发信人: lanlanlansky (南国的思念), 信区: Military 标 题: ‘Leadership’ and Dirty Tricks at Harvard老将们评评 发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Tue Dec 7 09:17:20 2021, 美东)
Harvard University claims to produce future leaders. So do other colleges. But constantly telling young people they’re leaders seems to bring out someof their worst qualities.
Harvard undergraduates routinely joke about their student government, the Undergraduate Council, which often appears to be a racket for politically ambitious students to accrue résumé lines and titles. The council has a record of waste and mismanagement; between spring 2017 and spring 2018 it lostmore than $100,000 in student-activity funds—the groups that got the money didn’t return it as unspent funds or submit valid receipts showing where it went. Even so, the student activities fee that funds council activities increased by 167% in fall 2018.
During this year’s election, the council’s leaders faced attacks from multiple candidates, including me, who argued that Harvard’s student government was wasteful, ineffective and ought to be drastically reformed. In response, council leaders tried to cling to power.
Ten days before the election date, members of the council passed retroactiverules allowing the “independent” Election Commission to disqualify candidates for arbitrary reasons, which included “violations of the spirit of the election rules” and campaigning before an official start date that was established only in the new regulations.
Although I dodged disqualification, there were other tricks. When the election opened, the check box next to my name was obscured on the ballot, making it difficult for students to vote for me. When the Election Commission was asked about the error partway through the voting period, it said the problem had been corrected (it hadn’t) and that “all votes castedthus far” would be counted. The commission changed its mind only after a flood of messages urged it to restart the election with a fair ballot.
On Nov. 13, I was elected president of the Undergraduate Council. A Harvard Crimson editorial called the decision a “vote of no confidence” in the student government.
Instead of listening to constituents, the Undergraduate Council’s leaders immediately began doing everything they could to undermine the election results. Most notably, the Council’s lame-duck president and vice presidentsubmitted a bill to prevent students from amending their own student government’s constitution, and make meaningful constitutional changes impossible without a supermajority of student government leaders.
True, this is only student government, not Congress. What are the stakes? Vending machines? Free doughnuts?
Perhaps the willingness of some students to do whatever it takes for the right résumé lines relates to the unspoken assumption that all college students must be future leaders. College students rarely get the chance to think about whether that’s even something they want; they often aspire to leadership positions before thinking about what the responsibility really means.
Leadership means more than simply climbing to the top and staying there. Leadership shouldn’t be about the title of your position; leadership shouldbe about what you do for those you serve.
Mr. Cheng is a senior at Harvard College studying history and mathematics.
11月刚被选中罗德学者
11月29号发的这个文章
罗德学者的美国申请者在申请材料（Personal Statement，Rec Letter，etc.）中肯定很多经历都能证明他是美国政府的人，甚至对方会做背景调查，学校也会做一定的背景调查，不然不会推荐（一般需要学校的letter of support）
而且小中男学History（虽然在哈佛学History没啥问题），估计他家里有美国政府的人
这是我在美国生活多年的经验，有认识这家的可以verify一下
他要不是美国政府的人，他不会被允许发这么大逆不道的文章
美国的媒体完全不是自由的，是有严格的控制的，这种 批评与自我批评 类的文章是美国欺骗、欺诈的精髓，会把人忽悠瘸了
发信人: lanlanlansky (南国的思念), 信区: Military
标 题: ‘Leadership’ and Dirty Tricks at Harvard老将们评评
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Tue Dec 7 09:17:20 2021, 美东)
Harvard University claims to produce future leaders. So do other colleges.
But constantly telling young people they’re leaders seems to bring out someof their worst qualities.
Harvard undergraduates routinely joke about their student government, the
Undergraduate Council, which often appears to be a racket for politically
ambitious students to accrue résumé lines and titles. The council has a
record of waste and mismanagement; between spring 2017 and spring 2018 it
lostmore than $100,000 in student-activity funds—the groups that got the
money didn’t return it as unspent funds or submit valid receipts showing
where it went. Even so, the student activities fee that funds council
activities increased by 167% in fall 2018.
During this year’s election, the council’s leaders faced attacks from
multiple candidates, including me, who argued that Harvard’s student
government was wasteful, ineffective and ought to be drastically reformed.
In response, council leaders tried to cling to power.
Ten days before the election date, members of the council passed retroactiverules allowing the “independent” Election Commission to disqualify
candidates for arbitrary reasons, which included “violations of the spirit
of the election rules” and campaigning before an official start date that
was established only in the new regulations.
Although I dodged disqualification, there were other tricks. When the
election opened, the check box next to my name was obscured on the ballot,
making it difficult for students to vote for me. When the Election
Commission was asked about the error partway through the voting period, it
said the problem had been corrected (it hadn’t) and that “all votes castedthus far” would be counted. The commission changed its mind only after a
flood of messages urged it to restart the election with a fair ballot.
On Nov. 13, I was elected president of the Undergraduate Council. A Harvard
Crimson editorial called the decision a “vote of no confidence” in the
student government.
Instead of listening to constituents, the Undergraduate Council’s leaders
immediately began doing everything they could to undermine the election
results. Most notably, the Council’s lame-duck president and vice presidentsubmitted a bill to prevent students from amending their own student
government’s constitution, and make meaningful constitutional changes
impossible without a supermajority of student government leaders.
True, this is only student government, not Congress. What are the stakes?
Vending machines? Free doughnuts?
Perhaps the willingness of some students to do whatever it takes for the
right résumé lines relates to the unspoken assumption that all college
students must be future leaders. College students rarely get the chance to
think about whether that’s even something they want; they often aspire to
leadership positions before thinking about what the responsibility really
means.
Leadership means more than simply climbing to the top and staying there.
Leadership shouldn’t be about the title of your position; leadership shouldbe about what you do for those you serve.
Mr. Cheng is a senior at Harvard College studying history and mathematics.
呵呵，这种两校懂中文又学历史的，以后很可能recruit去做对中外交/情报工作。