harvard campus walking tour

Visit Harvard

Whether you have a few hours or a few days, many discoveries await.

Harvard Yard is closed to the public through Friday, April 26. During this time no tour groups are permitted in the Yard.

The Harvard University Center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Harvard University Visitor Center

Harvard University established the Visitor Center in 1962 as the front door to the University, where students greet visitors from all over the world, answer questions about campus, and provide official tours of Harvard.

Email [email protected]

Mysterious facts, hidden gems, iconic figures, famous traditions, world-changing ideas, and everyday quirks—explore these and more on the official Harvard tours. Our tours are led by students and are offered both in-person, on campus and virtually. In addition, self-guided tours are offered on the Visit Harvard mobile app, available to download on iOS and Android devices.

Explore all of our tours

Historical Tour of Harvard

The free, student-led public walking tour through Harvard Yard provides a history of the University, general information, and a unique view on the student experience.

Visit Harvard mobile app

This free mobile app features a self-guided walking tour through Harvard Yard that highlights the history behind iconic buildings, traditions, alumni and more.

Explore on your own

Turn virtually any corner at Harvard and you’ll find something that leaves you feeling inspired. Explore the places, ideas, artifacts, and moments that make us who we are.

Find more at our museums

Harvard Libraries virtual exhibits

Virtual tour of the harvard museum of natural history, harvard and the legacy of slavery walking tour, places we love.

Harvard community members share their favorite places on campus.

William “Ned” Friedman, Director of the Arboretum

Arnold Arboretum

“There is a magnificent horticultural “sport” (genetic mutant) of the standard European beech tree ( Fagus sylvatica ) that came to the Arboretum in 1888 from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (and was probably collected in the wild in France). Instead of growing straight up to the sky, the shoots twist and turn into gyres, and the net effect is a tree that is essentially a small hemisphere.”

Rhea Bennett, Class of ’20

Radcliffe’s sunken garden

“One of my favorite places on campus when the weather is warm is the sunken garden in Radcliffe Yard. It is a beautiful, little green spot on campus where the gurgle of the fountain creates a quiet, calm atmosphere. Doing work there on a sunny day makes me feel like I’m in an oasis in the middle of the city.”

CURTIS KEITH, Chief scientific officer, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator

Smith Campus Center

“I especially like having coffee in the second-floor seating area at the front of the Smith Campus Center, looking out onto the plaza in front of the center, the whole diversity of Harvard Square passing in front. For me, it also brings back memories of arriving at Harvard for the first time in 1993 as a student and seeing the chess players there.”

Find an event

Harvard offers many virtual and on-campus events open to visitors and neighbors.

Browse our upcoming events

Journalism and the Politics of Narrating African Suffering: An Expert Roundtable

Perspectives on Academic Freedom

Gender and Politics: Keynote Conversation with Laphonza Butler and Maura Healey

Maps and Directions

There are a number of ways to get to Harvard. Find your best option.

Explore our campus

This website uses cookies to improve your browsing experience and analyze the use of the website. Learn More

Harvard University Walking Tour

This post covers how to tour Harvard University and the surrounding Cambridge area, including our pay-what-you-wish tour and our audio tour which you can take any time.

There is also a tour guided by students, as well as a self-guided option.

Harvard University is the oldest college in the United States (1636).

Eight U.S. presidents attended Harvard University and the name is known worldwide.

WHERE IS HARVARD?

Harvard University is located in the City of Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston.

It's located approximately 4 miles (6.5 km) away from the Boston Commons (or 15 min on the subway).

Regardless of how you decide to get here, we recommend using this Google Maps link for directions to Harvard Square .

Be sure to read our how-to guide on riding the Boston T (subway).

TIP: If you are considering purchasing a hop-on-hop-off trolley ticket, be aware that Old Town Trolley has a stop for Harvard University.

GUIDED HARVARD WALKING TOURS

To start with, our 2-hour, pay-what-you-like tour not only covers Harvard University but also the surrounding area of Cambridge.

Below us, you can read about a shorter tour led by current Harvard students.

FREE TOURS BY FOOT

Reservations:  REQUIRED.  Click here to reserve . Groups of 6 or more must  contact us  before booking.

Where:  At the Cambridge Tourism Information Booth in Harvard Square ( map ).

Cost:  This tour is free to take, and you get to decide what, if anything, the tour was worth when it's done. A  name-your-own-price tour  is a tour for anyone's budget.

Duration:  Approximately 2 hours. Tour distance is approximately 1 mile (1.6K)

When: 

• Jan. to Feb. : No Tours
• March to April:   Saturdays and Sundays 10 am
• May to June 20:   Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays 10 am
• June 20th to Labor Day : Everyday 10 am
• Sept. to Oct:   Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays 10 am
• Nov. to Dec .  Saturdays and Sundays 10 am

You can also take this tour as a self-guided GPS enabled audio tour .

Here is how it works:

• Purchase an  audio tour from our Booking Page .
• You'll receive a confirmation email with a .pdf, Google Map link, and audio tour.
• Enjoy the tour(s).

Listen to a sample of the Harvard and Cambridge audio tour.

Hahvahad Tours (that's phonetically spelled) 

This company offers 70-min tours several times each day that are led by current Harvard students, enthusiastic ambassadors of the university.

Tours are inexpensive, light-hearted, but are limited to the university grounds, so you won't see much of Cambridge. 

Tours run daily at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 1 pm.  

$19.50/adults | $18.50/students, seniors and children (Free with the Go Boston tourist discount card )

Book your tour here .

SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND CAMBRIDGE

You can also take this tour as a self-guided GPS-enabled audio tour .

How to Get to Harvard University

Reaching the start of this tour is easy.

The best way to access the area is by mass transit. You can take the red line T to Harvard Square MBTA Station.  

Use this Google map for directions to Harvard Square .  

Click on the map for a larger version.

Out of Town Newsstand

Your tour starts outside the Harvard Sq. MBTA (subway) Station.

Notice the Out of Town Newsstand which is a Cambridge landmark. 

The newsstand since it opened in 1955, has been providing Harvard professors, students, and Cambridge Residence with newspapers and magazines from all over the world.

The building is a national historic landmark.

From Out of Town News walk up JFK Street (to your right if you are facing Out of Town News).

Follow JFK St. to Mt. Auburn St. and take a left down Mt. Auburn St. to the Harvard Lampoon Building at 44 Bow St.

