I can't make this up. An e-mail from the dean of the law school:

To all members of the HLS community:

In the spirit of trying to make lemonade out of lemons, I am pleased to announce the grand opening of the new HLS ice skating rink on Wednesday, January 21. Hours on Wednesday will be from noon until 10:00 p.m., with free hot chocolate and doughnuts served (but only on this inaugural day!) until 5:00 p.m. Usual hours will be from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. No, we don't rent skates. But our facilities department will send around a notice in the next day or so telling you where you can rent or buy them. They can't do this in Palo Alto, you know. I hope you enjoy.

I'm as much of a cynic as anybody else, but how can anyone read this e-mail and not feel like at least the administration is trying its best to make students happy. In the past year, we've been given free coffee, tea, and cocoa every morning in the classroom buildings, new benches and chairs outside the student center, renovated classrooms, the promise of a student center renovation over the summer, and the girls bathrooms apparently got free tampons. Say what you want about Harvard, but they're doing their best. And, yeah, it's mostly small stuff. But the small stuff is nice sometimes.