one feel-good thing charles ross said though - he came to class with us last week and towards the end of it he made a small speech (in case i don't get a chance to say it later, ha ha! and all that.) and what he said was essentially this:

at harvard the faculty are brought in with tenure and the undergraduates are highly privileged, but the graduate students are treated as nobodies. at some universities, like the university of chicago, it's the other way round. the graduate students are the privileged ones there. (ross was at harvard as an undergrad and at chicago as a grad student, so i guess he had the best of both worlds.) but here at harvard this is not the case. but never forget this, it is the graduate students who make the university what it is - you are the ones who are teaching and grading, you are there at the ground level working with students, and you are producing new, exciting work - don't ever forget that. don't think, i don't have money to buy that shirt in the shop - remember it is you, the graduate students, who are harvard.