1. Lampoon Building

The Lampoon Building is also known as the Lampoon Castle.

The best place to view this building is by standing on the island where Bow St. and Mt. Auburn St. meet.

This building houses Harvard's comedy magazine The Lampoon, where students like Cohan O'Brien and John Updike wrote while undergraduates at the university.

John Updike also served as president of The Lampoon at his time there.

This is one of the most unique buildings on Campus.

Opened in 1909 the building is designed in the form of a human face wearing a Prussian helmet. The front door looks like a bow tie turned sideways.

Notice the Ibis on top. This is made of copper and weighs about 70 pounds. The Ibis was stolen a few times by members of Harvard University's newspaper The Crimson as a prank.

The bird is now said to have an electrified wire attached to it to prevent future thefts.

Costing $40,000 to construct in 1909, at the time the building was the most expensive headquarters for a student publication in the nation. Look to your right you will see Lowell House, the structure with the white bell tower.

This undergraduate dorm is where Matt Damon stayed while a student at the university.

Notice the bell tower of Lowell House. The tower houses 18 bells ranging in size from 22 pounds (the smallest bell) to 27,000 pounds (the Mother Earth bell).

After what is known as The Game, the annual Harvard vs. Yale football game, the Harvard team score is rung out on the Mother Earth Bell.

The Yale score is chimed on what is known as the bells of Pestilence, Famine, and Despair.

As you walk around the Lampoon Building you will notice two dates, 1909 and 1876. 1909 is when the building opened and 1876 is when the Harvard Lampoon Magazine was first published

Continue walking up Mt. Auburn St following the Lampoon Building and take a left onto Plympton St. At 26 Plympton St. you will see the undergraduate dorm of the Adams House.

2. Adams House

Opened in 1900 the dorm is named in honor of the United State's 2nd President John Adams and his son, America's 6th President John Quincy Adams, who both graduated from the university.

There is a suite inside Adam's House called the FDR Suite where the United States' 32nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) lived while a student at Harvard.

It is restored to the 1904 appearance to honor the president who stayed there as a student.

The FDR Suite inside Adams House is the only memorial to FDR on campus.

Including FDR, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams, Harvard University has had 5 other US Presidents who attended: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, and Rutherford B. Hayes for a total of 8 U.S. Presidents who attended the university.

Continue up Plympton St. to 14 Plympton St. to the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.

3. Harvard Crimson

Founded in 1873 it was called The Magenta for its first two years, and in 1875 the paper changed its name to The Crimson when the University changed its color to crimson.

The Harvard Crimson is the only daily newspaper in the City of Cambridge and is run entirely by the university's undergraduate students.

It is also the only college newspaper in the United States that has its own printing press.

Some of the famous folks who wrote for the Crimson include US Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt (who served as the newspaper president) and John F. Kennedy (a business editor).

Look up to the second-floor glass door and you may be able to see the big chair inside.

This chair has small brass makers attached to the chair with the names of the former presidents of the newspaper.

Like the Ibis on top of the Lampoon Building, members of the Harvard Lampoon sometimes steal this chair as a prank and revenge for the Crimson's members' theft of their Ibis.

The chair is now chained to the floor to help thwart future thefts.

Continue up Plympton St. and cross Massachusetts Ave. and enter Old Harvard Yard through Dextor Gate.

Notice the carved inscription above the entrance and the words "enter to grow in wisdom" and on the exit/inside of the gate the words "depart to serve better this country and thy kind."

4. Wigglesworth Hall

After you enter Harvard Yard, take a left and will see the dorm, Wigglesworth Hall.

All freshmen who enter Harvard are required to stay in the Halls of Old Harvard Yard. All the freshman dorms are called Halls and the upper-class dorms are called Houses.

Some of the famous students who lived in Wigglesworth Hall include Leonard Bernstein, Senator Edward Kennedy, and Bill Gates.

Follow the path to the Henry Elkins Widener Memorial Library.

5. Henry Elkins Widener Memorial Library

This is the largest college library in the United States and is the nation's 3rd largest library. The library has 57 miles (92 km) of shelves along five miles of aisles on ten floors.

Only the US Library of Congress and the New York Public Library hold more volumes of books.

The Library is six floors high and four floors below and was built in honor of 1907 Harvard graduate Henry Elkins Widener who was killed in April 1912 at the age of 27 during the sinking of the Titanic.

The library was built with funds donated by Widener's mother Eleanor to honor her son's memory.

Look directly across the Old Yard and you will see Memorial Church. This church was built in 1932.

Inside these walls engraved alongside a sculptor named “The Sacrifice” are 373 names of alumni who were killed during WWI.

Since then other memorials have been established inside the church for Harvard Students and Alumni who were killed in WWII, The Korean War, and Vietnam.

Walk around the Widener Library and follow the path to the Dragon Statue.

6. Dragon Statue

This statue was donated to the university in 1936 by Chinese Alumni in honor of the university's 300 anniversary.

The statue is made of marble and weighs 27 tons. It was carved between 1796 and1820 in Beijing and formally resided in the Winter Palace before being donated and shipped to the university.

As you continue down the path look to your right and you will see Weld Hall where President John F. Kennedy lived during his freshman year at Harvard.

Follow the path around University Hall and you will see the most famous site on campus, the John Harvard Statue.

7. John Harvard Statue

This is also known as the Statue of "three lies".

The first one is on the statue's base and states Harvard was formed in 1638. Wrong, as we know Harvard was formed in 1636.

It says that John Harvard was the founder of Harvard. Wrong, Harvard was founded in 1636 by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Harvard endowed Harvard with books and money in 1638.

And the third and probably the biggest lie on the statue is that the man in the chair; not John Harvard.

When the statue was designed in 1884 by Daniel Chester French there was not any likeness of John Harvard.

French used a Harvard Student by the name of Sherman Hoar as the inspiration for John Harvard's face. Sherman Hoar was a descendant of the brother of Harvard's fourth president Leonard Hoar.

The statue is one of the most photographed statues in the United States, and you will notice the worn-out bronze of the statue's left foot where millions of visitors have rubbed for good luck.

There is also the legend that if you rub/touch the foot of the statue you will acquire some of the knowledge of Harvard.

Take the path away from the John Harvard Statue and towards the street. On the left, you will see Massachusetts Hall.

