Many colleges are telling students not to come back after spring break, but not all of them have a place to go home to. Yesterday, we reported on Harvard’s announcement that students would be asked not to come back after spring break and that all instruction would move online. In practice, this means students have five days to evacuate their dorms. It’s a move that Harvard, and many other universities, have taken to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which is quickly spreading across the United States. Read Full Story

This means that commencement and graduation festivities are also likely to be canceled. This morning, Lawrence Bacow, president of Harvard University, sent a letter out to the entire Harvard community asking students not to return to campus after spring break and to meet academic requirements remotely until further notice. The university’s spring recess begins next week, starting Monday, March 16. Read Full Story

To create a sense of belonging outside of a building, the key is getting in touch with your inner self, and enabling your employees to do the same.

These games might be a bigger hit than yet another Zoom happy hour. The awkward toasts. The French press and cocktail shaker close-ups. Even the cats who scamper in from off-screen. Read Full Story

The sticker is not only a tool to help disabled people, but also to raise awareness among other riders. “Please offer me a seat. Not all disabilities are visible,” reads a new sticker that’s available to buy online, intended for disabled people who struggle to find seating on public transit. Read Full Story

The academic world shows early indicators of how the lockdown may impact women’s careers. They’re not good. Women are submitting far fewer papers to academic journals, and barely submitting at all in some fields, while men are submitting more, according to an investigation by The Washington Post’s The Lily. Mothers everywhere say, “Well, yeah.” Read Full Story

If your teams aren’t crushing it online, you’re doing it wrong. Over the course of the last three weeks, as corporate America has made the transition from meetings in conference rooms and common spaces to Zoom calls and other online sessions, I’m struck by the number of confident, competent executives who’ve confessed to me that they’re struggling to lead teams in the virtual world. Their efforts to get groups to collaborate or coalesce around a topic are met with crickets in the background and listless bobbing of heads on a screen. Read Full Story

The old drug discovery system was built to benefit shareholders, not patients. But a new, Linux-like platform could transform the way medicine is developed—and energize the race against COVID-19. At the end of March, I was supposed to attend a dinner party where the core topic of discussion was how online collaboration could tackle diseases that are traditionally ignored by Big Pharma. Instead of wine and good food, experts from the National Institutes of Health, Harvard University, Takeda Pharmaceutical, and I were forced to settle in at our home offices and dial into Zoom. In some ways, it was the perfect format to discuss how open-source tools could help find new cures. Read Full Story

Musical anthropologists have been missing a beat this whole time. A battle is brewing among musical anthropologists. A plucky new article in the academic journal Behavior and Brain Sciences argues that the prevailing views on the evolution of music are “incomplete or wrong.” In academia, those are fighting words. Read Full Story

If you’re looking to advance your career this year, the executive director of Harvard Business School Online suggests you hone your skills in these key areas. In the past ten months, the world has been turned upside down. The uncertainty brought on by COVID has left many concerned about how their own skills align with a fundamentally changed economic landscape. Top jobs at organizations positioned to grow post-pandemic have more competition than ever. It’s therefore essential that you consider investing the time and money to acquire critical skills if you are looking to remain in your current role or secure a new one. Read Full Story