectations – Our Colleges Should Accomplish More”

Overlapping Magisteria–A Review of Anthony Kronman’s ‘The Assault on American Excellence’

Oct 2, 2019 · Harry Lewis · Comments Off

In his new book The Assault on American Excellence, Yale law professor Anthony Kronman traces many of the current woes of American universities back to the use of one word in one opinion in one court case. That word is “diversity” and the opinion was Justice Lewis Powell’s in the 1978 Bakke case about minority … Continue reading “Overlapping Magisteria–A Review of Anthony Kronman’s ‘The Assault on American Excellence’”

Losing Trust in Higher Education

Jan 15, 2014 · Harry Lewis · Comments Off

College leaders and professors who appear more interested in themselves than in education are doing great harm.

‘He Said, She Said’ at UNC

May 5, 2013 · Harry Lewis and Jane S. Shaw · Comments Off

Colleges should promote personal responsibility, not trials at student-led courts.

Does Liberal Education Have a Future?

Mar 31, 2008 · Harry Lewis · Comments Off

The former dean of Harvard College suggests that academia has traded a coherent sense of purpose for pleasure

British Universities Show Why “More” Does Not Mean “Better” Sep 23, 2022
The Biden administration is seeking to “cancel” student debt by transferring what individual students owe to the American taxpayer. Opponents question why Americans who never graduated from college, and had none of the attendant benefits of a degree, should pick up the tab for those who did. Defenders of the Biden order counter with the … Continue reading “British Universities Show Why “More” Does Not Mean “Better””
UNC’s Board of Governors May Reconsider A Fee Increase Sep 22, 2022
Today, the UNC Board of Governors will take up an important question: Is it appropriate to increase student fees when students are already facing tight budgets due to inflation? For most fees, the System has already answered with a resounding “no.” But an exception may be made for the System-wide campus security fee. The Committee … Continue reading “UNC’s Board of Governors May Reconsider A Fee Increase”
After Student-Loan Forgiveness, Mandatory Credentialing Has to Go Sep 21, 2022
President Biden recently announced a controversial, half-trillion-dollar student-loan-forgiveness scheme in which his administration would use a minor provision of the post-9/11 HEROES Act to excuse student borrowers from repaying roughly $500 billion in federal taxpayer funds. This regressive, unnecessary, and perverse maneuver promises to steer vast sums to affluent college-goers, even as it encourages colleges to … Continue reading “After Student-Loan Forgiveness, Mandatory Credentialing Has to Go”

N.C. Campuses’ Long War Sep 26, 2022
World wars have been fought in less time than the battle the UNC and N.C. Community College Systems have waged to create a user-friendly database that active-duty military personnel and veterans can use to ease their transition into higher education. Lawmakers and veterans advocates want to know why higher-education officials have failed for nearly a … Continue reading “N.C. Campuses’ Long War”
British Universities Show Why “More” Does Not Mean “Better” Sep 23, 2022
The Biden administration is seeking to “cancel” student debt by transferring what individual students owe to the American taxpayer. Opponents question why Americans who never graduated from college, and had none of the attendant benefits of a degree, should pick up the tab for those who did. Defenders of the Biden order counter with the … Continue reading “British Universities Show Why “More” Does Not Mean “Better””
Blueprints for Reform Sep 22, 2022
The university system in the United States has accomplished a great deal of good, but it has strayed from its chief goals of scholarly inquiry and responsible teaching, especially in the past 20 years. All too often, universities allow teaching to become shallow and trendy, failing to challenge students intellectually and disparaging traditional principles of … Continue reading “Blueprints for Reform”