8. Massachusetts Hall

Opened in 1720, Massachusetts Hall is the second oldest college dorm in the United States.

Some of their legendary student residents include John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and America's second president John Adams.

During the siege of Boston in 1775, 640 members of the Continental Army led by George Washington were housed there.

Currently, Massachusetts Hall houses the office of Harvard's President, Treasurer, and Vice President, all of which have their offices on the first two floors and part of the third floor.

On the fourth floor are freshman dorms.

Exit the Old Yard through Johnston Gate.

9. Johnson Gate

Opened in 1890, Johnston Gate was the first gate constructed around Old Harvard Yard.

Johnston Gate cost $10,000 to construct in 1889-90 and was a gift to the university by 1855 Harvard Graduate Samuel Johnston.

For several hundred years, on Harvard's commencement day, sheriffs from Middlesex and Suffolk Country have entered Harvard Yard on horseback before the Middlesex Sheriff's call to order.

It has become a tradition that they enter through Johnston Gate. Another tradition at Harvard regarding Johnston Gate is that after the commencement ceremony, graduates exit Harvard Yard using only Johnston Gate.

As you exit Harvard Yard through Johnston Gate you can now consider yourself an honorary graduate of Harvard University.

After exiting Johnston Gate, cross Massachusetts Ave. to the island in the middle and you will be at the sculpture of Charles Sumner (1811-1874).

10. Charles Sumner Statue

He was a lawyer, abolitionist, orator, and US Senator from Massachusetts.

One of the many things he is known for is while a US Senator he was an incident that took place on the Senate floor when he was arguing against the Kansas/Nebraska Act.

This was an 1854 legislative act that would allow the expansion of slavery in the new states of Kansas and Nebraska.

On May 20th, 1856, Sumner was auguring against the Act, and during his diatribe, Sumner called US Senator Andrew Butler from South Carolina a slave pimp and went on a tirade against the senator and his state of South Carolina.

During the tirade, he mocked Butler's manner of speech and physical mannerisms as Butler previously suffered a stroke which left him physically impaired.

Two days later, US Congressman Preston Brooks, the cousin of Senator Butler walked on the Senate floor and approached Sumner.

As Sumner rose to meet the Representative, Preston beat Sumner nearly to death with a cane until the cane finally broke.

The beating rendered Sumner unconscious on the Senate floor. It took almost two years before Senator Sumner recovered from the beating.

The event showed how divided the United States was at that time over the issue of slavery.

Continue across Massachusetts Ave. , take a right and follow Massachusetts Ave. and you will be outside the Cambridge Burial Ground (1635).

11. Old Burial Ground

This burial ground was the only burial ground in Cambridge for nearly 200 years and includes a cross-section of Cambridge residents from paupers to Harvard presidents.

Like all the old burial grounds, there are many more bodies beneath than the 1218 headstones above, as many of the headstones did not survive the centuries and some of the earliest burials were unmarked.

The oldest headstone in the burial ground is that of Anne Eriton which dates to 1653.

The tomb of John Vassel is the most elaborate in the burial ground and contains 25 caskets and including the body of Andrew Craigie who was the first Apothecary General of the Continental Army. He was also a former owner of the Longfellow House on Tory Row.

Craigie also developed much of what is known as East Cambridge and also organized the construction of the Canal Bridge which connected East Cambridge to Boston.

The bridge was later rebuilt as the Charles River Dam but is also known as Carigie's Bridge.

The Old Burial Ground also contains the remains of 8 Harvard presidents including Harvard's first president Henry Dunster.

It's also home to the remains of 19 Revolutionary War Soldiers including John Hicks, William Macy, and Moses Richardson who were buried there after the first Battles of the American Revolution on April 19th, 1775 in Lexington and Concord.

The burial ground also houses the tomb of the Dana Family. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. was an abolitionist who worked with Charles Sumner.

Continue up Massachusetts Ave. and once you cross Garden St. look down on the sidewalk and you will see a series of horseshoes embedded along the sidewalk of Massachusetts Ave.

These show the route that William Dawes, the second rider with Paul Revere on his midnight ride took on his way up to Lexington, MA on the night of April 18, 1775.

The ride to "Midnight Ride" by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and others which warned the towns along the way that the British Troops were on the move resulted in the start of the American Revolution in Lexington/Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775.

Cross at the crosswalk ahead and you are at the gates of Cambridge Common. Rather than walk through the gates, take the sidewalk to the left along Garden Street.

12. Cambridge Common

This 16-acre park was where George Washington and the Continental Army camped in 1775 while British Troops occupied Boston until March 1776.

The first site you will see when entering the Common is a memorial for the Irish Famine which was dedicated on July 23, 1997, by then-Irish President Mary Robinson.

The sculpture was created by Maurice Harron a resident of Derry, Northern Ireland who has sculptures in Ireland, The UK, and The United States.

Continue walking through the Common keeping Garden Street on your left and you will come to a series of cannons.

These cannons were abandoned at Fort Independence (also known as Castle William) on March 17, 1776, when the British Troops evacuated from Boston.

There is also a plaque to Henry Knox, a Boston and bookseller before the American Revolution, he would become the first Secretary of War under President George Washington.

Henry Knox in January of 1776, dragged cannons and other military supplies from the captured British Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point in Upstate New York and led the mission to carry the 60 tons of cannons and other arms on ox-drawn sleds 300 miles across snowy and frozen ground to Boston.

What was expected to take two weeks, took six weeks as the caravan of men where faced storms and delays as the cannons broke through the ice and got stuck in the mud and snow, but in the end, they were able to deliver the munitions to Boston.

The cannons were placed on Dorchester Heights, (the hills surrounding Boston) on the night of March 16, 1776.

When the Occupying British Troops woke the next morning on March 17th, they realized they were surrounded by artillery and withdrew their ships to Halifax and retreated out of Boston.

The siege of Boston was ended as a result. March 17th is a holiday in Boston called Evacuation Day as a result of the efforts of Henry Knox and his men.

Henry Knox went on to be in charge of improving the defenses in Rhode Island and New York during the American Revolution where in New York he met Alexander Hamilton who was the commander of the local artillery.

They would remain close friends until Hamilton died in 1804.

Knox would later become the first Secretary of War under George Washington.

Henry Knox died in 1806 at the age of 56 after swallowing a chicken bone which caused an infection that killed him three days later on Oct. 25th.

Also located in the area of the cannons and marked with a plaque is the Washington Elm.

