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May-June 2007
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BreviaTop Billing for Two Bills
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton will be the class of 2007’s Class Day speaker on June 6. Of late he has worked on problems such as HIV/AIDS through the William J. Clinton Foundation. William H. Gates III ’77, co-founder and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, and co-founder with his wife, Melinda, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic foundation, will be the Harvard Alumni Association’s guest speaker at the Commencement afternoon exercises on June 7. For Gates, who famously left the College before graduating, the occasion will meld a thirtieth reunion (moved forward from the fall) with the opportunity to receive an honorary Harvard degree.
GSAS Dean Steps DownGraduate School of Arts and Sciences dean Theda Skocpol disclosed on March 26 her decision to relinquish the post at the end of the academic year, concluding a brief (two years) but productive term. Skocpol prompted departments to adapt a range of practices that promote swifter, more successful graduate study. She established a Graduate Policy Committee to set standards across the school and to review each graduate program, many of which now involve other Harvard schools. And she chaired the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Task Force on Teaching and Career Development, which has inspired debate on pedagogy throughout FAS (see “Toward Top-Tier Teaching,” March-April, page 63).
In the letter announcing her decision, Skocpol, who is Thomas professor of government and sociology, noted that when she was appointed, “many observers claimed that the University had bogged down.” But as dean, “[T]his has not been my experience at all…I have had the joy of seeing Harvard work effectively, even as ‘one university,’ in many key ways.” President Derek Bok praised her for doing a “truly remarkable job.” President-elect Drew Gilpin Faust, expressing regret at Skocpol’s decision, said she hoped to “benefit from her ideas and her thoughtful counsel going forward.” FAS dean Jeremy R. Knowles, whose successor will select the new GSAS dean, lamented Skocpol’s “unwelcome news,” and lauded her “zeal” for data, her outreach, and “her gently unambiguous approach” for improving graduate programs and policies across the board.
Engineering a Shield The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard’s newest school, has unveiled its official seal, with three bows to history. The traditional “Veritas” appears at top; the horizontal chain stitch just below honors Gordon McKay, whose machinery for sewing shoes led to the fortune that ultimately endowed much of the current school’s faculty; and the body is the coat of arms of the Lawrence family, recognizing donor Abbott Lawrence, for whom the University’s former Lawrence Scientific School was named.
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Harvard News Office | |
| Frances D. Fergusson | |
Frances D. Fergusson ’66, Ph.D. ’73, president emerita and professor of art at Vassar College, has been elected president of the Board of Overseers for 2007-2008. William F. Lee ’72, co-managing partner of the WilmerHale law firm, will be vice chair of the executive committee. They succeed Susan L. Graham ’64 and Paul Buttenwieser ’60, M.D. ’64. Along with Graham, Fergusson and Lee also served on the search committee that selected Drew Gilpin Faust as Harvard’s twenty-eighth president. Fergusson and the Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, James R. Houghton, will preside at Faust’s installation on October 12.
The College received a record 22,955 applications for the class of 2011, and offered admission to 2,058, just 9 percent, another new low. When they enroll next fall, those students and their College peers will face term bills of $45,620 for tuition, room, and board for the 2007-2008 academic year, an increase of $1,965, or 4.5 percent, from the current $43,655. Both the absolute increase and the rate of change are slightly lower than last year’s fee increases ($1,980, or 4.75 percent above the cost in 2005-2006). Tuition alone will increase 3.9 percent, to $31,456. Need-based scholarship aid will total $103 million, an increase of 6.8 percent.
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