Harvard Extension School Students Rally for Degree Name Change

[collegecareerstudent]

"The HESA president was saying the exact same thing back then the the HESA president is saying now. The University showed no inclination to change the name then and no inclination to do so now."- To any outside reader that would suggest your comment about the presidents is related to the name. I have said nothing officially on the record about degree changes and while I have immense respect for the former presidents, we are different people with different approaches. If that's not what you meant, then I appreciate the clarification.

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You know what, I'm going to retract my statement and apologize, because you didn't explicitly say that now that I'm reading it again and looking from your perspective. That's a logical fallacy on my part because I know what some HESA presidents have promised in the past as part of their campaigns, and several of their competitors have as well that they will have the degree name changed. I don't know what the HESA president was saying then and I don't think our archives go that far back. However, I don't think it's fair to say the former president from 20 years ago is saying the same things the president is saying now. I'm the current President and I haven't said anything yet. I'm really cautious about how I appear next to other former presidents and how I'm associated with them. I ran my platform on serving the students and that was it. I'm watching and observing before I make any formal statements. I've also added on LinkedIn and talked to or am associated with several former presidents so I wouldn't go as far as to say the Presidents are/were all saying the same things. I hope that's clear. My bad for that.

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Back to what I was saying, though, there are mixed views about Harvard Extension on this forum and on this thread, and the comments on the value of the degree in general, and the degree name. That doesn't mean the issue doesn't matter and that we should give up or that it's a pointless fight. It's easy to think things will never change- but I think there's a good chance they can and will. It starts with attitudes, and then engagement, and so on. There are some wonderful things happening- like the current Harvard Graduate Council president being the first from HES. I would like to hope people would do their research before engaging in any degree program to understand all of the possible implications. By all means, if someone doesn't like the HES naming convention, they have every right to pass that opportunity up. The problem is HES doesn't listen to non-students and if you want to inspire a change- any change-, you have to go there (attend) and you have to do something about it yourself, otherwise it really is impossible. I won't lie- progress is slow, but I promise you there has been progress.