Legend has it (although is disputed) that under this tree on July 3, 1775, General George Washington took control of the Continental Army.

The army struck camp there and stayed until March 1776 when British Troops evacuated Boston.

The original tree lived about 210 years and finally fell in 1923. The tree was cut up into 100 pieces and sent to all the US States and their legislatures.

Other pieces were sent to fraternal organizations throughout the US and root shoots were also sent throughout the nation, and some still live today.

The cross-section of the tree was sent to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's plantation in the state of Virginia.

Turn around and head back down the sidewalk, you'll see a white church to your right across the street.

13. Christ Church

This 1759 church was formed by the members of King's Chapel in Boston who lived in Cambridge.

This church provided church of England Services to students attending Harvard and was designed by Peter Harrison who also was the architect of Boston's King's Chapel.

During the American Revolution, the church which sits across the street from the Cambridge Common where the Continental Army was camped out at the start of the war, soldiers camp there fired shots at the then Loyalist Church.

If you walk into the front doors of the church and look above the inside door frame a musket hole is visible from that time.

Later George and Martha Washington would attend a prayer service there and as the war wore on the church was closed and the organ of the church was melted down for bullets for the Continental Army.

In April 1967, the church hosted speeches from Dr. Benjamin Spock and Martin Luther King, Jr. who were denied access to a building on Harvard's Campus.

They planned to hold a press conference against the Vietnam War. They were welcomed by the Reverend Murray Kenney. Jesse Jackson also spoke at the church in 2004 celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Continue walking towards Massachusetts Ave. and back to the Cambridge Burial Ground. At the burial ground, take a right down Massachusetts Ave. and cross Church Street. Follow Massachusetts Ave. and you will come to the Harvard Coop.

14. The Harvard Coop

The Harvard Coop was opened in 1882 to supply books and school supplies for the students at Harvard.

In 1916 after MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge, MIT opened a branch of the Coop to serve its students and is still present on MIT's campus today.

This Coop is one of the largest college bookstores in the United States. The store is run by Barnes and Noble today and the public is welcome to come in the shop and browse Harvard Swag and books.

However, membership to the Coop is limited only to students, faculty, alumni, and employees as well as personnel of hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

In 1882 membership cost $1.00 and that cost is the same today.

Cross Massachusetts Ave. to the Harvard MBTA Station and you will be where the tour started outside the Harvard Sq. MBTA Station and Out-of-Town Newsstand.

We hope you enjoyed your Self-Guided Tour of Harvard!

Choose a Destination... I want them all PLUS general travel tips. Amsterdam Berlin Boston Charleston Chicago Dubai Lisbon London Los Angeles Miami Nashville New York City New Orleans Paris Philadelphia Prague Rome San Francisco Washington DC

About The Author

Brian Burgess

North america, united kingdom & ireland, middle east & india, asia & oceania.

• Utility Menu

GA4 Tracking Code

Stay updated on news & events

1a999a828aff8a8659722cf3eb28e635

Introducing the visit harvard mobile app.

By Amy Kamosa

The Harvard Visitor's Center has launched a new Visit Harvard mobile app that will provide free, self-guided, self-paced themed walking tours of the University. The first tour released on the app is a historic walking tour of the Cambridge Campus. It incorporates 14 locations throughout campus that highlight some of the most important buildings and events of the University's nearly 400-year history.

In 2019, approximately 8 million people visited Harvard Square, and more than 35,000 visitors took part in public and private tours of the Harvard Campus. When the campus shut down in early 2020 due to the pandemic, Robin Parker, Associate Director of Harvard's Visitor Center, worked with colleagues and a small team of undergraduate tour guides led by Fari Mbaye '22 and Madi Fabber '22, to create a series of live, student-led online virtual tours as an option for would-be visitors who were no longer able to come to the Square.

The mobile app tour builds on the content developed for those virtual offerings, but provides a more accessible option that visitors can use to guide themselves while they visit campus in-person, or from the comfort of their own couch anywhere in the world.

"Our student tour guides really led the charge on the creation of these tours. Some of the images they've included have never been seen before, and the content weaves a really compelling story through Harvard's history," said Parker.

It was that storytelling aspect of the mobile tour that Mbaye said was the most challenging and important aspect of translating the live tour content to the app. "When we, as tour guides, give live tours, we're really just working off bullet points and we weave our own details and jokes in as we go. With the app, we had to turn the content into a complete story that people would want to read and listen to," she explained.

If app users choose to visit the campus, they can follow the geo-location tags on the app to travel point-to-point. The total distance of the tour is approximately one mile and should take approximately one hour to complete—including travel between stops, but the self-guided nature of the app means that users can complete this circuit at their own pace.

According to Visitor Center Manager Maggie Dawson, the ease of use and simplicity of design was an intentional choice to ensure that the app was as accessible as possible. Additional features like geo-location tagging, audio tracks with transcript, and image alternative text for visually-impaired users, all enable a large range of users to interact with the app in their own way, and according to Dawson, inclusion will continue to be a priority as more content is added. "Our hope is to tell many parts of the Harvard story to as many audiences as possible. Not only are additional tours in development, including a Black History Tour, and Arts Walk, and a Women's History tour, but we are expanding the tour languages as well," she explained.

The Visit Harvard App is available for download through the Apple Store and Google Play . There is also a desktop version of the app you can access here .

Blog posts by month

• March 2024 (2)
• February 2024 (2)
• May 2023 (1)
• March 2023 (1)
• August 2022 (4)

How to cheat your way around Harvard

Sep 20, 2018 • 6 min read

Enrollment in Harvard doesn't come easy, but a stroll around the campus can be enriching if you know where to look © Roman Babakin / Getty Images

If ever there was a place where Einstein, Edison or Eisenhower would feel at home it’s Cambridge, Massachusetts. When the autumn leaves begin to crinkle and fall, the city’s alumni return to this city within greater Boston, on the west bank of the Charles River, to start another semester. So many incredible brain waves occur here. So many eureka moments. And the center of this cerebral universe is Harvard University.

Joining Harvard’s ultra-exclusive alumni club, at an annual cost of around $60,000, is the privilege of the few. But with a cheat sheet on where to go and what to see, strolling its sprawling, stunning campus is gratifyingly free.

Harvard history 101

By anyone’s margin, Harvard is a long way from normal. The world’s richest academic institution , with a $42bn endowment, it is where presidents-in-waiting are tutored and future heads of state are inspired. Count eight US commanders-in-chief and 157 Nobel laureates over the years. Forty-eight Pulitzer Prize winners. One hundred and eight Olympic medalists. It’s an unstoppable return that has shaped world history on an epic scale.

The Harvard empire has been nearly four centuries in the making. Once a cow pasture, it was established in 1636 for the same reason many other Ivy League universities in New England were: to train puritan ministers and clergy. But it’s the stories on a perspective-popping walkabout of Harvard’s 209-acre Cambridge campus that truly set it apart.

'John Adams, John Quincy Adams, George Washington: they all passed through here,' says Trent Bryan, a 21-year-old psychology, neuroscience and philosophy senior who regularly leads campus tours. Past the gates of Harvard Yard, a revered hush falls and the college reveals itself as if a book flipping through its back pages. Georgian gatehouses and gardens retain centuries-old grace, while the storied mansion houses and memorial halls, best seen on approach from Johnston Gate, offer a lesson in colonial architecture and the American Revolution. At every level, the university bears the Harvard imprimatur: red-brick buildings intersected by leafy pathways and Ivy League charm.

Must-see spots (and the secrets behind them)

An indication that Harvard has earned its place in the glamorous zeitgeist beyond the ‘nerdom’ is the popularity of the sculpted bronze statue of John Harvard . It is the third most-photographed statue in the United States, and every day, as clockwork as the hourly lectures, visitors queue at its base for a selfie with America’s most famous benefactor.

But what outsiders don’t realize is that despite Harvard’s Latin motto veritas , or truth, all of these visitors have been duped. Sculptor Daniel Chester French based its appearance on a random student, as no known image of Harvard exists. The date inscribed at the figure’s base is wrong, too. It should read 1636, not 1638. Also incorrect is the description of Harvard as the college’s original founder; that was actually the Massachusetts General Court. Be that as it may, a long-held superstition holds that if you rub Harvard’s shoe it’ll bring good luck. 'If people knew what students have put on it over the years they wouldn’t dare touch it,' says Trent matter-of-factly.

Everyone agrees you must see the lavish Memorial Hall, a Victorian Gothic basilica built for fallen soldiers during the Civil War. It’s Harvard’s spiritual antennae to the north of Bradstreet Gates, yet seems set apart from academia. A hard-earned silence exists inside the transept, and there are stenciled walls and stained-glass windows, which in the right light filter a spectrum of New England colors onto the floor. Maple reds burn and yellows glow. Next door, above the basement student pub, is Annenberg dining hall. The soaring, trussed ceiling of this impressive 1874 structure recalls Hogwarts, without the pointy wizard hats. It’s a student-only affair, but come at meal time for a glimpse into the realities of graduate life.

Anchoring the university grounds is the Widener Library, one of more than 70 libraries on campus. Skirted by steep stairs and braced by Corinthian columns, it’s the world’s largest private library and has been the preserve of America’s literati for centuries. The floors are a bamboozling warren of nearly 60 miles of bookshelves, although non-students are relegated to admiring the elegant facade. There are 3.5 million volumes in its collection, including a sheepskin-covered original Shakespeare and a priceless Gutenberg Bible. TS Eliot has borrowed books from its vaults, as has Gertrude Stein, who took philosophy classes at nearby Emerson Hall.

'The library was named by Lady Widener after her son, Harry, who died on the Titanic,' says Trent. 'She survived, but he refused to leave the sinking ship until he’d packed one of his favorite books. That’s how obsessive a collector he was.'

Potted highlights from American history linger elsewhere. The Pusey Library, open to the public, holds America’s oldest collection of maps and atlases. Nearby, the Harvard Art Museums – a triumvirate of the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger and Arthur M Sackler museums – make up a miniature Louvre, with an encyclopedia of sculpture, watercolors and prints. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology , meanwhile, tells the story of North America’s indigenous peoples, from thunderbird-topped totem poles to Native American canoes.

Famous people and places

Pop-culture fans are also drawn to Harvard, thanks to its many famous past students and connections to cultural moments. 'Matt Damon was a member of the class of ’92 and he wrote the script [for Good Will Hunting] in Matthews Hall,' says Trent, pointing to a red-brick dorm. 'John F Kennedy lived in Winthrop House, but his room was destroyed by the installation of an elevator. You know, Harvard can still shaft you after you’ve left!'

Billionaire Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard before becoming one of the world’s richest men. Satire magazine National Lampoon was born at the Harvard Lampoon Building. And you if you walk past Kirkland House, you’ll see where a social media phenomenon was born. 'I live in Kirkland, just above the room that Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in,' says Trent, pointing to H33, a ground-level dorm barracks. 'He and Bill Gates are the only two to receive honorary diplomas without graduating.'

Understandably, a place like this inspires scholarship. But it’s not always an empirical and rational place, as an insight into the realities of late-night student life shows. One such notorious ritual is the Primal Scream, a midnight run through the Yard on the last night of reading period before final exams. Needless to say, it’s a lowbrow combo of streaking and stripping, making as much of an impression on a visitor as any of the college’s more virtuous traditions.

Make it happen

Self-guided walking tour maps, offered in nine different languages, can be picked-up from the Harvard Information Center. And for an undiluted view on the student experience, the one-hour tour is also wonderfully free. All buildings except the Widener Library and, of course, student dorms, can be viewed by the public, although the dining hall is closed to visitors outside of guided tours.

Mike MacEacheran travelled to Cambridge with assistance from Visit Massachusetts . Lonely Planet contributors do not accept freebies in exchange for positive coverage.

Explore related stories

Jul 31, 2022 • 7 min read

From Cape Cod’s glorious dunes and Cambridge’s tasty food scene to the spooky witches of Salem, here are the best places to visit in Massachusetts.

Apr 23, 2024 • 6 min read

Apr 24, 2024 • 9 min read

Apr 22, 2024 • 7 min read

Apr 24, 2024 • 5 min read

Apr 24, 2024 • 10 min read

Apr 24, 2024 • 7 min read

Harvard University Campus Guided Walking Tour

• Harvard Square
• Harvard University
• John Harvard Statue
• Harvard Art Museums
• The Harvard Shop
• Memorial Hall

Getting there

Harvard University Campus

1376 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, 02138

Select date and session

No booking fees

Similar Experiences

Self-guided boston's beacon hill underground railroad audio tour walking tour, entire freedom trail walking tour: includes bunker hill and uss constitution, boston exploration game - mystery walk with pub & cafe stops, 2-hour beacon hill true crime expert guided tour, 1.5 hour private/group walking tour of the freedom trail, evening ghost tour of boston, guided freedom trail walking tour, boston citypass, boston ghost tour, portsmouth and surrounds mystery picnic: self-guided foodie adventure.

Sorry, JavaScript must be enabled to use this web app

On Campus Information Sessions & Tours

Registration instructions.

• Registration for a campus visit is required .
• To sign up, please select an available date from the calendar below. Multiple events may pop up when you select an available date. Click on the event labeled "On-Campus Visit" at the time that works for you, and then complete the registration form on a new page.
• Once your registration is complete, we will be in touch via email with helpful information to plan your visit and visit reminders.
• If you arrive on campus without registering, a member of our visitor team will help you to determine your best options including providing information about a self-guided tour and helping you to register for an open tour date and time.
• Sign up for an online session here  - this is a 1 hour live session with an admissions officer. 
• Click here to do a self-paced virtual tour  of Harvard's campus. 
• If you are in the area, you may stop by our office at 5 James Street from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday (11am-5pm on Wednesdays) and pick up a self-guided tour map and ask questions of the Visitor Center staff. 

COVID-19 Precautions

Group visits/tours, important information for your visit.

• Special Accommodations - there will be space on the registration form to request special accommodations. Please note that we require 21 days advance notice in order to secure ASL interpreters. We cannot provide interpreters for other languages at this current time. Those requesting the use of a wheelchair must leave a current driver’s license or state ID with our Visitor Center personnel until the chair is returned. 
• Most buildings are closed to the public. Public restrooms will be available in the Elizabeth Cary Agassiz House before/after the information session, and at the end of the tour at Smith Campus Center.
• At this time, it is not possible to store luggage or other personal property during your visit. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, especially for families who have traveled long distances to join us.
• Your registration and attendance have no bearing on the admissions process should you decide to apply.
• Guests are not permitted to record any part of the information session and/or tour. 

On-Campus Visit Calendar & Registration

Expedia Rewards is now One Key™

Earn onekeycash when you sign in and book an activity.

Check availability

• About this activity

Harvard University Campus Guided Walking Tour

• Free cancellation available
• Mobile voucher
• Instant confirmation

What better way to see Harvard than through the eyes of a student! This tour is a 70-minute student-led walking tour of America's oldest university, designed to be a funny and educational journey through Harvard's campus. After meeting your tour guide, an enthusiastic Harvard student, in the heart of Harvard Square, you'll be led into historic Harvard Yard. Enjoy the sights while your guide entertains and inspires with tales of Harvard history and personal experience at the university they call home. You'll get an up-close look at major Harvard landmarks including Johnston Gate, the John Harvard Statue, Memorial Hall, and Widener Library. You'll even become privy to a few Harvard secrets along the way! Whether you're a student visiting colleges or a family on vacation, the Hahvahd Tour is undoubtedly the top way to see Harvard.

Activity location

• 18 Brattle St Ste 352,
• 02138-3755, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Meeting/Redemption Point

• 1380 Massachusetts Avenue
• 02138, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
• Thu, Apr 25 $23
• Fri, Apr 26 $23
• Sat, Apr 27 $23
• Sun, Apr 28 $23
• Mon, Apr 29 $23
• Tue, Apr 30 $23
• Wed, May 1 $23
• Thu, May 2 $23
• Fri, May 3 $23
• Sat, May 4 $23
• Sun, May 5 $23
• Mon, May 6 $23
• Tue, May 7 $23
• Wed, May 8 $23
• Thu, May 9 $23

Harvard Walking Tour

• Activity duration is 1 hour and 10 minutes 1h 10m 1h 10m

What's included, what's not

• What's included What's included Free Illustrated Map of Harvard Square
• What's included What's included Written translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Mandarin
• What's included What's included Harvard Student-Led Tours for more Insightful Narrative
• What's included What's included Conclude at The Harvard Shop for Souvenirs - run by Harvard students!
• What's included What's included 70-Minute Guided Walking Tour of Harvard
• What's included What's included See Top Sites including Harvard Square, Harvard Yard, and Science Center & Memorial Hall
• What's excluded What's excluded Gratuities
• What's excluded What's excluded Souvenirs (tours conclude at The Harvard Shop)

Know before you book

• Wheelchair accessible
• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
• All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• Tour route is less than 1 mile

Activity itinerary

Harvard square, harvard university, john harvard statue, the fogg art museum (pass by), the harvard shop, memorial hall.

• Admission ticket not included

Best Deals on Things to Do

Top experiences in cambridge.

• Utility Menu

72a1f7f6e071e66b3c32803c6a42b3cb

• Classifieds
• Training Portal
• Contingent Workforce

573afce095134b6b933403ff00bbab3c

Harvard campus tours.

A tour is a great way to get to know the campus! Harvard Information Center, located in the Smith Campus Center, offers free, one-hour student-led walking tours through Harvard Yard. For details and schedule, go  here . See also our Guide to Campus .

Blog posts by month

• March 2024 (1)
• February 2024 (2)
• January 2024 (3)
• December 2023 (2)
• November 2023 (2)

• Presidential Search
• Editor's Pick

Should Harvard Red Light or Green Light the Blue Lights?

“I didn’t even know this existed,” she says. “I thought it was talking about the blue light coming from my phone. I was like, ‘What does that have to do with anything?’”

Schwartz later realized that HUPD was not, in fact, commenting on her own cell phone. The blue light phones are Harvard’s emergency phone system. Such systems are colloquially known as blue light phones for the colored light that accompanies each box. The idea is this: at any given point on campus, students should be able to see two phones, and if there’s an emergency, students can press a phone’s button, which will contact HUPD, so they can respond in minutes.

The lights have long been a selling-point for Harvard and other universities regarding campus safety: mentioning them has become a staple on most college tours. They appeared on Harvard and other campuses in the 1970s, and by the mid 2000s, nearly all schools had such systems.

Yet for how important they are to Harvard's discussion of safety, and despite their prevalence and accessibility, they’re not something most Harvard students think about day to day. Dotting the grounds like glittering blue breadcrumbs, Harvard’s 530 blue light phones blend in with streetlights and gates and other doodads, becoming just another thing on campus.

The buttons get activated about 40 times in a year — about once a week, if at all. According to HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano, most of the time, these activations involve reporting a lock out, requesting an escort or asking for directions. Only a “very small percentage” of the calls would be considered emergencies.

S am Wright — who has worked as a Securitas guard on Harvard’s campus for 16 years — says that oftentimes when a button is pressed, HUPD asks Securitas guards to go check on the situation. Most of the time when Wright is sent to check, the person who called isn’t even there. He has also never had to resort to the police after responding to a blue light call. Sometimes, a drunk person hits the button unintentionally, and Wright helps them make their way.

Still, Wright believes the system can serve as a “quick way to get help.”

“It’s kind of the thing when you need it, you’re glad there’s something that you can use,” he says.

Even though the phones are rarely used for emergencies, some posit that their mere presence can work as a deterrent to crime.

“It’s also a reminder that, for someone who might have bad intentions, that there are ways this person can easily call for help,” says Ben Jobrack, a product manager at Aiphone, the company that supplies Harvard’s bluelight system. “This isn’t just an unmonitored situation. There are cameras and communication devices all around.”

Some students say that the blue lights’ presence makes them feel safer, even if they’ve never used the phones themselves.

“Personal physical safety was really big for me, applying to college,” says Helen Blake ’26. Now as a tour guide with the Harvard admissions office, she always mentions blue lights on her tours.

She feels mentioning the phones is “definitely important” to the admissions office. The admissions office has historically included blue lights in a document of points to mention on their tours. Last year, when staff and administration updated the document to reflect new priorities, blue lights easily made the cut.

Blue lights are also mentioned on Harvard’s official list of safety accommodations, alongside the presence of HUPD, a campus-wide shuttle service and a walking-escort service.

Aaliyah N. Decker ’26 said having emergency phones on campus was important to her parents when she was making her college decision. Her parents saw the phones as an important measure to combat sexual assault.

“I definitely knew about the lights, even before I came here,” Decker says. “There was an incident at a school that was pretty close to me where they had higher than average sexual assault cases on campus, and so they immediately started installing them. So that was one of the first things my parents looked at here.”

Hassan T. Looky ’26 doesn’t feel that the phones necessarily make him feel more safe. But he does wish there were more of them in Cambridge Common, which he often walks through to get the quad. “When you’re walking back at night, it’s just really, really dark,” Looky says.

On the other hand, Harmony G. Fisher ’26 also says that while she finds the phones comforting, she isn’t sure if she’d use them in an emergency.

“Even though the lights are reassuring to have them as a visual reminder, that definitely wouldn’t be my first thought,” she says. “I’d just pull out my phone and call 911, especially because it’s more accessible. The blue lights are every 100 or so feet, but your phone is just in your pocket.”

F ollowing a similar line of reasoning, some schools that previously had blue light systems have reversed course. In 2015, University of Colorado Boulder got rid of their emergency phone system, stating that no calls were made for emergency purposes. Two years later, University of Nebraska-Lincoln followed suit, citing the fact that people were more apt to use mobile phones, and there were also high rates of “intentional misuse compared to legitimate use.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Chief Hassan Ramzah also believes the way blue light phones have to be used contradicts best practices in the way his department teaches people to respond to danger. “Blue phones require someone to push the button and wait at that location,” he wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson. “We teach the University community to get away from any dangerous situation.”

Cost was another factor: University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials estimated that the continued costs for operating the phones over the next 15 years would be $1.7 million.

At Harvard, the costs from blue light phones incur in two ways: initial purchasing and installation of the phones, as well as costs to keep up the IT-department run system connecting the phones to HUPD. The 530 bluelight systems alone could cost anywhere from $689,000 to $3.82 million.

The cost of upkeep is unclear. At a minimum, each light costs approximately $10 a month each for operation and maintenance, while higher estimates suggest $200 per device annually. In Harvard’'s case, this would mean anywhere between $60,000 and upwards of $100,000 annually for blue light upkeep.

Still, it doesn’t seem like the emergency system is going away any time soon.

“I think having another way to contact HUPD besides a cell phone or landline is a good thing,” says Catalano.

—Staff writer Asher J. Montgomery can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on X @asherjmont or on Threads @asher_montgomery .

—Associate Magazine Editor Sage S. Lattman can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @ sagelattman .

Punish the anti-Semitic rioters on campuses

The First Amendment gives any American the right to be an idiot publicly, but not to escape consequences

As Jews around the world gather to celebrate Passover, praying that the hostages still held captive by Palestinian terrorists will soon return home, a very different scene is playing out at elite universities across America . 

Once again, Palestinian activists are occupying land that’s never been theirs, stabbing people, and then complaining when there are consequences: only this time, these horrible acts have happened on American soil. For years, college students could play-act as mini-jihadists, switching out their cosplay keffiyehs for high-paying jobs at Blackrock. This time around, thanks in no small part due to pressure from the halls of Congress, the country is beginning to wake up to their true threat – if ever so subtly.

Columbia’s campus has been overtaken with students chanting for Hamas to “strike Tel Aviv” . Others shouted for an “Intifada”, and sang “from the river to the sea”. At Yale, at least 47 students were arrested for illegally trespassing after setting up a pro-Palestine encampment. A Jewish student claimed she had been stabbed in the eye with a Palestine flag by a protester on Saturday. Harvard has suspended the student Palestine Solidarity Committee , the same group that blamed the October 7 pogrom on “the Israeli regime”. 

These outbursts of violence are nowhere near the first time campuses have gone up in flames in recent years. Even still, it’s undeniable that something is different this time around. No-one was hauled to Congress in 2017 when Berkeley erupted in a spasm of violence. Now, the House’s education committee is doling out subpoenas like they’re sparklers on the Fourth of July.

America’s truly elite colleges are held to a different standard than known radical campuses like Berkeley. Marc Caputo, a veteran journalist, wondered aloud how Columbia university “with its top journalism school and journalism review” could possibly “miss the formation of so much anti-Israel or anti-Semitic bias fostered at and around the school”. 

The answer is simple: for years, college newspapers have practiced anti-journalism, seeking to obfuscate truths rather than champion them. Look at Columbia’s quad, and you can see that Columbia’s school paper clearly dropped the ball on what’s been bubbling up on campus for years.

Following his ignominious exit from the Trump administration, former attorney general Jeff Sessions went on a campus speaking tour. One of his stops was at Northwestern University, home to the purportedly prestigious Medill School of Journalism. Sessions made the foolish mistake of believing that the home of the then almost century old school of journalism would allow a dissenting voice to be heard. He was wrong. Students climbed through windows and did their best to prevent Sessions from speaking. Their lawlessness was dutifully chronicled by the school’s Daily Northwestern paper, until it wasn’t.

The student journalists were shamed for doing basic journalism until they deleted their reporting. “Last week, The Daily was not the paper that Northwestern students deserve,” the paper wrote, flagellating itself for doing journalism. “One area of our reporting that harmed many students was our photo coverage of the event. Some protesters found photos posted to reporters’ Twitter accounts retraumatising and invasive. Those photos have since been taken down.” Is it any wonder that their counterparts at Columbia would gloss over emergent anti-Semitism?

Around the Passover table, Jews have asked the same series of questions for countless generations – ma nishtana? What is different about this night than other nights? In the Passover context, that answer requires eating a lot of unleavened bread and bitter herbs, but the same question is worth asking here. Ma nishtana? Why are these campus occupations different from those in years past? Around the Passover table, four answers are posited – and four present themselves here.

First is Hamas’s unprecedented and barbaric invasion of Israel on October 7, which had two simultaneous outgrowths: the campus Left completely lost its mind, and the rest of America recoiled at what they saw. At Columbia, for example, a professor of modern Arab politics published a screed in Electronic Intifada on October 8, while the butchered bodies were still warm, praising Palestinian terrorism: “perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them,” wrote Joseph Massad.

The start of the most recent campus culture wars controversies featured schools no one had ever heard of, like Evergreen State College inviting white students and faculty to leave campus for a “day of absence” and, of course, the usual suspects like Berkeley. This time, it was schools whose alums are titans of finance and football. Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, is a Columbia alum who has showered the campus with donations totaling almost $10 million. Even he has washed his hands of the school until it gets its act together.

The third change is that there has been meaningful accountability, by a precious few in the press and by Congress. Three days after the brutal invasion of Israel, John Hasson published a piece in Townhall, “Meet the Harvard Students Supporting Hamas’ Invasion of Israel,” that named and shamed the organisations and their leaders who signed a statement blaming Israel for being invaded. In the past, these meaningless virtue signalers would sign insane statements, amass campus social credit points, and forget about it by the time they leave.

No longer. Hasson did what journalists had systematically refused to do – hold people in power accountable, including the leadership of organisations that have precisely nothing to do with the Middle East. The leadership of Harvard’s Nepali Students Association and Undergraduate Ghungroo are welcome to sign onto statements showcasing their ignorance of foreign affairs, but now their names are forever linked with their stupidity. The First Amendment gives anyone a right to be an idiot publicly. 

The consequences were magnified tenfold when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives hauled the leaders of purportedly elite institutions who were revealed to be plagiarisers and cowards. As colleges search for new leadership, it would behoove them to have candidates sit down with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for interviews in private before she excoriates them in public. These failures, combined with ceaseless pressure from finance titans like Bill Ackman, have left colleges hurting in the only places they care about: their massive pocketbooks and their reputations in elite circles.

Finally, the difference with anti-Semitic lunatics taking over campuses is that Democrats have finally started to care. Unfortunately, the near-unified opposition from Republicans to groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which immediately praised Hamas’s attacks on Israel as “legitimate, and... necessary,” has never been enough to move the needle. But elected Democrats, like President Joe Biden , Senator John Fetterman, and Congressmen Jared Moskowitz and Ritchie Torres have, to varying degrees of sincerity, opposed these demonstrators.

Biden absurdly equivocated between the mobs and their victims, but Fetterman went so far as to suggest that retiring Senator Mitt Romney take over Harvard, and Moskowitz walked through Columbia’s campus. None of this is to say that Democrats are basking in glory here. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, a Jewish alum of Columbia, hid behind the human shields in the White House until she put out a statement completely devoid of substance – which is explainable once you remember that now that she is running for statewide office, she needs to mollify the voters in Dearborn, who were recently seen chanting “death to America”.

With the differences between the pre-and post October 7 protests established, the question is: what can be done? Past and present events suggest three buckets of consequences for the perpetrators: academic, professional, and legal consequences.

For the former, look no further than how the University of Chicago famously expelled forty-two students who illegally occupied the administration’s building during the Vietnam era, which bears no shortage of similarities to what we see happening today.

In the present day, these academic consequences must carry weight, lest they create martyrs, like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s daughter . Even a suspension is meaningless. There is no shortage of school policies these students are violating as they block Jews from walking on campus, as we’ve seen at Yale. Unmask the perpetrators and send them packing.

For the students who remain on campus, they should actually have to spend time in classes. It’s long past time that we acknowledge that most colleges are simply lavish summer camps. Columbia’s decision to suspend in-person classes is the sort of caving to terrorism that always fails, whether it is the Biden administration giving Afghanistan over to the Taliban or Columbia telling protesters that they are actually in charge of the campus. 

Another watershed moment on par with Hasson’s coverage was when Winston & Strawn, a Chicago-based law firm, rescinded a job offer to NYU Law’s Ryna Workman, who issued a statement through the campus’s Student Bar Association that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” Subsequently, two dozen top law firms wrote to law schools warning them that they need to get their acts together – and quickly.

Finally, there should be legal consequences for violent protesters. Whoever allegedly stabbed a student journalist at Yale in the eye with a Palestinian flag should see the inside of a courthouse tomorrow. Senator Tom Cotton revisited his infamous “send in the troops” proposal again, writing that “if Eric Adams won’t send the NYPD and Kathy Hochul won’t send the National Guard, Joe Biden has a duty to take charge and break up these mobs.”

The October 7 terrorist attacks revealed something very ugly right beneath the surface of American politics and academia – something that’s been strenuously avoided in polite company, but which can no longer credibly be ignored, even in the esteemed halls of higher education. Passover is ultimately a triumph of Jews returning to our homeland – Israel – after our oppressor du jour failed to break us down. Maybe these protesters can brush up on the book of Exodus, or even just watch Prince of Egypt, while they’re sentenced to academic hard labour, or jail time.

• US Politics,
• Education News,
• Anti-Semitism,
• Israel-Hamas War,
• Facebook Icon
• WhatsApp Icon